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leonbastralle · 18 days ago

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part 2!

sticky business: the other game of my wife's that i played on my wife's deck! you run a sticker business in this one. the concept and the vibe of this is really cute, i love the sticker element options (though most of my favorites were from the pride update ksdfhksjdfs) i love that you can buy different paper to wrap the orders and also put in extra gifts! just generally such a lovely time just making stickers, putting them on sheets, printing them, packing them up, mailing them....i love that everything needs time so you need to structure your day or you will miss orders, it just feels really immersive. also the characters and stories are rly sweet and queer, though keeping track of active quests is really difficult because your progress isn't really marked anywhere and you can miss out on new developments for a long time. sometimes also there just aren't developments for an age kjdsfhskdfsd

été: i have been waiting for this one to come out for a long time and it kept its promises to me: you're just a painter staying in montreal for the summer finding inspiration around town. it did have some performance issues and bugs, but from what i saw they got worked on quickly. the characters you meet and their questlines were really interesting and diverse, and i love the stamp system and the gratification that comes from painting your surroundings (this is how you discover the stamps you build your art from), especially when you can afford a big burst! towards the end it started to drag because the main questline requires you to make more and more art without a given theme, but i did also avoid continuing in favor of exploration, so it might have been on me. don't do that skjfhsdfs

coral island: oh man this was my biggest disappointment i think, which is really sad considering it was my first game on my own steam deck. i love farming sims and i loved the concept of this one (farming sim in a different environment! a different culture! different festivals! different mechanisms!) but i do not think they embraced those differences at all and instead tried to streamline it as much as possible. we have a whole new exploration area with the ocean but we still need to have 100+ mine levels plus a late game endless dungeon? and what do you mean there's still snow in winter!!! that makes no sense! and the grindiness of it all drove me crazy. every bit of story is locked behind soooo much grinding it's unbelievable. be it 25 mine levels or several ocean areas or 100+ levels of the late game dungeon or several town ranks (that are impossible to level easily). also yes, the cast is diverse, but it feels very performative at times, and i honestly would have much preferred a smaller cast for some depth and more than one (1) romance line. same with how i really, really would have wanted the game to lead with what makes it unique and embrace it, dropping the "farming sim staples" in favor of that. not pushing all the most interesting content to late game. i ended up not finishing the story of this one for obvious reasons

leaving lyndow: eastshade is one of my favorite games so i enjoyed playing this prequel because it brought me back to eastshade during a different time and it was cool to see how things were then and how they changed until the start of eastshade, the game. and then going back and getting the references. it didn't do much more for me, but if you're an eastshade fan you will probably like it. it's only like 30 mins worth of content though, so best gotten on a sale.

book of hours: wowie this is one of my new all time favorite games. you're a librarian in this one, returning to the abandoned hush house and trying to restore it and catalogue the books. for the longest time i had no idea what my end goal truly was but i didn't mind, time really passes quickly as you're trying to unlock rooms and cataloguing books and reading books and learning skills and so on. this game is so pretty and vibey in an unsettling way, it's the only game i've played from this universe so i missed a lot of the lore, but what i did grasp from reading book summaries and descriptions was super interesting (though absolutely fucking wild). i enjoyed the card mechanics with memories and weather boosting certain aspects and the skills you slowly amass, upgrade and commit to certain parts of your soul and the way you need to pass checks to read the books. i enjoyed gambling with that and sometimes being lucky and sometimes failing and getting every disease aksjhkajhsja also the endings were banger. i love this game. i already started a second playthrough and i got so many new books and events, there truly is so much replayability in there. i will keep enjoying it and i'm looking forward to the next release!

saltsea chronicles: post apocalyptic little sailing game! this one has a whole bunch of branches (both for routes you take and for team composition) which i thought was cool. i enjoyed the art style and the characters, especially the main characters and their struggles all felt very real to me. also a fan of the diversity regarding gender/sexuality and the way it's handled in the universe. all the choices and management of squad issues can get overwhelming, but it felt realistic and didn't really hinder my enjoyment. overall cool universe with interesting lore. i enjoyed the main storyline, though it did get a lot heavier than what i was prepared for. however it did handle those heavy topics with a lot of care. i liked the open ending too, though i've seen people complain about that. truly heartbreaking to see die gute fabrik go. they were making great games.

no longer home: a surreal little game about transitional periods in your life where you don't really know where you're going. i really enjoyed this one and related a lot to it, though that might also be because it follows the two main characters as they leave their shared apartment/time behind and move towards a long distance relationship and as an ldr girlie i felt that ksjfhkajshfa either way i really enjoyed the game, the whole thing is quite disorienting and inconclusive but honestly to me that felt intentional considering the themes of it. i do know this game was not that well received so maybe i just am being too kind to it. but anyway, i liked it, and the ending rly hit me in the feels.

skyrim: honestly just here since i wanted an even number of games. picked this back up on my own deck and was delighted to see the improvement in quality! i was super happy to finally enjoy it again after the especially bugged experience i had on the switch. 10/10 will pick up again soon.

elsinore: i love a good time loop game, and this definitely was one. i'm not familiar with the original hamlet so i can't say anything about how accurate it is or how much it respects the source material, but i enjoyed this version of it- or versions, since there are a whole bunch of endings, one more tragic than the other. there's always a lot happening, many leads to follow up on and many events, but the game has a bunch of systems to make it easier to stay on top of things, plus you can always rewind/speed through the loop if you miss something. and if something goes wrong, usually you can use the rest of the loop to figure out a bunch of other shit. i loved the diverse cast, too, the main character of this is a mixed bisexual woman and there are a bunch of other lesbian, bi, and gay characters and even a genderfluid characters. plus a whole bunch of different ethnicities. also, let's not forget about the tragic time loop yaoi........i'm always weak for the tragic time loop yaoi.......then again, everything is tragic in this game. and i like that, too, i like that there isn't any ending that truly feels satisfying, it's a good kind of sadness you feel when you finish the game. however i am force uncloseting hamlet. go and be happy good sir

pentiment: oOF i truly had a streak of bangers. this game absolutely wrecked me. the first act was interesting, the second unsettling, and the third absolutely heartwrenching. this game so clearly was made with love, as a german i usually am very suspicious of games featuring germany but this one didn't make me cringe at all. i loved the very accurate medieval art style complete with shittily drawn cats (that you can pet!). i loved the bits of history and the portrayal of the struggles people were facing. i loved the main character(s), flawed as they may be. maybe exactly because of the flaws. i loved how unsatisfying the choices feel and how much you miss (i'm going to replay it soon, making some other choices). i especially loved the meal scenes ksjdfhskdhskd they looked soooo yummy. and it was so cool to see the town change with every time skip, though not necessarily for the better. the whole last half hour of this absolutely killed me. i could not recommend this game enough

little kitty big city: great palate cleanser after the heartbreak that was pentiment. just a little kitty trying to make its way back home and meeting a bunch of other wacky animals around town on the way. the cat content was sublime, you can hunt birds, meow, nap, clean yourself, steal fish, be petted by random people on the street, you can make them stumble, you're scared of water, dogs and cucumbers, and just all the noises and animations of the main character were delightful. also there's 40+ stupid hats for you to collect and wear!!! what more do you want!!! honestly this game was far too short to me. i would have really expected it to be longer, especially considering the price. also got stuck quite badly early on because you're so restricted at first. definitely pick this one up on a sale!

birds organized neatly: as an enjoyer of cats and dogs organized neatly, i already kind of knew what to expect, and this one delivered, too. the levels are all quite doable (though i haven't played the final chapter), the birds are funky and their descriptions funny and relatable, the music and sound design is great (so many chirps!). just another great little puzzle game at a low price (even lower if you already have the others!)

#my games #gaming year in review #another fucking wall of text #this later part of the year was definitely more stacked #book of hours and pentiment ended up being in my all time favorite games list #i really truly recommend everyone check them out should anyone come across this

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charbon-et-eau · 4 months ago

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I recently discovered your account through Pixvi. I'm afraid to ask this question, but here goes. I hope not taken the wrong way. I genuinely like your ship art. I gotta wonder how old Brendan is, like, based on your headcanon wise? Forgive me. It's dumb to ask. (If that's the case, I tend to do the same with another Pokemon ship.) If you don't feel comfortable saying it, I completely understand. If you don't want to respond on post, I completely understand; I simply can on DM. Post a chocolate cake picture to let me know.

I've actually already answered this here. I like to hc him as an older teen. I try to reflect that in my art, but I tend to draw Brendan really cute, which probably makes him look younger to most people.

This should go without saying, but I am very much against adults trying to date 16 year olds in real life. However, in fiction, it's fair game. If fictional age gaps involving a teenager make you uncomfortable, that's valid. You're welcome to ignore my headcanons or unfollow/block me.

I just think it's an interesting dynamic to explore in fiction. And I'm actually feeling a bit chatty rn, so for anyone who's interested, I'm gonna expand a little bit on why I find this dynamic interesting under the cut.

For starters, I was a teenager once, and I definitely fantasized about how cool it would be to date someone older. Surely I wasn't the only teenager with fantasies like that, right? Of course, even as a teenager, I knew not to try to make that fantasy a reality.

I was a pretty smart and mature kid, but maybe a little too much. I matured way faster than I probably should have, and as a result, I was always very careful and never took any risks or did any of the stupid things that people usually associate with teens. I was safe (aka boring). I think sometimes I feel like I missed out on the true teenage experience by being too safe. And while that's probably for the best, it's nice to be able to still explore those scenarios through fiction by putting Brendan (or any other fictional character) in Situations.

The other main reason I like making Brendan a teen and sticking him in a relationship with an older man is because it kinda just makes sense given the setting of the source material. In the Pokemon world, it's perfectly normal for kids and teens to leave home and go on potentially dangerous adventures across the region. They can also become gym leaders and champions. I think it makes sense to imagine that kids in the Pokemon world are treated with a lot more respect and agency than in our reality. So it makes sense that the general population in the Pokemon world wouldn't really see any issues with young trainers getting into relationships with older ones. If these young trainers can command a team of up to six incredibly powerful magical creatures in battle, then why would it be weird for them to make out with an older cooltrainer behind the pokemart?

Whether or not this is a good or a bad thing is debatable. My point is that it's interesting to think about what the societal norms surrounding relationships with age gaps would look like in this setting. Also, I think it's funny to imagine Brendan's mom internally cheering "FUCK YEAH!" when she finds out that Brendan is dating the richest man in Hoenn instead of some loser collector or hex maniac that he found on a random route.

I could probably ramble about this more, but I think I've run out of steam for now. Anon, I'm so sorry for rambling, you didn't ask for any of this lol. But thank you for the ask!

#pokemon #headcanons #ask jess

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19thperson · 7 months ago

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19th's Steam Next Fest Impressions Day 6

Day 0/Day 1/Day 2/Day 3/Day 4/Day 5

Touhou Gensou Mahjong

This game is... not an entry-level game. or at least it isn't right now. The tutorial and the single-player adventure mode meant to ease players in isn't in the demo. further, a lot of stuff has been left untranslated. Both in terms of "instead of calling it 'a win', it's called 'agari,'" and in terms of "the entire hand list is still entirely in kanji." So whatever is left is for severe mahjong heads.

And what is there for severe mahjong heads is interesting.

Every character has their own cheat skill, and most do match up with characters. Cirno freezes your hand, so you can only draw and discard. Sanae gets wind tiles free at the start of a round. Reimu can just shield up and say, "You can't take or win off my tiles for 3 turns." Add each table having different universal rules as well, and there's a lot of variations in play.

The game had net play, but I wasn't able to test it.

On Your Tail

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Classical Cozy Mystery. You're a detective who has suffered a traffic accident while crossing through a beautiful seaside italian town. While waiting for your vespa to be repaired, you get embroiled in a series of crimes caused by a mysterious masked thief.

The main mechanic for mystery solving is your chronolens, a magnifying glass that shows what an area looked like in the near past. Spot differences between past and present to get clue cards. Once you have all the clues, you need to arrange them in order to recreate the crime.

The main issue with this is that it's easy to guess your way to a correct answer without understanding anything, but it was a tutorial case, so I assume later ones will have more to chew on.

Aside from solving mysteries, you explore the town and interact with inhabitants, sometimes doing minigames with them. Apparently, there's going to be some relationship meter/social link system, but the demo didn't show it off.

I like that knocking on random doors actually gives you conversations with characters that have names and profile pictures. It's looking like it'll be a really expansive cast. This game has real promise.

Caravan SandWitch

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An open world exploration game. You play as a girl named Sauge who returns from living offworld on the incredibly creatively named "Space City" to her birth planet of Caligo, because she got a distress signal from her missing sister.

The gameplay loop in the demo is mostly exploring the surroundings for machine components, parkouring over the landscape and doing a couple simple quests.

Setting is the star here. The planet seems to have been extensively strip mined for resources by "The Consortium," but they've either been ousted or abandoned the place, while those who remain are trying to build a self sufficient society and repair the ecosystem.

The thing is, unlike a lot of solarpunk games, they are pretty straightforward that the entire arrangement... kinda sucks? better than living under the thumb of a megacorp, but things are barely holding together. And its repeatedly stated that you aren't the only one who has split looking for actual work.

Since the demo is so short its mostly a tone piece, and the tone is... familiar yet melancholic.

Also there are funny little frog guys.

If the primary thing you are looking for in a game is interesting exploration, it seems worth keeping an eye on.

Moon Mystery

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I start the demo. Our protagonist is on what seems to be mars. He looks up to the sky and says:

"The Black Hole is getting closer! I gotta run!"

There is, in fact, a large black hole in the sky. I do not think this is a problem we can run from, but run we do, as debris is dragged into the sky.

I then come across enemy robots that the game prompts me to shoot in a combat tutorial. But I have no health bar nor take damage, so I just walk up and shoot at point blank range.

This continues until he jumps in a portal, and then he wakes up in his bed. It was a dream. And I just think, "Oh, that's why it was stupid."

Anyways the real story is that you are on a moon research mission, your two other companions got really sick after encountering The Mysterious Crystals, and you've lost contact with earth for a week. After seeing a calender that reminds him of his awful son's birthday, he decides "I'll go to the old abandoned base that my friend got deathly sick at to see if there's a way to connect to earth"

After a short drive on a space buggy where I don't get to the base, it fades out, and I'm cut to a later level.

It's a farther farther future space station, no moon in sight, and the goddamn dream robots are back.

I shoot through them and find a star wars ass spaceship that our protag says he trained on, and then I'm introduced to horrible ship combat.

Then the game crashed on me.

Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus.

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The Hollow Knight influence is strong with this one, and not just because it's a metroidvania where you play as a little guy with murder in his heart.

It's because of the pogo. They've turned that dynamic into the core of its combat.

Not only does hitting an enemy in midair allow you to air stall/propell yourself upward if you're aiming down, but each time you do an air hit, you reset all your air actions: double jumps, air dashes, more slashes, etc. The game incentivizes playing The Floor is Lava with an air combo meter. Filling it up allows you to launch a powered up version of your projectile that I never used because pogoing was so fun.

Of course, the main balancing factor to all these air actions now is that you can no longer pogo off spikes.

The main problem with the game isn't a problem with the game itself but just its release window. In a vacuum it's fine but.

Nine Sols is right there.

(Not that the Japanese mythology theming in Bo and the Taoist theming in Nine Sols is interchangeable, just that they're both combat centric metroidvanias. And Nine Sols has a parry.)

#19th's steam next fest impressions #Youtube

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veebs-hates-video-games · 10 months ago

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More small ones because that seems to be what I'm doing a lot of again lately after some long stuff that I needed a break from.

Graceful Explosion Machine is surprisingly polished and well balanced for something I got on a whim and had never heard of before. It does a good job incentivizing you to play strategically and use each of your different types of weapons, all of which feel useful in different situations. The balance between the default weapon overheating if used too much, the more powerful weapons running out of energy if you use them too much, needing to stay up close to enemies to recharge your weapons, and the cooldown on the double dash being just long enough that you have to ration it feels well thought out and probably took a lot of playtesting to get right. My only complaints are that usually the tiny easiest enemies in the game are the ones that hit me because I can't see them through all the effects happening on screen and that the later levels are causing me pretty significant physical pain to play. I'm about 3/4 of the way through and still having fun, but we'll see if I just need a break or to give up entirely before I hurt myself like with Kid Icarus: Uprising.

Otoko Cross: Pretty Boys Mahjong Solitaire is...ok just hear me out on this one. I used to have a friend who would randomly gift me bad games on Steam because they knew I'd play them anyway and then complain about them. One of those, several years ago, was Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire, which was actually surprisingly well put together compared to what I expected, even if the horny on main aspects of it were very silly. Sometimes I just get nostalgic for people being like "hey this looks terrible and was 99 cents, have fun" I guess? Anyway it's actually decently made for what it is (and extremely unforgivingly difficult unless you set it to easy mode), and if it were a little less horny some of the costumes would be pretty cute instead of like 70% of them being too ridiculous for me to take seriously. Then again, I'm aroace, so what do I know?

Meet Her There is one of those things where I'm not even sure how I ended up with it, but thank you past me for finding it somehow, apparently. It's a very short VN (like I think I finished it in maybe 15 minutes and saw all the alternate stuff in another 15) originally made for a game jam. It has the color palette of a Virtual Boy game, which really highlights how awful the cheap TV I'm using as a monitor is, but it works well with the art style and music to set the dark tone of it. Speaking of which, do not ignore the content warnings on this one for suicidal themes if that's an issue for you. I feel like it handled what it was going for pretty well, even though like some other stuff I've mentioned recently the writing is a little stiff/awkward. It didn't bother me as much here as it did in some of those others. Also it's very funny how when I looked at the user reviews for it on Steam afterward almost none of them mentioned or seemed to even have picked up on some stuff that was really obvious to me, like right away I was like "oh this is FULL of gender".

#graceful explosion machine #otoko cross: pretty boys mahjong solitaire #meet her there

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theeeveetamer · 2 months ago

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oh man, you into dmc too?! you even did a shit ton of achievements too. i'm looking forward to see if you have any mpreg/omegaverse head-cannons about the series. i always thought maybe dante should get pregnant with twins lol.

my favorite games in the series are dmc1 and dmc3 (dmc4 is okay i like nero but it's flawed in some areas gameplay-wise). i'm a huge fan of dmc, and i just get easily obsessed with these dysfunctional idiots lol. although the sparda bloodline isn't the most dysfunctional and fucked up family i've been obsessed with, that title rightfully belongs to the original dysfunctional family that i've been in love with since my childhood the Mishima clan from Tekken (Jin is one of my first ever crushes lol).

Oh yeah! I even named my cat after Dante (he's orange). Got into it initially around 2014 or 2015? It was sometime after the reboot was out, but not too long before 4 SE released.

I saw a review of the reboot (which included some footage of DMC1) and was like. Oh yeah. That series looks cool. I'd probably like that. Found the HD collection for PS3 at my local GameStop for like ten bucks and tore through all three games (yes, even 2) in like a week. Probably snagged the reboot on a Steam sale for cheap shortly after. Sadly dropped off after that until about a month ago when I finally got back around to 4 and played 5 for the first time (currently replaying 3 and 2, gotta get around to 1 soon). That's probably why it hasn't come up before now (I was intentionally avoiding the fandom for years because I didn't want spoilers for DMC5)

I'd say my rank order goes DMC3 = DMC5 > DMC1 > DMC4 = DmC and then DMC2 is in hell. Love 3 and 5 because I think they have the strongest gameplay and the strongest storytelling. DMC1 is just a good time. DMC4 is very fun and Nero is a silly lil guy, but the lack of development time really shows. Reboot is really solid as a game, though since I've played it so much I do wonder if there might have been some development issues as well. I think if they'd just decided to make it a spinoff (and rename the main characters) instead of a reboot then it wouldn't have gotten half the hate it wound up getting. I'm replaying 2 now just to see if it's more redeemable than I remember, but it deserves every bit of shit I gave it ten years ago lol. Though I will say I never bothered with Lucia's campaign before, and she's much more bearable to play compared to Dante. Wish they'd bring her back for an actually good entry

Dante and Vergil's dysfunctional AF relationship is definitely the biggest draw for me too! I've been talking people's ears off about it for like a month straight now. The moment that broke me and made me like Vergil is the bit at the end of DMC3 where he does that little smile after Dante reminds him of how they used to yell "jackpot!" all the time. What a dumbass, pretending like he doesn't love his little bro (then why do you say jackpot when you combo in 5 hmm hmmm HMMM!?)

I could probably keep going but I will restrain myself (for now)

As for omegaverse ideas, I haven't really developed that many of my own. I think all the Sparda boys should be omegas tho. But if one must be an alpha I think it's Vergil, just because I think it would be very amusing if part of his complex was due to not wanting his omega twin to be stronger than him (and then getting his shit kicked in by his omega son at the end of 5). We could get into some good toxic masculinity (alphalinity?) territory there. And uhhhh Kyrie should get Nero pregnant. That's basically as far as I've gotten on my own

I have been reading a LOT of fanfic though and people do come up with some interesting stuff I'd probably use. Like blood drinking being an explicit part of the dynamic/ritual of mating/pregnancy process, the hardcore possessiveness, and power hierarchy stuff. Good shit

#Vee things #omegaverse #A/B/O

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syrupspinner · 4 months ago

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i beat BIT.TRIP Runner & BIT.TRIP Presents... Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien

even reading those titles makes me winded, let alone all this running

so I've been into indie games since the 3ds. this, cave story, and riskys revenge were foundational games for me to discover. the thing is, this is the only one of those I never beat. yeah, I beat ballos but not... whatever the final boss of this is. if I remember right, I got frustrated at needing to repeat a really long stage because I kept missing one gold (on replay, I can tell you it was before the gauntlet)

revisiting it, it's hard to say that young me was wrong? the stages are designed around being musical, right. it has a shallow and improvisational tone to it, and I feel like the foundation was built on better by future not-rhythm games like geometry dash and harmoknight. the stages here are a bit repetitive, and I recognise the stylistic importance of emulating a looping chorus, but it still feels kinda lame having a level that feels like playing a much shorter level 3 times in a row.

the controls are a bit strange in my opinion too. the steam release tells you to use a controller, but I think that feels worse than kbm. space is jump, and every other action maps really cleanly to the arrow keys. on the controller it gets more spread out... down is still duck, but you can't hit left to kick. you've gotta hit y or... right trigger? since you hit up to spring and A to jump, everything feels weirdly split up. this is a bit of a nitpick, since there's always the keyboard, it just kinda stuck with me.

another minor issue I had was the art style. it's hard to tell what's in the foreground and what's in the background sometimes. it's fine with stationary obsticales, but with stuff like fireballs and blockable beats it's really easy to not register them. the scrolling is what gets me, especially with the obstacles are the same coloured voxels as the backgrounds. at least its tolerable in this one, spoilers

the game wasn't bad, mind you. none of this ruined my enjoyment. first of all, the foundation is solid, y'know? it's a fun little musical autorunner. it's too short for any of the issues to really matter that much anyway, which sounds a bit backhanded, but I appreciate a game that knows it's length. im not sure how easily I'd recommend it to someone, but I didn't have a bad time. if you've got a low spec laptop and need something to kill time on a train ride, it's kinda perfect.

oh yeah, perfection! I like how this game handles collection and death. the game uses gold to show the best way to handle things and reward good reaction time. like, the gold above the springy enemies shows you that bouncing on them is better than trying to jump over them, and the gold paths above springs are missable if you're just holding up, showing you that it's a good habit to try and time things more specifically. it's a great way to bolster player skills and reward good gameplay.

deaths too! indie games in the 10s were great with respecting the players mistakes. it's already bad enough that you didn't win, you don't need to introduce a punishment. to use psychological terms, death in a video game is arguably a negative punishment because the player loses their progress, in addition of not receiving the expected reward of success. additional punishments, like inventory loss, make it really easy to alienate the player with a perceived disproportionate reaction.

(as an aside, there are exceptions. this assumes a linear path that death prevents the player from advancing through, so Minecraft uses inventory loss well because resource collection replaces linear traversal as the players main goal)

but this game uses this in a pretty interesting way. when you die, you watch commander video fly back to the start instead of just respawning. this emphasizes to the player that they have a lot to redo, which turns a negative punishment (which is the removal of something, like keeping a kid from watching tv for a week) into a positive punishment (by introducing a punishment, such as writing lines) by making a show of what the player has to repeat. in my opinion, this transformative approach to punishing mistakes is a great way to avoid making the player feel like punishment isn't disproportionate while making sure death is still a big deal. it's balanced really well!

runner2 is pretty much just the same game, so everything i said applies here too. the only thing is that i think everything that was added to iterate on the previous game ends up exacerbating my problems with the gameplay

there's still no sense of rhythm. in an actual rhythm game, like rhythm heaven, if you know enough about music then you can effectively predict where a song's gonna go and anticipate the proper input. the way the bgm builds up to each buhbum-bum-bum in rhythm rally is a great example of this, where the music builds up to the input the same way every time so it gives your brain a clue to prepare for it. since the backing track and the musical sfx are designed to be interchangeable, where you can swap level tracks and it still works, the entire game ends up being ractive instead of predictive.

this is bad for a rhythm game, but at least manageable in the first game. runner2 does a lot to help that be just incongruent enough to ruin your fun. runner1 starts with more of a chiptune tracks that builds to a more instrumental track throughout the level, but runner2's default is already hi-fi, which makes things feel so samey already. another way this hurts is that foreground and background objects are less distinct, since theyre modeled in the same artstyle, especially considering the parallax scrolling makes the travel at the same speed. the backgrounds are distracting in general too, theres always some weird shit begging to be looked at instead of the threats.

there's also a lot of forced replayability. theres a mechanic where if you wanna unlock extra characters/costumes, you need to play though most of a world, and then unlock a side level that activates key powerups, and then backtrack to previous levels and play them again to take alternate routes. maybe its just cuz i was bit.tripped out by the end of this marathon, but im not willing to do that all again. it sucks because this and the side levels you unlock (with alternate routes that also make you replay the level, cmon guys) make up like 30% of the game. and thats not even getting into shit like those game cartridges.

remember how i said the first game was well balanced with showing you the level you completed when you die? well now its unbalanced by how sick youre gonna be of every level once you play all of them a second time, and thats assuming you never died. by the end, missing gold just made me sigh and think "fuck it, i dont care anymore, i just wanna be done" which never happened with runner1. i guess the lesson here is that you shouldnt make your side content feel like a chore. you dont get to play fun new optional levels, you have to replay old levels if you want 100%.

commandgirlvideo is a baddie though so sequel wins

no but seriously. the sequel is just a longer and more repetitive version of runner1. its just bloated with extra levels and forced repetition if you want 100%, but skipping that makes it feel too short.

im not playing runner3, it seems ever more visually noisy and i do not fuck with those camera angles

#defeated #revisit #BIT.TRIP Runner #BIT.TRIP Presents... Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien

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kyrodo · 10 months ago

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I saw enemies where there were none. The way Kay responded to me when I made a post during the protests that infuriated her. Pointing out the video where an old white man was knocked over by a line of marching riot police was from what I saw, to be expected. Ideally yes, they should've moved him out of the way instead of shoving him to the ground as a show of force.

And some other points people brought up is "does it matter that the person knocked over was white or not?" or "it's the same protest." right. I noticed that it was gaining more traction than the videos of police brutality where they were firing into crowds at black people and I felt those videos should've been taking more interest because they show exactly what this protest is about. But the white guy that got knocked over walking straight into a line of marching police by himself was getting more views, likely because the view counts were from non-minorities and it affected them which in turn made them more concerned than everything else. Defunding the police and supporting black lives matter are similar causes, but one appeals to a wider audience. And that was what I thought.

So Kay's angry reaction was unexpected to say the least. And her responses were one sided and she clearly wasn't in the mood to listen to anything I had to say. And this struck a nerve. A nerve that I couldn't turn off. So during our move to utah, I expressed this anger constantly with images and reposts, at first just to be edgy I suppose, but it grew into a constant feeling that I couldn't turn off. And I felt like I was being mislabeled. Like I was taking the fall for a crime I didn't commit. All because Kay wouldn't listen to me. She was content in her own first impression judgments of what I said that she would not listen. And that deeply affected me. I saw enemies in my timeline.

Every little thing I read that was meant to be general I took personally, and during the protests angry posts were a dime a dozen. The entire internet was on fire and I was not in a mental or emotional state to handle it. Every little thing that either could be taken personally or was meant for someone else I would get offended by. There were so many posts that directed hate at someone, and sometime I'd get mad at them even when they weren't even remotely pointed at me. The fact that someone wouldn't know whether I was their enemy or not is why. The fact that people knew nothing about me but my username is why. So I felt judged constantly. I felt like everybody was on a witch hunt for something. And I had a few things (the "content' I'm into) that some people would be concerned about and had 0 tolerance no matter how far it goes.

So I expressed constant aggressiveness towards my followers in response. My counterplay was premature aggressiveness. So no matter what people learn about me I would already be ahead of the game. And I tried so hard to be upfront about all the worst parts about me even before we started to interact. So anyone who would turn hostile because of it would get it over with and fuck off. I was on the warpath against my own timeline and it all started because of Kay, what would've been in most circumstances a simple argument I should've just been able to get over and move on.

And so comes you. Who eventually turned into the main focus of my rants. The sea of hostile posts on my timeline was vicious enough I started blocking people one by one that I couldn't mentally handle anymore. And I stopped at you mainly because you were a mutual who would be on late at night like I was a lot. And recognized as a fellow furry who was mutuals during back when me and Red played overwatch. I of course didn't think you were a console player. I didn't normally run into the issue of someone having console over pc for a game since Kitsunary was the person I normally played with. I assumed everyone got games on steam.

I made that mistake when I got dbd. So I had to get the game again on Playstation since I didn't know it could crossplay. But I didn't have a tv yet to even play the playstation on, and Kitsunary leant her old ps4 to me back when we moved to San Jose, which was the last place we were at before Utah for a year or two. I didn't use the ps4 during the entire time we were there because we had no place to hook it up to. The addition of my computer desktop to the room we stayed in took up all the outlets in addition to the google home stuff that was there, and there was nowhere to put the tv plug, which I would've used to play. And it was a small room where our futon took up the entire walkable floor save the short walkway in front of the door and my desk as well. So there was nowhere to put the ps4 either save the mattress or carpet which also made it not viable.

And the main reason is that I heavily prefer my pc over the console in most cases. I have easy access to discord and the twitter browser, and have the comfort of typing with a keyboard. So it's easier for me, especially when typing my thoughts on twitter was so chronic. I wanted to be able to post easily while playing. I didn't have a laptop to make that easier. Steam games are better for me cause I still have the choice of using a controller regardless of if I'm on console or not. The only time console is better is for exclusives and standard hardware that reduces the occurence of compatibility issues and crashes. And graphical issues if any would at least be the same across devices, and developers design around that. I'm also just used to alt tabbing a lot.

The ps4 I got from Kitsunary was the one she had for a good long while, before she replaced it with a different edition ps4. So it had seen a good deal of use before I got it. And when I finally decided to try it, trying to play a disc game on it failed, with wierd clicking noises as it tried to load the disc. I didn't know at the time I could just buy games digitally on it. I'd done it with the switch but not the ps4.

I was hopeful when we got the tv that I could get it to work, but things didn't turn out the way I'd hoped. But I suppose at this point that's already been cleared up and it's a non-issue now. Though a non-issue that may have stopped everything else that happened.

And that is why I'm really happy I got into vrchat. I no longer have to worry about just being text on a screen. People can hear me, hear my background noise, etc., and all those doubts that may have generated distrust against me back then disappear, even when I'm a rando. And such situations will never happen to me again. I can't be friends with someone who doesn't trust me or won't even give it a chance. I won't allow anyone to ever treat me the same way you once treated me. Especially with Red being a mortal voice instead of an account with a lock symbol on it on twitter. People understand he very much exists and still exists so people would be discouraged heavily from trying anything if it came down to it.

When I'm angry I make angry posts on tumblr or twitter or something, or I'll type angrily on stepmania or a similar game. When Red's angry, he will find a way to turn that anger into action and he doesn't pull his punches. He is a respectable responsible tact-minded being almost to a fault, moreso than most people you'll meet. But he makes it a point not to piss him off, and nothing pisses him off more than someone actively inflicting harm on me.

I've said a lot of things. Out of confusion. Out of passive aggressive disbelief that people would act as ambiguous as you did for that long. Out of desperation because of my heart. Out of anger because of the Kay thing leaving a lasting wound under my skin. Or out of not knowing what to do with my feelings whether or not you were for me or not. Out of fear wondering if the path I was taking would lead me to losing Red. But nothing I did deserved what I was dealt.

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estirose · 1 year ago

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A (relatively) short TapXR wearable keyboard review

TL;DR: An unusual but handy and kinda fun keyboard currently (as of late 2023) let down by a rushed winter holiday release and issues carried over from earlier models, but updates are coming to fix issues and add features.

The keyboards put out by Tap Systems (Tap from now on) are always hard to explain in a short review. They are keyboards without keys, instead using finger taps to indicate letters, numbers, symbols, and punctuation. If you like quirky, unusual keyboards and are willing to put up with some of the issues, this may be a fun and handy one to use.

(Pictured: The TapXR in top and side view - the black part is the sensor)

In order to keep this review from being even longer than it already is, I’m going to try to summarize the salient points, and maybe write a much longer review later.

The TapXR is the third of the Tap Bluetooth keyboards, following the Tap Strap in 2016 and the Tap Strap 2 in 2018. Earlier models resembled rings attached together with cords and worn at the base of the fingers; the TapXR uses an entirely different form factor. (This is not my first Tap keyboard as I own a Tap Strap.)

Comes with: My box came with both large and small wristbands, the sensor, a charging cradle, a quick start guide, a reference card outlining most of the Tap Alphabet, and a 20% off on an extra wristband.

Why I like this keyboard: I just love weird and unusual keyboards. In addition, it’s small, very portable, and easy to activate. During my work day, I often use it with my phone to write quick notes for things I need to do or look up later, and after work, I switch it to my Steam Deck to type in text, make notes, and do other things that benefit from keyboard input when I'm playing games. In addition, if I want to, I can configure a custom keyboard for frequently-used key presses.

Compatibility: Anything that can take input from a Bluetooth keyboard. Tap has a video guide on how to enable input on the Apple Watch.

Form factor: The TapXR is a small sensor attached to a stiff, rubbery-feeling band that is worn around the wrist/arm - on the underside of the wrist/arm when using the keyboard and on the top of the wrist when not. I wish that Tap had made a medium band as the large is definitely too large but the small sometimes feels a bit tight on my wrist. That being said, I've worn it all day with no issues.

How the keyboard works: The sensor module uses a camera along with other sensors to detect finger and hand movement. Letters, symbols, punctuation, and symbols are formed by tapping one or more fingers on a (preferably hard) surface in what Tap calls the Tap Alphabet.

Turning on and off: Very easy. The keyboard turns on when you extend the sensor from the band and turns off when retracted. I suggest keeping the keyboard off unless needed.

Battery: Currently, I can get about 1-3 hours of power, but I find the keyboard recharges fairly quickly in its charging cradle (which uses a USB-C connection; you may wish to connect it to a USB-A to USB-C connector if you don’t have a ready way to plug into USB-C). Hopefully future firmware updates will up this battery life to the promised 10 hours.

Learning the keyboard: Takes some time due to the specialized nature of how this keyboard works. Expect to put several hours into practice before being able to form the muscle memory needed to type without constantly checking a reference, and even more to type at a decent speed. Unfortunately, the usual training apps (TapGenius and TapAcademy) have not been updated to work with the TapXR; reports on various forums indicate that the community has only been able to get the apps working sporadically with the new keyboard. The main app (TapManager) has some basic tutorials; I find the basic tutorial easy to follow but had trouble with the more advanced one despite being fairly familiar (though rusty) with the Tap Alphabet.

Accuracy: Sometimes, the sensor does not detect the finger positions correctly, causing the wrong set of finger taps to be read and therefore the wrong character to be output. (This being said, I generally find the keyboard more accurate than the Tap Strap, especially on softer surfaces.) As a left-handed person, I think the sensor sometimes misinterprets the camera input and tries to interpret my typing as if I was right-handed, which also causes incorrect character output. Typing on a harder surface provides more accuracy than a softer surface, though I’ve actually been able to type pretty accurately on my couch. Hopefully some of the accuracy issues I and others are currently seeing will be fixed - or at least mitigated - in a later firmware update.

Speed: Most people after a lot of training can type up to 30wpm, with the speed record at slightly over 60wpm. I’m currently typing (after a week of trying to both remember the Tap Alphabet after being rusty and trying to remember my fingers needed to be visible to the camera) at about 10-14wpm. Some of this is the accuracy issues mentioned above, some of it is because of the way that the Tap Alphabet is set up.

Mouse: I did not get a chance to test this feature as it was not available as of the writing of this review. It is supposed to come in an update in early 2024.

Configuration: During setup, you’re prompted to download TapManager for either iOS or Android. TapManager is used to push firmware updates and settings, add custom keyboards (your own or someone else’s), and as noted above, provides a minimal set of tutorials on how to wear the TapXR and how to do basic tapping/typing. It does not need to be open to use the keyboard.

#tapxr

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the-lunar-system · 4 years ago

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I’d like to preface this post by saying that I love Stardew Valley. It’s a comfort game, and I have over 500 hours logged on Steam. That being said, as a disabled person, it sometimes makes me very, very upset. Why? Because of the casual ableism in how it treats George Mullner.

George Mullner is a character in Stardew Valley who uses a wheelchair. He’s an older man, and generally pretty grumpy. He spends most of his time inside his house, watching television. With how the other villagers treat him, I don’t blame him. George later reveals in his six heart cutscene that he uses a wheelchair due to an injury working in the old mines, not because of his age.

So what’s the big deal? There’s a disabled character in the game, isn’t that a good thing? Yes, but. The way that other characters treat George, the only disabled person in the game, is where the trouble comes in.

In Harvey’s two heart cutscene, you walk into George’s house, and accidentally interrupt a house call by the doctor. He is telling George to make some “lifestyle changes,” telling him to reduce sodium and do some moderate exercise with his arms. (George’s sprite indicates that he self propels his wheelchair, which requires a lot of upper body strength. He’s already getting exercise through that.) George responds to Harvey, saying that he knows his own body, and doesn’t appreciate being told what to do with it. Harvey replies that he is a doctor, and spent 8 years in school, and thus he knows what’s best for George. They then notice the player, and George requests your second opinion. Your options are:

A) Tell George to follow Harvey’s advice. This option gets you +40 friendship points with Harvey, and is marked green on the Wiki. It’s obviously the choice the game wants you to make. Harvey reiterates that he is only trying to help, and George capitulates.

B) Say that George does know his own body. This option gets you -40 friendship points with Harvey. Harvey sighs, and threatens to tell George’s wife on him. George begrudgingly capitulates, and Harvey lectures you for sending his patient mixed messages.

What’s so bad about this? For one, doctors don’t always know best, especially when it comes to their disabled patients. If I had just listened to the first doctor I talked to about my disability, instead of self advocating and getting another, my degenerative condition would have gone undiagnosed and untreated for much longer. Potentially years. As a disabled person myself, I believe George when he says he knows his own body, because I know how wrong doctors can be.

The other main issue with this cutscene is how infantilized George is. He’s a grown man in his own doctor’s appointment, even if he is making a mistake in not listening to Harvey, he’s a grown man, and entitled to his own choices. But Harvey threatens to tattle to George’s wife about it. He’s treating George like a child, unable to make his own decisions, who has to be “managed” by his more abled partner.

The second ableist cutscene is Penny’s two heart cutscene, and in my opinion, this one is much worse. In it, George is checking his mailbox. He tries to reach a letter wedged in the back, and has some difficulty. He asks himself how he is going to reach it. Penny sees him, and comes over. She grabs his wheelchair and pushes him out of the way, grabbing the letter for him. George gets upset at Penny for treating him like he’s helpless. At this point the player comes on screen, and Penny asks if you were watching. The player has three options:

A) Say that no, you were just walking by. This has no effect on friendship.

B) Tell her she did a kind thing. Penny thanks you. This option gives you +50 friendship points, and is marked in green on the Wiki. It is the choice the game wants you to make.

C) Tell Penny she should have asked George before trying to help. Penny then apologizes to George, but you lose 50 friendship points with her. This is obviously not what the game wants you to do.

Regardless of what option you take, George apologizes to Penny for snapping at her. Penny asks the player what they think about growing old.

What’s bad about this scene? Well, for starters, by moving George’s wheelchair without consent, Penny commits assault. But George is framed as being unreasonable, because he’s upset that he was physically assaulted. Penny is a great character, and I love her, but in this cutscene she is both legally and morally in the wrong. And while the game does technically give you the option to call her out for it, it’s barely there, and strongly discouraged by gameplay. The real kicker is that this is the new dialogue for this interaction, as changed by the 1.4 update, *in an attempt to make it less ableist.*

Lastly, in George’s six heart event, he expresses quite a bit of internalized ableism. He says he wishes he could get up from “this infernal chair.” He tells the story of how thirty years ago, he was injured in a coal mining accident. There is no option for player interaction.

This cutscene is one that is somewhat more nuanced for me. It is true that some people hate that they’re disabled or need a wheelchair, especially in older generations. Internalized ableism is a real and terrible thing. The issue with it is that George is a fictional character, as written by a real person, who as far as I know is abled. And this is the problem. When a disabled character is written as having internalized ableism by an abled creator, that’s not internalized ableism, that’s just plain ableism. Why is it that almost every disabled character hates themselves or their disability? Why are they always unhappy?

Why does Stardew Valley have these scenes, and this ableism? Is it somehow important to the plot, or the characters? I don’t think so. And for me, and other disabled people playing the game as a form of escapism, or because the Valley is supposed to be a better place, It’s simply a jarring reminder that the real world hates us.

#stardew valley #George Mullner #penny stardew valley #penny #Harvey #harvey stardew valley #george stardew valley #ableism #internalized ableism #actually disabled #actuallydisabled #the wiki doesnt even mention penny moving his chair but it does happen in the game #it didnt fit in the post proper but i did want to mention it

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jackrrabbit · 5 years ago

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Sidekick /// Dabi x f!Reader x Shigaraki (18+)

Summary: During a rescue gone wrong, a rookie sidekick catches the attention of two villains.

A/N: Thanks for 1k followers!! This is the fic that made me create a smut blog/lowkey inspired this. imho this might be the spiciest thing I’ve ever written 😳 also wanted to call out @kazooli because this is highkey inspired by her lol thanks queen

Tags/warnings: quirk kink, reader’s quirk makes other quirks stronger, noncon, threesome, lots of foreplay, outdoor sex, mild overstimulation, degradation, mild violence, threats, chronological/temporal inaccuracies, fucking long

You can hardly be blamed for not recognizing them. It’s only been three weeks since you debuted as a pro, and you’re not even really a hero. You’re a sidekick, and apparently you’re not important enough to have been briefed on the major villains you need to look out for. You’re just…doing your duty. Rescuing civilians indiscriminately. Stupid, naive little sidekick. It’s not your fault that the lives you just saved belong to the two most notorious villains around.

Still, Shigaraki can’t wait to see the look on your face when you find out.

///

The disaster you ‘rescue’ them from—the League’s bar crashing down, the result of a small-time villain’s poisonous gas quirk—isn’t even a disaster. It’s a minor annoyance, sure, but Shigaraki and Dabi would have been fine without you…even though both of them missed Kurogiri’s warp gate and ended up trapped under a wooden beam in the wreckage of the building… Okay, it’s more than a minor annoyance. Shigaraki hacks violently as the cloud of foul-smelling steam and powdered debris enters his lungs. The poisonous quirk doesn’t seem to be having the same acid-burn effects on his body as it did on the building, but he can’t assume it’s harmless.

Father… Shigaraki took Father off his face to drink at the bar earlier before the gas hit, and now in the confusion the severed hand is either buried underneath the rubble that used to be the League’s main base or somewhere else out of view. “Father? Father!” Shigaraki calls out, attempting to shift under the crushing weight of the beam.

“Shut up,” Dabi says from somewhere to Shigaraki’s left. “Kurogiri took it in one of the portals, I saw it.” He looks worse than Shigaraki feels—something hit him in the face as the bar collapsed, and a few of the staples (piercings? stitches? whatever) on his right cheek are torn open and bleeding.

“Are you lying to me?”

Dabi sneers and rolls his eyes. “Let’s just get out of here.” His palms glow blue and Shigaraki follows suit, letting four fingers sit on the wood that’s pinning both of them to the ground. It’s too heavy to lift, so they’re going to have to get rid of it…a task that seems significantly more difficult when it becomes clear that neither of them are positioned at the right angle to touch it.

Shigaraki tries to wrest his arm out enough for his thumb to touch the wood, but it’s impossible. Beside him, Dabi’s having the same issue. “Shit, I can’t reach—“

“Is someone there?” Confident, clear, and oddly robotic, your voice cuts through the din of gurgling water from cracked pipes and police sirens like a lit flare in the darkness. Shigaraki tenses and halts his attempts to get free from the beam, and a second later Dabi mimics him.

“I heard voices.” The same unfamiliar voice rings out through the half-light, now accompanied by a body—your body, taking a series of awkward jumps down the piles of rubble to land in front of the two of them. The outfit you’re wearing is ridiculous: a pair of metal boots that clang against the cement wherever you step, matching braces on your arms, and a space-age chrome motorcycle helmet to top it all off.

A hero. Shigaraki’s lip curls in disgust as your head turns his way.

You scan the scene quickly, eyes resting on the two men trapped in front of you for a moment before you turn back to the opening in the wreckage. “Found two civilians!” you call out to the rescue workers just in case they’re within earshot, although it’s unlikely.

Dabi snickers under his breath. Civilians? Even in the chaos, you should’ve known the second you saw them who you’re looking at. Are you faking ignorance? Got something up your sleeve? It’s either that, or you genuinely don’t recognize them. Priceless.

You kneel down in front of the fallen beam and give a half-hearted attempt to pick it up. It doesn’t budge. No surprises there—if it were light enough for you to lift by yourself, the two men held down by it would have no problem getting out with their combined strength. You’re going to have to use your support gear to get it off them.

But first—you search for a memory of your rescue training. Reassure the victims. They’re probably panicking.

“It’ll be okay,” you tell them, your voice coming out mechanical and distorted from the helmet you’re wearing. “You’re going to be okay. I’m here to save you.”

This time, Dabi has to bite his lip to keep from laughing out loud. Ah, yes…they’re so lucky that there’s a do-gooder little hero around to rescue them, because they’d be helpless otherwise. The laugh is still audible, though, and Shigaraki shoots him a glare.

You raise an eyebrow at their expressions. Did he just laugh? Well…you’ve heard that people sometimes have inappropriate reactions in times of crisis. The dark-haired man seems more badly hurt, so you creep toward him first, careful not to disturb any of the debris and trigger an avalanche reaction. “I’m going to check your injuries now,” you tell him, and your gloved hand brushes away a sweep of spiky hair to examine the sizable red bump growing on his forehead.

Ouch…there’s no way that doesn’t hurt, but the man’s not letting any of the pain show on his face. Instead, he looks disinterested at best, and at worst? You almost get the feeling that he’s eyeing you up under your hero costume. Not that you can blame him. Damn this skin-tight bodysuit—it leaves basically nothing to the imagination.

“Does it hurt a lot?” you ask him. “I don’t think this is too serious, but they’ll look you over for a concussion when I get you to first aid.”

Dabi shrugs and you frown. Is the non-verbal response because of the ripped stitches in his face? Is it too painful to talk? Or could there be brain damage? Or maybe he’s just a man of few words or something…?

“Can you get on with it? Pick up the fucking beam already,” Shigaraki hisses.

Startled, you pull your hand away from the other man’s forehead. That ungrateful little…nope, nope, don’t get annoyed, he’s just in shock. “O-Of course, sorry. Just gotta make sure it’s okay to move.”

Luckily, the beam doesn’t look like it’s supporting anything else that’ll fall if you pick it up. You crouch down next to one end and steady your feet against the cement, lifting up with all your strength while activating the effects of the support items you’re wearing. When you feel the metal on your arm braces grow warm, you remind yourself again to thank the developer of your costume. You may not be a fan of the way-too-tight bodysuit that clings to everything, but the strength-enhancing armor that you wear on your arms and legs more than makes up for it.

A second later, you hold back a grin. It’s moving! You try to ignore the unpleasant screech of metal against stone as the beam slowly lifts into the air. As soon as the men get out from under it, you pant and let it crash back into the ground. “You guys okay?”

“Mm…yes,” Dabi replies, running a hand over the torn piercings in his cheek. “Got any more gas masks for the poison mist?”

“Don’t worry! The Commission is familiar with the villain who created it, and the gas isn’t harmful to anything living. Only buildings. It’s a troublesome quirk, but we’ve got it under control.”

“Then what’s with the helmet?”

He can hear the hesitation in your reply, even distorted and tinny through the metal speakers. “Uh…I, well…”

Now that you’re getting a good look at them, the two scarred faces in front of you seem weirdly intense, considering you’ve just saved them from a collapsed building. The dark-haired man’s eyes are…very, very blue next to the burned-looking skin underneath, and the other man’s greyish-blue hair isn’t quite long enough to obscure a pair of red irises that are scrutinizing your face with obvious hostility.

You give a nervous shake of your head to clear it. “Um, the helmet is…it’s dangerous if I take it off. I should get you guys back to the rescue area, I need to meet up with my hero…” Without thinking, you take a step back and then one more, not knowing exactly why you’re backing away when you’re supposed to be escorting them. “I’ll just lead the way?”

With your third step back, though, you bump into something hard. What was that? Your head jerks around but before you can identify what it is that stopped your retreat, you feel the faint sensation of something tapping lightly on the back of your helmet.

And then…it just…crumbles.

What just happened?

You cough and shake your head, squeezing your eyes shut against the sudden onslaught of dust. A breeze whips through your hair, sending a chill through you in more ways than one. How? No one pulled the helmet off; you would’ve felt it if they had. More dust sticks to your face, and you rub your eyes so you can open them.

Behind you, Shigaraki waits with outstretched fingers an inch away from your neck. If he had to explain the decision to decay your helmet strategically, he could—you’re a hero, a potential threat, and he wants to know what you’re hiding under that outfit just in case you figure out who they are and decide to turn on them.

But really? He didn’t think about it that much. It was an impulse reaction to you walking away from them; a tantrum. Child-like.

Once your stunned face is exposed, Dabi has to wonder what you were even trying to hide. You’re…surprisingly ordinary. Young-looking—a rookie, fresh from hero school graduations a few weeks ago maybe? Large, expressive eyes, lips parted in shock, but nothing particularly interesting. Shigaraki cocks his head to the side to study your face too, and both of them are so focused on your appearance that it takes a moment for them to notice the feeling.

Well, feeling isn’t really the right word, but there isn’t a word for the way your quirk works. Dabi’s eyes widen when it reaches him and behind you, Shigaraki stiffens. You notice.

There’s an involuntary quiver in your voice as you break the silence. “Y-You guys must have strong quirks if you can feel it just from that.”

Dabi sucks in a breath. So this is your quirk? It’s different…he’s never felt anything like it, not that he’s exactly sure what it is. There’s some kind of energy in the air around you that he’s breathing in, a feeling like taking a shot of espresso after days of sleep deprivation.

No, it’s stronger than that. The head rush after doing a line of cocaine would be a better metaphor.

Either way, he’s awake—more awake than he can remember feeling in a long time. Heat rises to the surfaces of his palms unbidden, his quirk appearing without him calling it. “What is this?”

“…It’s called Boost,” you say, licking your lips as a dry wave of heat radiates out from the man in front of you. “I can strengthen other people’s quirks. That’s why it’s dangerous—if the villain finds us—“

“It must have been hard to get through hero school with a quirk like that,” says a raspy voice from behind you.

What—? Your head twists around. When did he—

Shigaraki grips your shoulder with three fingers, holding just tightly enough to keep you from stumbling forward and away from him. His pinky and ring finger hover an inch over your costume, careful not to disintegrate the fabric he’s touching—although with the power sparking through his veins at the moment, it almost feels like three fingers would be enough.

“…Doesn’t really seem like the kind of quirk a hero has.” His voice, soft and pondering (a weird contrast to the harsh architecture of his facial features you’d seen earlier), feels very close to your ear. Something soft tickles your cheek. His hair?

A voice (an instinct?) deep inside of you is telling you to run. You ignore it. This is normal, right? It’s not uncommon for civilians who’ve just suffered a traumatic villain attack to have questions, even if those questions seem irrelevant to the situation at hand. You have to answer, even if your gut is churning. “I’m not really a hero. Not yet. For now, I’m a sidekick to one of the pros—and speaking of which, I really need to find—“

“But how does it work?” Dabi doesn’t notice himself making a conscious decision to step forward, but he does anyway and being closer to you feels right. He can see the trepidation on your face as he gets close enough to reach out and touch you, but you can’t really ask him to stay back, can you? Not when your quirk feels this good?

“I—“ Is it unreasonable that you think you’re being trapped right now? They’re just a couple of civilians, right? The question itself is common enough. People often wonder how you can be a hero. It’s a concern you’ve had to address dozens of times over the years. “Well, I work with rescue operations, especially with other heroes who have healing-type quirks. I can also assist in combat in some situations.”

“In combat? If you’re with a hero and a villain, you’ll enhance both quirks. Seems counterintuitive,” Dabi says, half aware that his voice is getting lower.

“And you clearly don’t have physical abilities. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have…these.” Shigaraki taps three fingers on the metal brace on your right arm.

“The effects can be unpredictable. And I can increase the degree of the enhancement with physical contact.”

“Contact?”

“Yeah. The gloves of my costume come off. My quirk is way stronger when it’s skin-to-skin.” The words tumble out of your mouth before you can stop them.

You shouldn’t have said that.

Shigaraki’s ring finger and pinky, which were hovering over the arm brace, come down to rest on the cold metal. The effect is instant: no crumbling, no slow decay—it’s there, and then it’s dust. His quirk in action, boosted by yours.

“What—What are you doing? What did you just do?” You try to pull away from him, but he holds you tight by your collar. His other hand comes up to grip your chin, and in one long sloppy stroke, he licks you from your neck up to your jawline.

You shudder. So does Shigaraki.

“It’s my quirk,” he tells you slowly. His breath is steamy warm on the cold, wet trail of saliva painting your throat. “Decay. Have you heard of it?”

You flinch away from his hand and your back falls against his chest. Of course you’ve heard of the Decay quirk. You might be a rookie, but even civilians know about the young, impetuous head of the League of Villains. Jesus, how had you not recognized him earlier? White hair, red eyes…you should have known. You should have left him under that beam. “Shigaraki…Tomura.”

“So you’re not completely clueless. Do you know me, then?” Dabi asks. He would think he’s the more noticeable of the two (the burn scars usually identify him), but you just stare up at him with the same deer-in-the-headlights look as before. Smirking, he lights a blue fire in his palm and it jumps up toward your face—not just the small spark he intended, but a bright, high flame. “Maybe this will help you remember.”

“The Forest of Beasts incident. You’re the one who started that fire,” you whisper. You’ve seen the TV coverage of the attack on UA’s training camp, the abduction of that teenage student, the forest lit up blue from wildfire. No wonder his skin looks burned.

“Dabi,” he corrects you.

Breath is coming out of your mouth in shallow puffs. Are you hyperventilating? Is this what hyperventilating feels like? You’re definitely panicking. They’re so close to you, caging you in between them. The smoke from the blue fire is uncomfortably hot over the exposed skin of your face, and Shigaraki’s lethal hands are still touching you. If they want to kill you—and why wouldn’t they?—you’re fucked.

The flame goes out and Dabi’s hands come down to squeeze your wrists. His palms are hot like he was holding them in front of a lit stove. It’s not painful, but it’s a threat.

“I’ll fight,” you say.

Your voice is trembling, and Shigaraki likes it. The effects of your quirk, the way he felt when he licked your face… And you’re afraid. He can see it in your shoulders, the quivering of your torso pressed into him. It’s nice. He wants to feel it more.

You’re struggling against their hold, and Dabi feels the urge to laugh. “You’ll fight…the two of us.”

“If you try to kill me, I’ll—“

Before you can finish your sentence, Shigaraki’s hands flit down to your metal support gear and disintegrate it. Shit. He’s fast, and you’re helpless.

Dabi releases your wrists and cups your face in a mockery of intimacy. His eyelids flutter closed as his skin meets yours… Fuck, he could get used to this. You smell so good, sweet and soft and clean, like fruity shampoo. What is that, watermelon?

Life must be difficult for you, hm… Everyone around you must want to touch you constantly. It seems like Shigaraki enjoyed licking you—maybe bodily fluids are an even stronger conductor of your quirk? Pushing easily past your resistance, Dabi forces your jaw upward and kisses you.

Oh…yesyesyes, just like that. Perfect. Dabi has to bite down a groan as his tongue enters your mouth. It’s ridiculous for someone else’s spit to taste this good, but he’s right—your quirk is amplified by the contact from the kiss.

After a moment he has to break it to regain focus and make sure he’s not burning you. You cringe away from him, your cheek brushing against Shigaraki’s neck, but Dabi tangles his hand in your hair to pull you back. He runs a finger against your closed lips, letting the pad of his fingertip heat up until your mouth drops open in response to the threat.

“What the hell are you doing?” Shigaraki asks, voice laced with revulsion. Privately, you agree. What’s going on? You were sure you were about to be either burned to a crisp or decayed into the equivalent.

Dabi laughs under his breath. “Try it. It feels crazy good.”

Curious now, Shigaraki wrenches your head around and tilts your jaw up to repeat Dabi’s action. When you refuse to open your mouth, he taps your jaw warningly and a hiss of fear escapes you. Would he really kill you? He decayed your support gear so quickly—would it be the same for your body?

Well, what’s going to stop them?

You open your mouth.

Shigaraki’s lips are harsh and unsentimental against yours. His tongue sweeps over the inside of your mouth, invasive and brutal. He grips you forcefully, his face pushing you deeper into the strained hold with your head twisted toward his. You’ve never been kissed like this before. His spit—it’s in your mouth.

And Dabi’s hands are on your waist. “How do you get this thing off?” he murmurs, pinching the fabric of your bodysuit.

A surge of panicked adrenaline gives you the strength to pull back away from Shigaraki. “What? No, you can’t!”

“Are you going to stop us, little sidekick?” Dabi mocks. “I think I can burn it off without too much damage.”

“Let me.” Shigaraki takes hold of the cloth, careful so when it dissolves into dust his hand isn’t touching you, and within a second—a second—you’re left shivering in just your underwear and boots.

“Help!” The plea squeaks out and you hope blindly that there’s a hero close enough to hear you. But is there even anyone who can fight them? You certainly can’t. “Help me! Somebody!”

“Shut up.” Dabi sends up a tongue of flame from a fingertip and you shriek as the heat sears against you. “Oh, come on. You should feel lucky. Bad guys like us usually don’t hesitate to take heroes out.”

“I don’t— Please, I’m just a sidekick, I’m a rookie— What do you even want from me? Just let me go, I won’t tell anyone! Please let me go.”

“Well, I think I know what I want.” Dabi traces circles over the tender skin of your hips, playing with the elastic of your underwear. He meets Shigaraki’s eye over your shoulder. “I think he wants that too. Right?”

“Yeah, I want…I want to fuck her,” Shigaraki hums. This isn’t like him, but he can’t help himself. You’re different. Leaving you here and never feeling this stimulant again isn’t an option. He buries his face in the juncture of your neck and shoulder, bites down on the soft skin there, and sucks.

You whimper, half from his answer and half from the sensation of his chapped lips on your neck. “Why are you doing this?”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but…you smell like something I want to eat. Especially this.” Dabi kneels down in front of you and hitches one of your legs up over his shoulder so you feel his hot breath washing over your clothed pussy.

You whine and attempt to wriggle back away from him, but Dabi’s grip on your thigh holds firm. His other hand brushes against the fabric of your panties to rub up against your slit and another surge of panic jumps up your throat. You can’t let him do this.

You kick your foot against his back, desperately attempting to make contact using the heel of the high boot that’s the only piece of outerwear still left on your body. It hits him awkwardly and he growls. “Damn it. Can’t you keep her busy?”

“Ahh…” Shigaraki ceases his oral assault on your neck and scratches a fingernail against one of the bright red marks marring your skin. He feels almost dizzy from the way your quirk is affecting him. Behind him, the broken expanse of wall digging into his back is the only thing keeping his focus. “Behave, sidekick.”

Before you can respond to the mocking title, Shigaraki’s face is against yours and his tongue is in your mouth again. Rough fingertips work up under the band of your sports bra and pushes it up over your tits. You screw your eyes shut at the sudden feeling of cold air on your nipples, and you know without looking that they’re standing up. Shigaraki gropes you thoughtlessly, keeping one finger lifted off of your skin, and you gasp on his tongue.

“That’s better.” Dabi’s mouth returns to brush against your panties. To be honest, eating you out isn’t the first thing on his mind. What he wants—what he really wants—is to shove you up against the wall and fuck into you and find out what your quirk feels like when you’re wrapped around his cock. But you’re probably not wet enough for that, and it’s not like Shigaraki is going to do anything to take care of you. Dabi would be surprised if the other man’s ever eaten pussy before in his life.

Besides…you smell good. It’s not even just the feeling of your quirk exciting him. The rich, feminine scent of your pussy is inches away from him, and Dabi is dying to make you cum in his mouth.

A moan curls up from deep in your throat as Dabi caresses the lips of your pussy through your underwear. You don’t bother protesting—at this point, it’s unlikely that any plea you could muster would stop them. Your earlier begging didn’t do much besides spur them on, but you still cry out as softly as you can when an unnaturally warm fingertip slips under the cloth of your panties to dip into your slit.

“Oh? You’re wetter than I expected. Are you enjoying this?”

Your frantic denial falls on deaf ears. Shigaraki rasps out a laugh and bites down on your neck again. He’s supposed to be keeping you still, but he can’t help enjoying the way your almost-naked body feels as you press yourself back into his chest, trying to force some space between yourself and Dabi.

Your squirming is no problem for Dabi, though—you’re so soft and vulnerable and the velvety skin of your inner thigh looks so delicious… He nuzzles against the area of bare skin and latches on to it, sucking until he’s sure you’re going to have a mark in a few minutes. The thought of leaving hickeys on you like a teenager is sickeningly nostalgic. You’re probably going to try to forget this when they’re done, aren’t you? But you won’t be able to, not when you’re covered in love bites and bruises. You’re going to be marked up for weeks.

Fuck, he’s hard.

Too impatient to bother taking off your panties, Dabi just pushes them aside to gain access to your damp cunt. His fingers feel hot—too hot, almost unbearably hot; you feel like you could melt into a puddle and your pussy is certainly slick enough as he pets your clit and slides one finger in, then two… You whimper and shake your head, silently denying what’s happening to you. The intrusion is uncomfortable, but Dabi’s fingers quickly find that rough patch inside of you that makes you want to beg like an animal. You hate it, but it feels good.

“She’s so tight,” Dabi says with something like awe in his voice. You can hear Shigaraki panting behind your back.

“Get on with it,” Shigaraki says.

“Don’t tell me what to do.”

For a second you just feel Dabi’s humid breath against your dripping cunt before he closes the space between the two of you and his tongue slides onto you, laving over your cunt to come to a rest on your clit. A sound you’ve never heard yourself make before forces its way out of your mouth as Dabi eats you out in earnest, rubbing his tongue against your clit in a stuttering rhythm that gives you no time to catch your breath.

Oh my god. Oh my god. Your head rolls back onto Shigaraki’s shoulder. You feel like crying for a million reasons at once. Maybe you’re already crying—the sounds you’re making are almost like sobs. You want him to stop. You never want him to stop. Your hands twitch as you fight the impulse to fist them in the villain’s hair and pin him down between your thighs.

“Fuck, oh fuck, no stop please stop, ah…!” The stream of gibberish coming out of your mouth crescendoes into a real sob as you feel your climax coming. No—you can’t—you can’t cum here, in this broken-down bar, on the tongue of a villain, but it doesn’t matter that you can’t, because you’re going to cum anyway.

“Please don’t, please let me go—“ You writhe uncontrollably as the desire to cum sweeps over you, but Dabi just curls one arm around your thigh and pulls his face away so he can push his fingers back in, angling his palm to grind roughly over your clit. The harsh, rough texture after the warm wet softness of his tongue is enough to push you over the edge and you cry out your orgasm, your pussy clenching onto Dabi’s fingers as he works them in and out of you.

Unable to support yourself, you crumple like paper, and only the two villains you’re sandwiched between keep you upright.

“Fucking finally,” Shigaraki growls, and he pushes you down so your knees scrape painfully into the rubble. Your earlier resistance was cute, but so is your dazed compliance as he pulls your hips up to meet his.

“You’re going first?” Dabi asks incredulously. After he did all that work getting you off? No way.

“You can use her mouth,” Shigaraki tells him. His cock is straining against his pants and he groans as he releases it and rubs it over your panties. He could decay them, but…they’re cute. Pale pink, peach-pink, except for the wet spot over your cunt. Precum is already dribbling out of his cock as he pulls your panties to the side and lines it up with your pussy. Jesus-fucking-christ, you’re wet, sopping and slimy. Doesn’t that mean you’re begging to get filled up? Shigaraki hears himself sigh as he slides the head of his cock up and down your slit so it’ll be wet enough to go in.

You’re still out of it, dizzy from your orgasm and the tension of the situation, but you snap back to your senses with the feeling of something hard pushed up to your entrance. “Wait!” you yelp for what feels like the hundredth time. The gravel scattered over the wreckage where you’ve been forced onto your hands and knees digs painfully into your flesh as you pull away from Shigaraki, but he holds fast to your hips with pinkies raised.

“Uh-uh,” Dabi admonishes with a grin, as if he’s reprimanding a dog for not coming when called. He settles himself in front of your front and kneels again. Your hair is mussed but still silky soft and he takes a moment to enjoy the way the strands slip over his skin before he tangles his fingers close to your scalp and yanks your head in his direction, forcing your cheek to chafe against the crotch of his pants. It’s not difficult to tell what the the thick bulge is through the fabric, and you try to flinch away only to be caught again and immobilized.

“You’re going to take care of us,” Dabi tells you. “Like I took care of you. Okay?”

No, it’s not okay, it’s absolutely not okay, and you would say so if you didn’t see Dabi’s expression darken at your obvious denial and feel a wave of acrid heat coming from his hand in your hair. The smell is worse than the feeling, honestly—you’ve had enough run-ins with hair curlers and flat irons to recognize the smell of hair when it’s three seconds away from burning. “Okay! Okay,” you answer, panicked, voice muffled by the fabric of Dabi’s pants.

“Good girl,” he purrs, and the heat fades.

“I’m not waiting any longer,” Shigaraki says from behind you.

“Then don’t.”

You whine, too scared to try to get away again or even plead with them to let you go, but it doesn’t matter. Shigaraki’s cock presses into your pussy, and there’s nothing you can do to stop him as he slides into you, inch by inch, torturously slow. Is there anything to bite down on? You need to do something, anything to distract from the pain of Shigaraki’s cock stretching you out. He’s big, impossibly big.

Eyes squeezed shut, you bite your lip until you can taste copper and scrabble around blindly until your hand finds loose fabric to grip. It’s something of Dabi’s, probably the coat he’s wearing if you remember correctly, but your brain isn’t exactly working right at the moment—

“You were right…shit, she’s…she’s so fucking tight.” Shigaraki’s voice is low and labored with the effort of not thrusting into you all at once. “Feels like…she’s trying to push me out…”

Fuck it, he thinks. Would it really be so bad if he did push all the way into you in one stroke? It’s better to just get it over with, isn’t it? Yeah…you’d probably prefer him to do it quickly. And besides, he can’t wait another second to feel you all the way up to the base of his cock.

Your strangled whimper is drowned out by his satisfied groan as he shoves the rest of the way into you in a single sudden thrust. The pain knocks the breath out of you in a gasp, and your eyes fly open as you clutch Dabi’s coat like a lifeline.

“It hurts—!”

“Yeah…yeah, I bet it does,” Shigaraki pants, holding your hips steady as he thrusts in and out of you. The bored nonchalance of earlier is gone, replaced by a feral intensity as his cock carves its way through your pussy. If you didn’t know better, you’d think there’s something affectionate in his voice.

For Shigaraki’s part, he can hardly think of anything aside from the soft, hot, wet cunt wrapped over his dick. It’s taking every vestige of concentration he has left to make sure he’s holding a single finger on each hand away from your skin. It’s pure bliss. Your body was made to be fucked like this. He wants to live inside your pussy, he wants to do this every day, every minute. Fucking you raw is the best he’s felt in months…years. And it doesn’t hurt that your quirk is still working on him, still sending pleasurable shocks of energy that make him feel simultaneously like he could keep you pinned down for hours and like he could cum any second.

“Oh, she’s crying,” Dabi says, tilting your chin up so he can look into your eyes. You flinch and try to jerk your head away, but his hand is still holding you by your hair and he’s so much stronger than you are. They both are, even without using their quirks. “Look at me.”

You comply, more by reflex than any real desire to obey. It’s pretty striking to Dabi how cute you look as Shigaraki pounds into you so fast and deep you can hardly catch your breath. Your eyes are glittering with unshed tears, your tits bounce with every thrust, and you’re still holding onto Dabi’s coat like your life depends on it. It’s almost like you’re pulling him closer. Adorable.

“She can…take it,” Shigaraki responds breathily between thrusts. “Such a good whore, taking my big cock in her tight little pussy…”

The backhanded compliment jars you and you feel hot tears spill over your cheeks. “I’m—not—a—whore,” you manage to say, each word punctuated with Shigaraki’s skin slapping against yours.

“Really?” Shigaraki’s pace slows and he leans closer to you so he can reach an arm around and swirl two fingers against your clit. You mewl like a kitten at the unexpected stimulation and he laughs rudely. “Feels so good…can’t believe the heroes don’t want to fuck you like this all the time…”

You shake your head desperately and bury your face in Dabi’s chest, barely noticing him stroking your hair and then reaching down to unzip his pants.

“No, no, I bet that’s what you do as a sidekick, right?” Shigaraki’s thrusts are back to frenzied jerks, and he rubs over your clit just as roughly. “Spread your legs for your hero…you’d make a great personal cocksleeve. Or maybe they rotate you around so every pro hero gets a turn…?”

“No, I don’t! No! Ah— ahnnn…” The denials pierce the air uselessly as the villain’s cock fills you up again and again. You’re not a whore, you’re not…even if it’s getting harder and harder to ignore the growing pressure of Shigaraki teasing your clit in time with his cock rubbing against your sweet spot. It still hurts—he’s so big, bigger than anyone you’ve ever had sex with before, but there’s no way you’re going to admit to yourself that it’s starting to feel good.

“…Is my cock better than All Might’s?” Shigaraki’s words are cut off by his own grunt of pleasure as your cunt twitches around him.

“Shut the fuck up,” Dabi cuts in. “I’m sick of hearing a guy’s voice moaning. I’m going to get soft.”

Past the point of comprehending the situation, you look up at him gratefully, only to reel back in shock as Dabi frees his own cock from his pants and it brushes against your cheek. Trying to pull away from him is more instinct than rational thought, but he holds you just as easily as before and forces two fingers into your mouth. You tense, ready to bite down, (and hopefully take a few knuckles off) but he sees it coming and suddenly your mouth is horribly burning hot.

“You’re going to suck my cock now,” says Dabi conversationally, extinguishing the flame almost as soon as he started it. It’s not so bad—probably more like a coffee burn than anything else—but you’re coughing and spitting anyway. “Say yes.”

“…Yes,” you whisper, voice barely intelligible.

“Good little sidekick. And you’re going to be very careful. You’re not going to use teeth.”

You nod, unable to mount a defense with Shigaraki mercilessly fucking you from behind.

“I want to hear you say it.”

“Y-Yes!” you squeal as Shigaraki finds a particularly sensitive spot inside you.

“Good.” Dabi drags your head down to hover over his cock and massages your jaw until it falls open. “Suck.”

One of his hands falls to your shoulder to try to stabilize you, but you can’t help feeling the threat in the motion. You quickly duck down and attempt to ignore the heady smell of sweat and precum as you trace your tongue up the underside of his dick. He’s big too, maybe thicker than Shigaraki, and you hate yourself for feeling lucky that it’s not this cock inside your pussy right now.

The stunt Dabi pulled burning your mouth made you salivate, and you let drool coat your tongue as you lick around the head. But it’s not working—you rock forward every time Shigaraki stuffs his dick back in your aching pussy, and Dabi’s cock smears over your mouth haphazardly.

“I said suck. Not lick.” Suddenly (although you don’t know why you keep expecting some kind of warning before these villains find a new way to violate you), Dabi grabs the back of your head and shoves his cock into your mouth. Your throat constricts involuntarily as the thick head triggers your gag reflex, and all three of you shiver in unison.

“Do…do that again,” Shigaraki says, voice strained. “She tightens up…when you do that.”

Dabi smirks and thrusts into you again, relishing the warm, humid cavern of your throat around his cock along with the pure swell of energy from your quirk enhancing his. His rhythm matches Shigaraki’s and his cock hits the back of your throat with every rapid pump, making you gag and clench like you’re trying to milk the cum out of him. What a perfect little slut… He can see from Shigaraki’s sloppy movements that you’re squeezing around his cock every time too.

The feeling of having one villain cock buried in your pussy while another ravages your throat is unthinkable, even more so with Shigaraki’s fingers on your clit coaxing out an earth-shaking orgasm. But you’d almost be able to forget what’s happening—god knows you’re delirious with sensation, barely able to keep track of who’s doing what to you—if not for the sound. The wet slap of Shigaraki’s hips against your ass, the horrible squelching from your (dripping wet, even if you don’t want to admit it) pussy as his cock pistons in and out of you, your choked moans and gagging noises, and above it all, the unrestrained voices of the villains fucking into you.

You feel like a fuck toy, a sex doll, used without mercy by the two most evil people you can think of…and you’re about to cum.

Your voice is getting louder by the second, and the pulsing of your cunt around Shigaraki’s cock is telling him exactly how close you are. He curls his body over yours to get a better angle to rub your clit, enjoying your high-pitched whine in response. “Yeah…that’s right…good girl. Cum on my cock…like a good little sidekick.”

You keen and goosebumps rise on your skin as Shigaraki licks at the sheen of sweat on your back. He feels your climax almost as soon as you do… If your scream wasn’t stifled by Dabi’s dick in your mouth, everyone within a one-mile radius would know you were getting fucked silly, yeah? The walls of your pussy clamp down on Shigaraki’s cock, your body begging for his cum, and he grips your ass to make sure you can’t get away as he comes to his own orgasm inside of you.

Fuck… Shigaraki could die right now and be happy. He keeps stroking your clit, knowing it’s cruel, knowing you’ll be overstimulated and sensitive and that it’ll hurt to keep touching you like this after you already came, and not caring because every time the tips of his fingers push that little magic button, you shiver and squeeze him like you’re trying to milk him dry.

Shigaraki gives a few last thrusts, pushing his cum deeper into your body, fucking it into you so you’ll be dripping white for hours, and then finally pulls out. The slurping sound your cunt makes as his cock leaves your pussy is obscene. So is the cloudy trail of mixed white and clear fluid that connects your pussy and the head of his cock until he pulls it away. He loves it.

Knowing that Shigaraki came—inside you, no less, the inconsiderate bastard—Dabi grips the back of your head and tugs you down to deepthroat him. Your walls twitch involuntarily and Dabi groans, letting himself shoot his load down your throat. “Yes…yeah…yeah…just like that. Swallow.”

You don’t swallow. You don’t do anything but gag on his cum and gasp as he thrusts into you. Dabi pulls you off of him, annoyed and ready to threaten you into submission again…until your head lolls to the side and he can see that your eyes are closed.

“Shit, she passed out.”

“…What? Are you kidding?”

Dabi slaps your face lightly. You wince in your sleep but don’t wake up. “Nope. Must’ve been when she came the second time.”

“Is she…” Shigaraki trails off, not sure how to end the question. ‘Okay’ isn’t exactly right.

“She’s breathing, if that’s what you’re asking.”

The two of them wait for a moment, but you don’t move. When he catches his breath, Shigaraki wipes off his dick and pulls up his pants. Dabi does the same. Without them holding you, you flop down into the fetal position on the broken concrete. “What now?” Shigaraki asks.

Dabi wipes the sweat from his forehead. “You tell me, leader. I’m surprised Kurogiri hasn’t opened another warp gate to get you back. Guessing you don’t have your phone either?”

“…We can go to Giran’s place to meet up. They’re probably waiting for us there,” Shigaraki says, scratching at his neck.

“Do you have cab fare?”

“I don’t have my wallet on me. You?”

“Not enough for a cab. We’ll have to take the train. You can owe me.”

Shigaraki looks down at you. You make a pitiful scene, naked except for your boots, sports bra, and cum-soaked panties. Your neck is bruised red and purple, and you’re shaking, shivering in the cool air now that the sun has sunk further toward the horizon and you’re not being touched. “Are we going to leave her here?”

“What, you want to bring her on the train with us? You don’t think that’s gonna look suspicious?”

“Well…” Their eyes meet and Shigaraki knows Dabi’s thinking the same thing he is. You have a lot of potential as an asset. They haven’t even had the chance to see how your quirk boosting works in combat, but Shigaraki almost wants to pick a fight just to give it a try.

And fighting power aside, Shigaraki isn’t a fan of the possibility that he’ll never get to fuck you again.

“Yeah, I know. But she’s a pro hero’s sidekick. She can’t be too hard to find.” Dabi shrugs off his coat and crouches next to you. You’re limp enough that he has no trouble lifting you into his lap and guiding your arms through the sleeves of his coat. Once you’re wrapped in the black fabric, he does up the buttons, combs through your hair with his fingers, wipes the mixed cum and spittle off your chin, and admires his handiwork. Sure, anyone looking closely at you will know at least a little about what happened—you’re still sweating in the cold, you have that undeniable ‘just got fucked’ look all over you, and the smell of sex is overpowering. But at least you won’t have to walk back to the rescue tent in your filthy underwear.

In your sleep, you nuzzle into Dabi’s chest, reaching blindly toward the source of warmth. He grins and strokes the back of your neck, soothing warm fingers over the bruised skin there and enjoying his last opportunity to touch you and feel your quirk working…for now, at least. “You know, I wonder why villains don’t get sidekicks. Seems a little unfair, right?”

Shigaraki’s sneer matches Dabi’s as he bends down to run his fingernails over your cheek, almost hard enough to hurt. “I was just thinking the same thing.”

#Dabi x reader #Shigaraki Tomura x reader #Shigaraki x reader #bnha x reader #mha x reader #bnha imagines #Shigaraki #Dabi #bnha #boku no hero academia #boku no hero academia imagines #mha #my hero academia #mha imagines #my hero academia imagines #boku no hero academia x reader #my hero academia x reader #smut #tw noncon

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slightlyrebelliouswriter23 · 4 years ago

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Writing smut without cringing the whole time? How do you do it.

Writing Smut 101: Overcoming Smut Shame

CONTENT WARNING: NSFW RELATED CONTENT BELOW.

The short answer, nonnie, is: you don’t.

That is to say, writing smut is always kind of cringe—especially if you’re new to it, or simply “not in the mood” to write.

But rest assured, feeling embarrassed is completely natural. The trick is learning how to overcome the cringe when it does happen, instead of letting it deter you.

I’m going to break this up into a few sections: 1) Why you might be feeling this way, 2) How I, personally, combat the issue, and 3) Some more tips that might help you get the ball rolling.

1. Why You “Cringe”

It’s important to find the root cause of any form of writer’s block so you can pull the weed out instead of just trimming it back. Smut writer’s block is its own special brand, and generally, the main issue writers have when it comes to smut is stigma.

Speaking openly and honestly about sex, in Western society, is still very much a taboo.

No matter how “progressive” we like to think we are, the inherent shame surrounding pleasure-seeking experiences, and the detailing/consumption of them, has been ground into us since we learned how to understand the concept of gratification.

And I’m not just talking about sexual gratification. This applies to everyday things, as well. Eating, shopping, relaxing (or doing virtually anything in capitalist society that does not directly contribute to capitalism).

So it makes sense that you would feel any amount of embarrassment, awkwardness, or “cringe” when writing smut. It’s something our society teaches us is wrong to want. Unfortunately, that shame translates to writer’s block when we sit down in front of the computer.

A lot of this blockage might stem from not giving ourselves permission to write the thing.

We’re staring at the blank document, knowing we want to write smut, and suddenly the thoughts start streaming in: This feels wrong, is this wrong? What if someone comes in and looks over my shoulder while I’m writing? Am I describing this right? Is this too unrealistic? I have NO idea what I’m doing, and everyone is going to know it.

These are all perfectly normal thoughts, and definitely ones I still have from time to time. But they’re also probably the direct cause of why you feel so blocked. Luckily, I have some bits of advice to give you on how to unblock yourself.

2. How I Combat Smut Block

✦ First, when the intrusive thoughts occur, instead of ruminating on them, think of each one as an impermanent object. You can use any metaphor, but I like to use the imagery of leaves:

Each negative thought is a leaf floating down the river of your mind. If you focus only on the leaf, you’ll exert a lot of energy running to try and keep up with it, consequently miss everything else around you. But if you acknowledge that leaf as a temporary part of the scenery, and let is pass, you can process and appreciate the beauty of your surroundings a whole lot better.

Remember: you are separate from your thoughts. You are not defined by them. The things you think sound stupid might be incredibly exciting to someone else.

If you can string a sentence together, you can write smut. This is all part of giving yourself permission to write the thing that makes you feel uncomfortable.

✦ Second, I’d suggest giving good thought to how you personally experience embarrassment, how you experience excitement (of the sexual variety), and how those two might sometimes commingle or feel similar.

For me, they are very comparable, like different shades of the same emotion—but there are differences which are important to note.

If I’m making myself blush from excitement, this is a very good thing for writing smut. It means that what I’m writing feels real enough to evoke something in the reader, even if the reader, like me, knows what’s going to happen.

If I’m making myself cringe, however, it may be time to take a step back and readjust my perspective.

✦ Third, ease yourself into it! Don’t jump straight in the deep end and expect to know how to keep your head above water if you’ve never swum before.

The way I eased myself into smut was first by writing “Steam”—a category of fic I made up because the current vocabulary lacked an efficient term for fics that straddled emotional romance and explicit content.

Essentially, steam is smut-adjacent but not explicit, and here’s a step-by-step example of how I transitioned myself smoothly from one genre to the next:

I first wrote my fics Wicked Game and You Are (both of which feature either a heavy make out session or teasing + lots of sexual tension) with this “steam” concept in mind.

I wrote the first chapter of Fine Line, which has brief but explicit descriptions of fantasies, framed by a very sexually charged scene.

I released my fic Crashing, which is probably more of a bridge between Steam and Smut, and features soft-focus fingering. Nothing in it is explicit—it focuses more on the emotions than explicit detail—but it’s very clear what is happening.

After I wrote those, I felt just confident enough to make that final stride over the threshold into smut. I wrote my fics Holy, King, and the second chapter of Fine Line all within weeks of each other.

And trust me when I say, once you get the momentum going and receive that validation from people who’ve read your work, it becomes SO much easier to sit down and start writing.

You just have to finish that first piece.

✦ Finally (and I know I’m going to sound cliche when I say this), just like any other skill, the more you practice the more confident you will feel and the better you will get.

So practice, practice, practice!

If you’re nervous about posting smut for the first time, have a trusted friend/mutual Beta read it for you. It’s the online equivalent to someone holding your hand before jumping off the cliff, and works wonders for the nerves.

3. Keep The Smut Rolling

Now that you have some tools to help get you past the blockage of writing smut, here’s how to keep the inspiration flowing.

✦ Start by incorporating smutty fanfiction/erotic fiction into your regular reading rotation-

Of course AO3 is a fantastic resource for smutty fanfiction.

If you’re a fan of TFOTA or ACOTAR and want some of my personal fic recs, visit my fic rec masterlist.

In terms of erotic fiction, my personal favourites are anything Anais Nin (specifically Henry & June and Delta of Venus), The Thornchapel series by Sierra Simone, The Godwicks series by Tiffany Reisz, and The Original Sinners series by Tiffany Reisz.

There are also sites like Literotica and sexstories.com, which play host to explicit short fiction (not fandom based).

✦ Next, I’d recommend having a designated digital space for smutspiration-

This can be a list of “smutty” words/phrases kept on a separate document on your computer, for those days when you just can’t think of the right way to describe something.

Or you can create a private side-blog or Pinterest board for your favourite smutty fanart or other kinds of visual smutspiration.

✦ For that matter, try following some smutty/18+ blogs (ONLY IF YOU’RE 18+) here on Tumblr-

Many of them have a plethora of what I like to call “lemony snippets”, a.k.a. short text posts that describe (usually in conversational language) explicit scenarios.

This is useful because it will normalise the concept of sexual fantasies in your brain, making it less weird for you when you try to come up with ones of your own to write into smut.

Not to mention, your dash will be rife with inspiration.

✦ I would also suggest checking out 18+ ASMR on YouTube (AGAIN, ONLY IF YOU’RE 18+).

My favourite account is Professor Cal Official, but Auralescent also has some good content.

Headphones are highly advisable for this, as their stuff is very dangerous for work.

So, nonnie, I hope this has provided you with at least one helpful tip. Whether you took anything away from this or not, just know that the feelings of embarrassment when it comes to writing smut are entirely normal. And the best way to keep those feelings at bay is to confront them head on.

-Em 🖤🗡

Writing Advice Masterlist

Writing Masterlist

2K Celebration!

#writing #writing advice #writing tips #smut #fanfic #writeblr #ao3 #writer things #em's 2k celebration #smut 101: overcoming smut shame #fluff #angst #writer's problems #asked and answered #em answers #nonnie #anonymous smut cringe

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pale-silver-comb · 5 years ago

Note

So I know absolutely nothing about Leverage except what I've been seeing you post lately and I have to admit you're making it look tempting to watch! Can I ask what are some of your favorite things about the show/reasons you would suggest people watch it? And is there really a poly relationship that is canon?

Okay. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay. I am going to do my best not to just “asdfghkjl” at you and answer coherently.

In a nutshell, Leverage is about 5 people. 4 are criminals (Parker, Hardison, Eliot and Sophie) with different and unique skill-sets and 1 is an ex-insurance investigator (Nate) who, at one point or another in his career, has tracked down (or at least attempted to) the other 4. The whole show is essentially: man reluctantly reforms 4 criminals to use their criminal powers for good and 4 criminals move into man’s life and stubbornly refuse to leave because, goddammit, now they have morals.

I’ve got a lot of favourite things about the show but the main ones are as follows:

1. Found family. And I’m not talking about loners who come together to fight crime and happen to co-exist to the point where they realise they happen to have found themselves a family. I mean, Nate and Sophie are the Drunk Uncle and Wine Aunt who somehow become Mom and Dad to 3 beautiful criminal children. Mom and Dad love their criminal babies and the kids love them (as well as each other, but we’ll come to that in a moment). You get amazing family moments such as: Mom and Dad packing the kids lunch before sending them out to kick corporate greed’s ass; Mom and Dad giving the kids ridiculously expensive and personal Christmas presents causing their most Grumpy Kid to go very very quiet and soft as he runs off to gleefully play with his new murder toy; the kids interrupting Mom and Dad’s big Movie Style Kiss to ask if they can please keep their new underground layer and huffing and puffing when Dad tells them no.

2. Found family: the OT3 edition. To answer your question, the OT3 is indeed canon, confirmed by the creator. Now, usually, “confirmed by the creator” infuriates me because most of the time it’s a way for a creator to be seen as “progressive” without doing anything to actually be progressive. That isn’t the case here. The OT3 are built up carefully and while it is obvious the creators didn’t originally intend for all 3 of them to become a relationship in the romantic sense, by mid-season 5 we are given a very clear picture of where Parker, Hardison and Eliot are heading in their relationship. There aren’t any kisses at the end to signal this but there are solid marriage vows in not only one but two episodes. (And by marriage vows I mean literal equivalents of marriage vows: “for better or worse” and “’til death do us part”. I’m not even exaggerating). The OT3 also doesn’t need explicit romantic narratives to convey how much they love each other. Their love is laced through the whole show, from the way they teach each other things to the way they respond to each other and work as a unit. The way they fiercely protect and admire each other. Like someone once said, if you need characters to kiss or say I love you to let the audience know they love each other, you are writing them wrong.

Aside from that, each of the parings in the OT3 are just. Gah. They are so well done, with friendship being the solid basis for them all. The creators never expect the audience to assume anything about them or fill in the gaps. They give us their relationships on screen and reference many things off-screen to show us how these relationships continue to build in between episodes.

Hardison and Parker are a canon couple and date in the show: it’s approached slowly and they are so goddamned sweet. They are basically every fluffy slow-burn trope with a healthy dash of mutual pining in the mix. They are basically that quote “love is patient, love is kind”. (I would like to add their romance never becomes the focus of the show or overrides the importance of any other relationship they have with the other characters, especially Eliot.)

Hardison and Eliot are the Old Married Couple and from day one are already bickering and looking at each other/making comments that are found in every UST fic ever (not to mention Hardison has a very good knack for making Eliot grin like a little kid, when usually he’s basically an Angry Little Chef Man). They argue, they play, and love each other plain as day.

Parker and Eliot are more subtle but every bit as wonderful. They have an unspoken connection and understand each other on a level no-one else can. Parker and Eliot are not good with giving themselves over to affection for different reasons (and Hardison plays a central role in helping them realise it’s okay to want it and have it- that boy has endless patience) but there is something so beautiful in the way the two of them come together on their own and develop their own special bond that works for them. Parker and Eliot are that trope where the characters don’t need to speak to understand each other perfectly. They just do. Their love language is a lot of the time non-verbal but speaks volumes. (Parker also likes to annoy the hell out of Eliot and Eliot....just.....lets...her. Because he’s soft. The softest, grumpiest boy.)

I could go into so much depth for each pairing and their dynamics as a 3 but that's for another post.

3. Subverting stereotypes. There is the occasional hiccup in the show regarding stereotypes but ultimately, Leverage gets an A+ when it comes to writing characters and making them 3 dimensional people who are not defined by certain characteristics or events. Nate could so easily fall into the White Man Pain trope where he uses the trauma of losing his kid as a reason as to why he is entitled to act like a dick. Nate is a dick but he doesn’t use his pain to excuse it and I appreciate that. Hardison is a black man who is soft and nurturing. Easily the most empathetic and patient of the group. He’s nerdy, an actual genius, and has the biggest heart of all the characters. Nate is maybe the glue but Hardison is definitely the heart. Media’s usual aggressive, amongst other, racist stereotypes can fuck right off. Parker is canonically autistic (I am sure this was confirmed by one of the creators) and she is not defined by it. It’s not written as some kind of singular personality trait. It’s part of what makes up Parker but it’s only one facet of who she is and not once is her actions, thoughts or feelings treated like a joke. Sometimes people don’t understand why she does and says the things she does but it’s met with patience and fondness over the course of the show. Equally, it’s not met with over-caution. Parker is just Parker. No-one tries to change her. The other nice thing is Hardison, who always makes sure Parker knows she’s amazing because of who she is and not in spite of it. Finally, Sophie is in her 40s. She’s not treated like she’s past her prime. Ever. She’s sexy, smart and never is she pitted against or compared to Parker (who is younger) for anything. Sophie is amazing and there’s never even a conversation of “I may be older but I am still *insert adjective typically associated with younger women here*”. Sophie is possibly the first female character I’ve ever seen who isn’t just unapologetic about her age but has never had to apologise for her age. It’s a non-issue and that’s that. The women on the show are written so well, right down to secondary characters and it’s beyond refreshing.

4.) It’s just fun. The show has a “monster of the week” type format. Except instead of a ghoul or a ghost, the monster is some corrupt wealthy and powerful individual or organisation. The show draws on real-life individuals to do this and therefore closely parallels real-life people and events. It addresses important political, economical, social and environmental issues while at the same time remaining fun and light-hearted. The characters constantly get the chance to play dress up and by GOD do they have fun with it. You get to watch Eliot beat up bad guys in the most delightful of ways, usually after a witty non-sequitur and with a weapon you’d never think could be a weapon. The dialogue and back and forth between the characters is everything. And finally - my favourite thing- the team can never resist striking a dramatic pose after they’ve taken down the bad guy, making sure the bad guy sees them. I mean, they COULD just walk away, satisfied they’ve taken the person down, but nope. They gotta be dramatic bitches 24/7 and pose like they are models for every single month of this year’s Criminal Calendar.

5.) Competence Porn. So. Much. Competence Porn.

Honestly, I could list a thousand reasons for why Leverage is amazing but to list them would to be spoiling so many amazing moments you’d get to discover for the first time on your own if you do choose to watch it. It’s the kind of show you can watch with an eagle-eye and sink your teeth into. But it’s also the kind of show if, you would prefer, put on in the background for something entertaining while you do something else. Each episode is about the job at hand but it’s made up of so many moments between the characters that show how much the creators and writers care about them. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll do whatever it is you do when something Soft and Wonderful happens that makes your heart melt. I am so beyond grateful for Leverage. It’s everything I always wanted in a show. Nearly every show I’ve watched in the past 10 years has disappointed me in some way, usually either because the writers run out of steam or characters who I love are treated poorly or given some kind of unnecessary “shock value” arc. Leverage doesn’t do that. Leverage is what it says on the bottle. Fandom isn’t something I joined because I needed canon fix-its. Fandom only enhances and celebrates an already excellent canon.

#leverage #leverage ot3 #parker #alec hardison #eliot spencer #sophie devereaux #nate ford #talk leverage to me

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celepeace · 4 years ago

Text

A monster-taming game recommendation list for fans of Pokemon

Whether you're a pokemon fanatic obsessed with all things pokemon past and present, or a veteran fan disillusioned with GameFreak's recent adoption of monetary philosophies and strategies reminiscent of other major game publishers, or looking for a monster-taming fix as you await new Pokemon content...

I'm compiling here a post of little-known games in the genre that Pokemon fans are likely to enjoy!

Under readmore cause long, but some of these games really don’t get the attention they deserve, so if you have the time, please read!

(I am also likely to keep updating and editing this post)

First up is Temtem!

Temtem is a game made by and for Pokemon fans, from the spanish indie developer Crema. Temtem is currently in early access on Steam and PS5, and is likely to remain in early access until sometime late next year. Full launch will include a Nintendo Switch release, too. Despite this, it has plenty of content to explore before full release. The developers are active, release new content on a semi-regular basis, and are responsive to the community as a whole and individuals if you happen to come across a bug you want to report.

Temtem boasts a wide variety of monsters to collect and train. It takes place in the Airborne Archipelago, a system of floating islands that orbit their star, the Pansun. The monsters inhabiting the archipelago are called Temtem, or tem(s), for short.

As far as game mechanics go, it has many similarities to Pokemon, but also many important distinctions. The biggest one, in my opinion, is that the element of chance has been removed from battle entirely. Moves cannot miss, have the same power constantly, and status afflictions have an obviously displayed countdown to when they will wear off (for instance, sleep lasts as long as it says it will last. Not 2-4 turns). PP does not exist, either. Your tems can battle for as long as their HP holds out. In place of PP, a new system called Stamina exists. Stamina is an individual stat, like HP and Attack. Each move costs a certain amount of stamina. If you go over the amount of stamina your tem has, the deficit is detracted from your health instead, and that tem cannot move next turn. Stamina passively regenerates a certain amount each turn, and items and moves exist that can heal stamina. All battles are also double-battles, you and your opponent will typically have two tems on the field at a time. This is just a few of the differences Temtem has from Pokemon, but they're some of the biggest ones.

Temtem is also a massively multiplayer game. You complete the storyline independently (or with a friend through co-op!), but in the overworld you can see other, real players moving around and interacting with the world. There is also public and area-specific chat you can talk to other players through. Despite this, all multiplayer functions are (currently) completely optional. You do not need to interact with others to complete the game.

Overall, Temtem is suitable for the Pokemon fan who is looking for a more challenging experience. Temtem is not a walk in the park you can blaze through with a single super-strong monster. For one, individual tem strength is more well-balanced than it is in Pokemon. There are very few (if any!) completely useless tems. Even some unevolved tems have their niche in the competitive scene! Aside from that, enemy tamers are scaled quite high, and you typically cannot beat them just from the exp you get from other enemy tamers. You have to do some wild-encounter grinding if you want to progress.

Temtem is a very fun game and I've already gotten over 100 hours out of it, despite only 3/5-ish of the planned content being released!

However, I do feel obligated to warn any prospective players of one thing: the current endgame is quite inaccessible. After you complete what is currently implemented of the main storyline, there is still quite a lot left to explore and do, but much of it is locked behind putting a lot of hours into the game. You kind of have to get perfect temtem to do the current PVE (and this is also somewhat true for the PVP too). By perfect I mean you have to breed a good tem and then train it to get the preferable EVs (called TVs in temtem). This takes... well, for a whole team... tens of hours. Of boring grinding. Some people enjoy it! But I don't. Regardless, the game was still worth buying because the non-endgame content is expansive and fun.

So overall, pros & cons:

Pros

Battle system is more friendly towards a competitive scene

Cute monsters

Lots of gay characters, also you can choose pronouns (including they/them) independently from body type and voice

Less difference between the objectively bad tems and good tems than there is in Pokemon

Lots of stuff to do even in early access

Most conversations with dialog choices have the option to be a complete ass for no reason other than it’s fun

Having less type variety in your team is less punishing than in Pokemon due to the synergy system and types overall having less weaknesses and resistances

At least one major character is nonbinary

Cons

Falls prey to the issue of MMOs having in-game economies that are only accessible to diehard no-life players

Related to the above point, cosmetics are prohibitively expensive

Endgame CURRENTLY is inaccessible to most players unless you buy good monsters from other players or spend tens of hours making your own. However I must add that the grind is great if you like that kind of thing and is quite easy and painless to do while watching a show or something.

Here is their Steam page and here is their official website.

Next is Monster Hunter: Stories!

This is a spinoff game of the Monster Hunter franchise released for the 3DS in 2018. If you're anything like me, and you've played the core Monster Hunter games, you've often thought "Man, I wish I could befriend and ride these cool dragon creatures instead of killing or maiming them!"

Well now you can! In Stories, as I will be calling it, you play as a rider rather than a hunter. Riders steal monster eggs from wild nests to raise them among humans as companions and guardians. And yes, egg stealing is a whole mechanic in of itself in this game.

This game works pretty differently from most monster-collecting games. You do battle (usually) against one or two wild monsters using your own, except you fight alongside your monsters too. With swords and stuff. There's armor and weapons you can smelt to make yourself stronger. Type match-ups also kind of don't exist in this game? Except they do? But not in a way you'd expect?

The vast majority of attacking moves you and your monster use fall into categories reminiscent of rock-paper-scissors. Moves can be categorized as power, speed, or technical. Speed beats power, technical beats speed, and power beats technical. The matchup of your move vs your opponent's determines how a turn will go down. If one move beats the other in matchup, then the winner's move will get to go and the loser doesn't get to do anything. If you tie, you both get hit, but for reduced damage. There's also abilities and basic attacks, with abilities basically being the same as pokemon moves, and basic attacks just being "I hit you for normal damage within this category". Also, you don't control what your monster does all the time in battle. You can tell it to use abilities, but what kind basic attacks it carries out is determined by its species' preference. Velicidrome, for instance, prefers speed attacks, but Yian Garuga prefers technical. Stamina also exists in this game in a very similar manner to Temtem.

Overall this game carries over a lot of mechanics Monster Hunter fans will find familiar (how items and statuses work for instance). You don't have to have played a core Monster Hunter game to enjoy Stories though! It's fine and is easy to understand as a stand-alone.

The story has some likable characters and is rather long (it was actually adapted into an anime!), for those of you who enjoy a good story.

I'd really recommend this one especially. If it sounds fun to you and you can drop $30, just do it. I bought it on a whim and I got a few weeks' worth of playing almost nonstop out of it, and I didn't even get to do everything! (I got distracted by Hades, oops)

Stories is also getting a sequel later next year on the nintendo switch! How exciting!

And yes, you do ride the monsters.

Pros & cons:

Pros

Large variety of cool monsters to befriend and raise

Pretty lengthy story

Every tamable monster is also rideable

Deceptively simple combat mechanics, easy to be okay at, hard to master

Incorporates some mechanics from early turn-based party rpgs like Final Fantasy for a nice twist on the monster collecting genre

Cons

Many monsters are objectively outclassed by other ones, making what can be in an actually good team more limited than you’d expect

3DS graphics inherently means the game looks like it was made 7 years before its time

Here is the Monster Hunter Stories official 3DS product page.

And here is Monster Sanctuary!

Monster sanctuary is a game that just had its 1.0 launch- meaning it was in early access and no longer is! Although the devs say they still plan to implement a few more things into the game in future updates. It is available on Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PS4.

Monster sanctuary is a metroidvania twist on the typical monster collecting game, meaning it is also a sidescrolling platformer in which you use abilities you gain throughout the game to explore the world around you. The abilities in this case are the monsters you get! Every monster has an ability that helps you traverse the sanctuary.

Speaking of the sanctuary, the game is set in one. The monster sanctuary is a magically shielded area, cut off from the rest of the world, created by an order of monster keepers, people who befriend and protect the mystical monsters inhabiting the world. Humankind encroached too far on the natural habitat of monsters and were hostile to the native wildlife, so the keepers created an area of varied environments to safely protect and preserve the remaining monsters of the world.

Unlike many other monster collecting games, this game only has 5 types: fire, water, earth, air, and neutral. However, the types themselves do not possess resistances and weaknesses. Instead, each monster has its own assigned weaknesses and resistances. And yes, this can include things like debuffs, physical vs special attacks, and the typical elemental types.

All battles are also 3 vs 3! And unlike in pokemon, where you can only hit the enemies nearest, all monsters have the ability to hit any opponent they want. Turns also work a little differently in that speed doesn't exist, you just use 1 move per monster in your turn and then it goes to your opponent's turn. Your monsters hit in whatever order you want them to.

There is also a quite important combo system in this game, where every hit builds a damage multiplier for the next. Moves often hit multiple times per turn. Healing and buffing actions also build this combo counter. So what monsters you have move in what order really counts!

But the main mechanical difference between this and other games in the genre is how it handles levels and skills. Instead of learning a set move at a certain level, this game incorporates a skill tree, and you get to allocate points into different skills as you grow stronger. And jeez, these skill trees are really extensive. Monster sanctuary is a theorycrafter's dream. Each monster has a unique, specially tailored skill tree, making every monster truly able to have its own niche. You can make use of whatever monster you want if you just put thought into it!

And like Temtem, this game is not made to be beatable by children. I'm sure a child could beat it, but it's not made to be inherently child-friendly like pokemon. It's honestly quite difficult.

On top of that, you are actively encouraged to not just be scraping by each battle. Your performance in battle is rated by an automated system that scores your usage of various mechanics like buffs and debuffs applied, type matchups, and effective usage of combos. The rating system directly influences the rewards you get from each battle, including your likelihood of obtaining an egg from one of the wild monsters you battled (no, you don't catch wild monsters in this game, you get eggs and hatch them). If you're not paying attention to how the game works and making good, effective use of your monsters, you'll have a hard time expanding your team!

The music is also really good, it's made by nature to be able to play over and over and not get old as you explore each area, and the composer(s) really did a good job with this. Some area songs, namely the beach one, I especially enjoy, so much so I've actually played it in the background while I do work.

This is a game I would really recommend. If I made it sound intimidating, it is by no means unbeatable, you're just gonna have to put some thought into how you play. At no point did I actually feel frustrated or like something was impossible. When I hit a wall, I was able to recognize what I did wrong and how I could improve, or I could at least realize something wasn't working and experiment until I found a solution. It's challenging in a genuinely fun, rewarding way.

Pros & cons:

Pros

Extremely in-depth combat system

I genuinely don’t know if there’s an objectively bad monster in this game

Evolution exists but is completely optional, as even un-evolved monsters can be great

Entire soundtrack is full of bangers

Large and diverse variety of monsters to tame

Cons

Story is a little lackluster, but passable

That’s the only con I can think of

Here’s a link to their Steam page and the game’s website.

A kind of unorthodox recommendation is the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series!

Likelihood is that everyone reading this has heard of this series already, but just in case anyone hasn't, I thought I'd include it! I would categorize this as a hybrid between the mystery dungeon genre and the monster collecting genre, because you recruit pokemon as you play and can use those pokemon on your team!

If you're unaware, the mystery dungeon genre is a small subset of dungeon crawler games where you progress through randomly generated levels called mystery dungeons. Throughout the dungeons, there will be enemies to fight and items to collect. The challenge of these games is mostly due to the stamina aspect of them, in that you have to manage your resources as you progress through the level. If you go all out in each fight, you will inevitably lose quite quickly. You have to learn to win against enemies while balancing your use of items and PP, so you have enough for the next fight, and the fight after that.

Pokemon mystery dungeon in particular is famous for its stories, the likes of which isn't seen often in Pokemon games. They are hugely story-driven games and are notable for the emotional depth they possess. It's pretty normal for the average player to cry at least once in the span of the game. There's lots of memes about that specifically.

This entry in my list is also unique for being a series. So, which one should you play first? It actually doesn't matter! Each storyline is entirely self-contained and requires no knowledge of prior entries. The quality of each entry varies and is a point of contention among fans. I say you should play all of them, because they all have their merits (though some more than others.... coughgatestoinfinitycough). They're mostly distinct for the generation of Pokemon they take place in. Rescue team is gen 3, Explorers is gen 4, Gates to Infinity is gen 5, Super Mystery Dungeon is gen 6, and Rescue Team DX is a remake of a gen 3 game but has the mechanics and moves of a gen 8 game.

My only real caution is that you play Explorers of Sky, not Darkness or Time. Sky is basically a combination of the two games with added items and content. It's an objective upgrade over its predecessors, and I honestly wouldn't waste money on the other two.

I’m not going to include a pros and cons list for the PMD series because I’m incredibly biased and it wouldn’t be an honest review.

Next is Monster Crown!

Monster Crown is a monster collecting game that seems to take heavy inspiration from early-gen Pokemon games in particular. It is currently in early access on Steam and is not expensive. I learned about it through the developers of Monster Sanctuary, when they recommended it on their official Discord.

The game has lots of charm and interesting creature designs, and an entirely new take on monster typings as well. Instead of monster types being based off of natural elements like fire, water, electricity, etc. Monster Crown uses typings that seem to be influenced by the personalities of the monsters. For instance, Brutal, Relentless, and Will are all monster types!

It also captures a lot of the charm many of us look fondly upon in early GameBoy-era games. The music is mostly chiptune, with some more modern backing instruments at times, and the visuals are very reminiscent of games like Pokemon Crystal in particular. Monster Crown is definitely the monster collecting game for fans of the 8-bit era!

The thing that stands out the most to me about this game is the breeding system. Instead of one parent monster passing down its species to its offspring, you can create true hybrids in this game.

However, it is very early access. I would consider the current build as an alpha, not even a beta yet! So temper your expectations here. I have not encountered any major bugs, but visual glitches here and there are quite common. The game also could definitely use some polish and streamlining, and is quite limited in content currently. But the dev(s) seem quite active, so I fully expect these kinks to be worked out in time!

The reviews are rather positive, especially for being in early access. I'm all for expanding the monster collecting genre, so if you're looking to expand your horizons in that sense, I would recommend you at least give this one a look! I personally had quite a bit of fun playing Monster Crown and am going to keep an eye out for updates.

Pros & cons:

Pros

Charming artstyle, appealing monster designs

Faithful callback to a bygone era of gaming

Controls are fairly simple and easy to get the hang of (and are completely customizable!)

Cool breeding and hybridization mechanics

There's a starter for each monster type!

You can choose your pronouns, including they/them!

Cons

Inherent nature of being very early access means can be clunky and unpolished at times

Also not much content as of right now, see above

User interface could use some redesign in places

Here’s their Steam page and the official website!

Here’s an oldie but a goodie, Azure Dreams!

This is one I actually haven’t played, mostly because it’s really old and therefore only practically accessible if you play it on an emulator, unless you're one of those old game collectors. Azure Dreams was developed by Konami and released for the PS1 in 1997. My impression of it was that it either didn’t sell well or only took off in Japan, because it’s actually really hard to find any comprehensive information about it on the internet.

Azure Dreams is a monster collecting - dating sim hybrid. You can build relationships with various characters and can pursue some of them romantically, although that isn’t the main draw of the game. There is also a stripped-down version that exists for the GameBoy Color, which forgoes the dating portion of the game entirely.

Azure Dreams is kind of like a mystery dungeon game in that you progress through a randomly generated, ever-changing tower using the help of the familiars you have accrued throughout your adventure. Similarly to Monster Hunter: Stories, you yourself also take part in the fighting alongside your monsters. Each time you enter the tower, your character’s level is lowered to 1, but your familiars keep their experience. Thus, progression is made through strengthening your monsters. To obtain monsters, you collect their eggs, just like in Monster Sanctuary (which, turns out, was at least partially inspired by this game!)

Due to this game being very old and on the PS1, the visuals leave a lot to be desired... but if you can get past that, Azure Dreams has lots of replayability and customization to how you play the game. To this day, it appears it has a somewhat active speedrunning community!

If you don’t mind the effort of using an emulator, and like old games, Azure Dreams just might be that timesink you were looking for in quarantine.

Honorable mentions:

Pokemon Insurgence (or any Pokemon fangame/ROMhack, really!) is a Pokemon fangame that introduces Delta Pokemon, which are really cool type-swapped versions of existing Pokemon. It’s sufficiently challenging and has a lot of variety in what you can catch in the wild, so you can pretty much add whatever you want to your team! The story is quite good, and the main campaign is multiple times longer than a typical Pokemon game’s campaign. Download it here!

ARK: Survival Evolved is NOT a monster collecting game BUT you do get to tame and fight alongside a lot of really cool extinct species, including but not limited to the dinosaurs we all know and love. This game is genuinely fun as hell, especially with friends, but I must warn you: never play on official servers. I highly recommend singleplayer, playing on a casual private server, or making your own server. Here’s the Steam page.

#pokemon #temtem #monster sanctuary #monster hunter stories #monster crown #azure dreams #pokemon mystery dungeon #pokemon alternatives

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