#please go play the game if you like cosmic horror love story! | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

stardustlives · 1 month ago

Text

GOTY 2024

The games keep comin'. Another list of games I played throughout the year I thought could be worth mentioning during a game of the year discussion. This list continues to omit games I've replayed and games I didn't think were good or interesting enough to get a mention.

Games of the Year

1)Yellow Taxi Goes Vroom Now is the era of indie 3D platformers all about insane movement tech. Was utterly elated by the energy and level design in this car based platformer where your primary traversal ability is ramping off of stuff. Please give the demo a shot I think you'll find something really special here.

2)Metaphor: ReFantazio Fantasy Persona. After just being okay with Persona 5, I got completely engrossed with this one and its world. I enjoyed how demanding some later fights became as they had me actually do significant changes to my party and strategy to overcome them. In these times of games that are way too fucking long, this was a rare instance of me getting bummed by seeing the end of the adventure on the horizon.

3)Astro Bot The degree of polish in this thing is on another level. Individual stages feel like an entire event as they'll each treat you to lavish set pieces and elaborate, unique mechanics. A joy to give yourself to while looking for cute cameos from PlayStation's history. Now, concerning those cameos, you might think they would prioritize the recognizable mascots or big sellers, and while those are in there, Astro Bot will also grab you by the shoulders, look you straight in the eye and go: "Arc the Lad." It's awesome.

4)Nine Sols Fresh off of their struggle against Xi Jinping, narrative horror game developer Red Candle Games decided to take a swing at a tight, execution heavy, parry focused, action exploration game. And boy what a swing it is. Its intense action is backdropped by a cool comic book art style that it uses to deliver a beautiful melancholic story about one's time passing. Strong mood and fantastic boss fights.

5)BAKERU The Kirby's Epic Yarn developer made a Ganbare Goemon spiritual successor. Everything's bouncy and joyous. This thing's a non-stop party with regular enemies spread across levels having a silly good time just for the fun of it. The bright colors and bad guys hanging out gave me Ape Escape 3 vibes.

6)Animal Well There used to be a time where video games were occult and mysterious. Not because they didn't have tutorials but because the tutorials were written down inside manuals and we didn't read those. Nevertheless! This feeling of mystery kids make for themselves by being impatient is what Animal Well wants to emulate in its own atmosphere and design. The game refusing to textually explain itself instead presenting you with situations that nudge you towards uncovering its functions yourself leading to great feelings of discovery.

7)Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Elden Ring 2 over here. Loved the new weapon types and its gorgeous environments. Don't got too much new to say about more Elden Ring other than I mostly enjoyed the controversial high difficulty. But, boy, they can ease up with the next one. They gave entire boss move sets to regular respawning enemies. They don't got nothin' to prove it's okay.

8)Tekken 8 Tekken's fucking awesome. As a casual player, the intuitive nature of the controls allows them to be easily expressive. It's a great time at even lower skill levels which is not always the case with highly regarded fighting games. The (on release at least) downright reasonable progression mechanics made me reevaluate Mortal Kombat 1 from the prior year pretty negatively by reminding me that even in a "live" game, progression systems can be about drip feeding game elements and rewards to the player without being entirely about maximizing their time in a microtransaction store.

9)Grapple Dogs: Cosmic Canines Grapple Dog is back and he's the latest platforming mascot to find an interdimensional portal with an edgier version of himself in it! She's got a gun too, watch out! Develops the design of the first game further with some new powerups that bestow special abilities for the duration of a level.

10)Crow Country A uniquely stylish nostalgia play on your classic Silent Hills and Resident Evils. It has a grainy 90's atmosphere over toy-like characters and environments that seem to either elicit a creeped out "analog horror" vibe for some or nostalgic coziness for others. I lean in the second camp. Either way, a very compelling diorama world to explore.

An Ample Selection of Runners-up

11)Penny's Big Breakaway Era of insane movement tech again. Same developer as Sonic Mania which I'm more critical about than most people. Mania is beautiful and has wonderful music but I frequently felt like I was just holding right and watching the game happen rather than playing it. Not here, this is a very involved 3D platformer with many synergizing movement options. Difficulty can be a bit inconsistent as some challenges give me the impression of having been only tested by people who got very good at the game as members of its development team. While most of the game is pretty chill, it will sometimes spike and demand very sharp execution from you. The high skill ceiling is definitely its own appeal though.

12)UFO 50 I spent the entirety of this thing's development thinking it was going to be 50 minigames so I was like "what's taking so long?" but no, this isn't 50 minigames, it's 50 games. Mostly at the scope of NES games but still. In the 50+ hours I put into it I ended up clearing 11 games and cherry clearing (completionist clearing) 7 of those. There's some meat on them bones and I want to go back to 'em. Getting into specifics for each games would be an essay on its own, but, hey, you want 50 NES games that are almost all at least pretty good?

13)Instruments of Destruction Red Faction: Guerilla developers got together to make a hybrid between Blast Corps and Besiege. In the main campaign you use a kinda shocking amount of unique vehicles to fulfill destruction objectives in various combinations of destroy this, don't destroy that, do it fast, dodge the missiles… always with a new kind of goofy ass car that might just act like a bulldozer or have a giant flipper at the front. Then, in the second campaign, the game fully turns into Besiege asking you to build your own motorized solutions to the blight of upright man-made structures. I fell off of that second one but the Blast Corps style main campaign was great fun the whole time.

14)Dread Delusion A tiny indie team taking on the task of making an entire Elder Scrolls game taking particular inspiration from the odd vibes of Morrowind. Extremely ambitious and inheriting the limitations of its inspirations both in the form of simplistic gameplay and not infrequent technical issues (though they did patch the game heavily and quickly). Limitations or no, I cannot speak highly enough of the creativity that courses through the world and its distinct lands. From its blighted medieval countryside to its, uh, blighted but worse and more fucked up industrialized Siberian snowlands. The real appeal to me is hanging out in the wonderful, imaginative world to learn of its factions and takes on supernatural concepts like ghosts, undead eating habits and relationships to what one might call gods.

15)Children of the Sun Devolver Digital presents: JFK Reloaded. You're a young psychic woman with a Mandy-esque beef against a freaky forest cult. The game has you scout the positions of cultists whom you must then take out with a single bullet whose path you can influence with a small suite of powers. Starting with the ability to "refire" the shot in a new direction after a kill. Each level is a pathing puzzle all about achieving some real grungy Yondu shit.

16)Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Oh boy. I have such mixed feelings here. Remake's excellent combat system is still here as good or even better than it used to be thanks to new playable characters and new mechanics they sorta have to sneak onto the controller. The environments are mostly great (except the jungle which sucks) as well as beautiful but much of the game is spent doing map clearing stuff, uneven sidequests, and mediocre minigames. I find much of this version of the story awkward as well. The pacing suffering most of all both from the sluggishness that comes from the map clearing open world design and the relentless maximalism that comes from the developers' decision to turbo stuff every moment of the story. High highs low lows and a whole lot of mediocre faff in-between.

Something I've thinking about a lot is how much substance is actually present in longer games and how that compares to games of more modest length. My somewhat thorough replay of the original FF7 in 2020 took 60 hours. My similarly thorough playthrough of FF7Remake (covering the 4~7 hour Midgar section of the original) took 40 hours. Rebirth, which runs until the end of disc 1 of 3, took over 100 hours and its mostly mediocre 6 hour final dungeon lasted longer than a full playthrough of my third favorite game Zone of the Enders: The Second Runner and its extra mode, Zoradius, a simple take on a 3D Gradius. Just something I couldn't get out of my mind all the way through that dungeon. The fights against the red dragon and wall monster were very good.

17)Great God Grove You're on your way to vacation in the titular GGG when you come upon the near divine instrument known as the Megapon which allows you to speak to people! Or, more specifically, repeat shit you're told! Wow!! From the same developers as Smile For Me this is also a wholesome little adventure about getting an adorable cast of oddballs to understand each other. If you've any taste for Psychonauts this is absolutely down your alley.

18)Frogun Encore Tiny sequel to Frogun (mentioned in the Catch Up section) with new mechanics and camera perspective. Encouraging even wackier speedrunning tech than the original. Very much worth playing both.

19)Pepper Grinder Handful of tiny games down here. A Devolver published joint in the style of a GBA game all about zooming through dirt with a large drill to collect treasure and perform sick jumps.

20)The Rise of the Golden Idol Outside of some quality of life adjustments to the UI this is mostly more of The Case of the Golden Idol. Which is good because while the original deduction game is very good you kinda can't play it again. You've already deduced everything there is to deduce. Taking its world that's much like ours but not quite to modern times means taking modern technological trappings in consideration while thinking through the incidents.

21)Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door A mostly slightly better version of Paper Mario: TTYD. Still a great game but not different in ways that are excessively worth noting.

22)Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes Ups and downs. It has a 6 hour long prologue that is almost lethally boring but once it gets going after the first war segment I enjoyed it. A word I kept coming back to when I was trying to figure out my feelings for it was "cozy". This is sort of the platonic ideal for a PS1 style JRPG and how appealing you find this will depend on how cozy the PS1 JRPG form is to you. Unfortunately, carries over the PS1 JRPG characteristic of a wonky localization where it seems the writer and voice director simply did not speak to each other. Very odd changes ignoring what the original work was going for especially in sidequests. There's group of 4 characters that are clear parodies of shonen archetypes in their dialogue and designs but the voice direction is just doing something else. So similar to Suikoden 2 I might recommend you just play Suikoden 1 then that instead but if you want something comfortable and familiar I enjoyed it as comfort food.

23)Dragon's Dogma 2 Second attempt at trying to "get" Dragon's Dogma. Really loved the skill system but did not vibe with its idiosyncrasies and caprices. I wish its game design had either been way more normal or way weirder. Appreciate that if they're gonna have ridiculous fantasy slut garb the dudes can put it on too.

24)Berserk Boy We will simply never run out of indie takes on Mega Man and we should be grateful, frankly. This one's not the best out there with some frustrating jank, even softlocking me during an optional challenge which turned me off of all of them but it's neat all the same. People who make these have a good tendency to ensure they feature unique ideas and make their games interesting in their own right.

25)Froggo's Adventure: Verdant Venture Teeny weeny little Kirby's Adventure inspired tiny small thing. You're a frog who suspects a witch girl might have maybe stole something from your well so maybe you should go to her house and beat the shit out of her? Maybe! It's less than $1.50 CAD and a good time for it.

26)Nightmare Kart Formerly Bloodborne Kart until Sony said no literally a day from release. Kinda funnier than it's fun but benefits from a "you get what you pay for" valuation as it's free.

27)Starstruck: Hands of Time A meditation on the blurry line between inspiration and plagiarism and the ways one is necessary to enriching an ever developing creative inner world while its nearly indistinguishable sibling is a harbinger of rotten, even apocalyptic, stagnation. This game has right in its main menu a bibliography of inspirations featuring the likes of Chulip, Kare Kano, and Richard Wagner. On that last one, it's impossible and arguably irresponsible to discuss ol' Deutschland Dick without mentioning his influence on Adolf Hitler which the game will momentarily do, awkwardly maintaining a wholesome veneer while non-specifically gesturing towards a "dictator". I'm gonna be blunt here I did not like this one. It has an issue typical of creative projects without much oversight where it eventually ends up with its head a ways up its own ass with the metaphors and references. I spent most of its climax muttering "fuckin' wrap it up" to myself. Some of its gameplay is a not great rhythm game with an uneven soundtrack. "Break the Mold" is the closest it has to Gitaroo Man's Legendary Theme and it sucks ass.

Despite all that it's an interesting text worth interacting with if the word "different" is important to you when used in relationship to video games.

Catch Up

God of War: Ghost of Sparta (2010) Bastion (2011)

Tyranny: Gold Edition (2017) Tyranny is set in a world where evil has won and you, as an exceptional individual, have been scouted to be a "Fatebinder" a sort of a wandering lawyer/judge/executioner representing the judgement of Archon of Justice Tunon the Adjudicator, highest authority beneath Kyros the Overlord. The game denies you the ability to make a morally clean character as before the game begins in earnest you'll be made to determine your history as mediator between two of the empire's brutal armies: The uncompromising supremacist Disfavored and the infernal snarling horde of the Scarlet Chorus.

Regardless of how many games I play I still have blind spots, CRPGs being one of them. Ahead of playing Baldur's Gate 3 I wanted to get my feet wet and train my ability to lean into roleplaying, play a character whose values differ from mine and accept less than optimal resolutions. I struggled at first but what really unlocked the roleplaying for me was the Reputation system. The first companion who joins you is Verse of the Scarlet Chorus and I utterly hated her. Going through her dialogue tree and learning about her was initially exhausting to me and threatened to make me bounce off of the experience until after a particularly unpleasant story the game gave me the opportunity to bluntly call her disgusting. The way Reputation works in tyranny is that you concurrently build Favor and Wrath with factions and Loyalty and Fear with companions. One does not take from the other like in say, Mass Effect, there's no wrong answer there's just what your character would do. Leaning into my hatred for the Scarlet Chorus committed me to a character which let me have a great time learning about Tyranny's layered world. Sorta peters out in the 3rd act in, what I'm told, is common for CRPGs but the way there was always compelling.

Yuppie Psycho (2019) Demon Turf (2021) Demon Turf: Neon Splash (2022)

Scorn (2022) First person atmospheric adventure all about diving into an H.R. Giger-esque world. Freaky and gorgeous. Many people struggle to get what the combat expects of you which is that as much as possible you do not want to be in a fight. You want to let creatures pass and you only want to hit them so they're staggered enough to let you bail. Worth playing if you want to be in this sort of atmosphere.

Frogun (2022) Adorable platforming adventure with tight levels where you use the tongue of your "Frogun" to zip across gaps. Every level is to be done twice: first as a collectathon and routing exercise and then as a speedrunning challenge where the level design allows and enjoys ridiculous skips that will satisfyingly cut down your time to a fraction of your initial playthrough.

Marvel's Midnight Suns (2022) Okay so the on-ramp is too long and it drags real bad at the end and it's got (pre-mcu) Buffy era style Joss Whedon dialogue you might find grating but hear me out: Once the game gets going for real its system of one-shotting mooks, tossing them into each other, to build Heroism points that can then be cashed in for bigger moves produces a rhythm and strategizing I've never seen in any other tactics game. It's a great time.

Lunacid (2023) I was never really impressed or into creepypasta style horror but this thing marries it to shockingly potent effect with King's Field style pacing and atmosphere. Made by a very small team its got some wonky balancing but the mood is something else. Very high recommendation for anyone who takes pleasure in exploring odd, eerie spaces.

Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name (2023)

Turbo Overkill (2023) First weapons you get are dual wielded laser magnums followed by laser SMGs that are also dual wielded. A button press will make a chainsaw burst from you cyborg leg and launch you into a high speed slide at no cost. In some ways this thing feels like it's trying to be The Final Boomer Shooter, going for peak stupid meathead video game fun.

Orbo's Odyssey (2023)

Lies of P (2023) My favorite non-FromSoft Souls game. Can Timothee Chalamet become a real boy? Derivative in nonnegligible ways but things like the weapon combining system and Pinocchio theming help keep it apart.

Baldur's Gate 3 (2023) Oh boy I might have played this gigantic thing twice in a row. Spunky little indie sleeper hit you may not have heard of; I gave it a year to truly complete its early access period. I loved it. I loved roleplaying as a Vengeance Paladin struggling against the Dark Urge, I loved the party (except Lae'zel) and loved the build making. My second playthrough was all about goofy multiclasses and gave me a real taste for it.

PARANORMASIGHT: The Seven Mysteries of Honjo (2023)

A More Modest Than Usual Selection Of Retro Games

Jumping Flash! (1995)

Jumping Flash! 2 (1996) Hadn't played this since I was 6 when I got lost in the second world's "maze" level even though these are little games for little babies that a little baby could play. Don't know what was wrong with me. Very neat looking and a fun look back to a time before standardization when there wasn't a set way to make a first person shooter or any sort of game for that matter.

Final Fantasy IX (2000, HD 2017)

The Adventures of Cookie and Cream (2001) FromSoftware experiment in making an entirely co-op game where each player runs through puzzle platforming to allow their partner to make progress. Played through this with a friend and it was a great time.

Looney Tunes: Sheep Raider (2001) Sheep, Dog 'n' Wolf outside of North America, a puzzle game based on the Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog Looney Tunes cartoons where you as Ralph have to use ACME contraptions to steal sheep from under Sam's nose. I was impressed by its capacity to emulate the cartoon's animation style with PS1 graphics and each stage having unique mechanics that never show up again. There's some real head scratchers in there too.

Ratchet & Clank 2: Going Commando (2003)

Ratchet: Deadlocked (2005) Going Commando was alright but I was annoyed with every part of it that wasn't just Ratchet & Clank combat. Then I remembered a rental from my childhood, like, hey, you know what game is nothing but Ratchet & Clank combat? All about leveling up your goofy ass guns so they get even goofier. Awesome time.

Call of Duty 2 (2005) You like that? You like me calling Call of Duty 2 a retro game?

Missed games I'd like to get around to when I can make time. The video games… Please... they are too good…

FANTASIAN Neo Dimension Freed from apple arcade, rub and tug diorama Final Fantasy.

Sorry We're Closed Resident Evil: Dead Aim by way of Silent Hill and Grasshopper Manufacture.

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown I bought this months ago and never made time for it! Despite being a lifelong Ubisoft and Rayman hater, it's my opinion that Ubisoft Montpellier's Rayman Legends is an all-time great so you can imagine how upset I was when their next highly well received game didn't sell enough for Ubisoft's tastes so they shot the whole team in the back of the head. Eager to play it and complete my mourning period.

Dungeons of Blood and Dream Nasty ass grungy first person roguelite sorta thing.

Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven I gotta actually sit down and give a SaGa game a real shot and this one sounds way weirder than its art style suggests.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Genuinely not sure if I wanna play this one. It'd be the first Ryu Ga Gotoku game I skip but the length preemptively exhausts me. If I choose to play it, I need to figure out how I want to interact with it.

Flintlock: Siege of Dawn Played the demo which was alright and was intrigued by the exp system which has you gamble a multiplier. You never lose the exp but you might lose the bonus.

Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess Great demo for a well focused, weird game; couldn't make time for it!

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Neat looking "good kind of a 7 out of 10" I don't want to pay for. Maybe after a deep discount or through alternative means once it's fully updated.

Gundam Breaker 4 Don't know if I could make time for it but I love designing robots.

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster Do I wanna play this? Do I wanna just replay the original?

Judero Whole stop motion world made with old customized figures, I wanna see it!

Slitterhead Demo for this one by the Silent Hill 1 and Siren director was rough but I'm still intrigued.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership Need to hear more about this one to know if it's a return to Superstar Saga quality or if it carries the issues of later Mario & Luigi RPGs

Sonic X Shadow Generations They made a good Sonic game? Seemingly titled like a slashfic?

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl Want this to be my way to "get" S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Gonna do the same thing I did for Baldur's Gate 3 and give it a year of updates.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Got frustrated at how effusive the reception to this was because it made it something else to add to this bloated list. Good problem to have.

Kura5: Bonds of the Undying A free Boktai fangame that seems very cute.

2 notes · View notes

sugarpsalms · 1 month ago

Note

Hello! About the book recs! I'd like to hear your gorgeous rambles on some (or all??) of these: 16, 35, 55, 85 🫶

from the book recs ask game!

A book you'd recommend to your younger self?

Oh you know what? I wish I could have Little Sonny read Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones. I read it for the first time when I was around 19, and as much as I loved it, I know I would've enjoyed it so much more as the target age group. I was very much a fantasy kid, and I still think it's weird I somehow didn't read it then. My only guess is that a copy just wasn't in my school library, so where would I have come across it? If I could time travel and leave a copy on Little Sonny's pillow, though, I would. It's such a fun, cozy, and well developed kid fantasy. The world-building is fantastic, Sophie is SO funny, and Howl is kind of me. Over all, I just know I would've developed a very special bond with it.

Also, I think I'd have been more likely to continue the series if I'd started then. I was less likely at that age to get attached to specific characters over a universe, and having the second book in the series not mention Howl and Sophie at all wouldn't have put me off in the same way it did at 19.

A book featuring the found family trope?

The first that comes to mind is The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson, which is a very touching coming-of-age story. It centers on a twelve-year-old boy, a pair of siblings (new to town), and his weird uncle, all who spend the summer together exploring their town's ghost stories and urban legends. It does that really special thing all good CoA stories do, where it makes you feel warm and fuzzy but also devastated at the same time. The MC forms really deep, complex, and lasting relationships with these two other kids that no one else in town their age likes. They get to be weirdos together, have fun, and explore and learn about themselves, as well as the town around them from someone older who, you get the sense, was once very much the same kind of kid they are. It's got a lot of incredibly loving and silly goofy moments, all with this undercurrent of mounting dread, because the 'devastated' aspect of this story is the MC having to learn a painful lesson: sometimes there's something deeply wrong with the people you love and there's nothing you can do about it.

Honestly, really, truly, it's one of my favorite books ever, and if you can get your hands on it, I think you should! It makes you cry in all the best ways, and when it ends, your heart feels so so full <3

A book with a satisfying ending?

Sisters of the Crimson Vine by P.L. McMillan! This is another book I've gotten one (1) other person to read and been so pleased with myself over the fact. It's a quick and weird little folk+cosmic horror blend that also hits some of my favorite gothic fiction notes (repression, taboo sexuality, & desire as consumption). It follows the MC after he wakes up in an isolated convent following a freak car accident, and the escalatingly weird, dangerous, and supernatural events that play out while he's there. It's a lot of fun if you're a fan of simultaneously creepy and sexy nuns (who's relationship with the MC kind of gave a more punched-up version of Jonanthan Harker's relationship with Dracula, to me), children-of-the-corn-esque religious cults, and off-kilter relationship dynamics.

What made the ending so satisfying, I think, is that about a third of the way in, how I initially wanted the story to end did a 180. From like the first three pages up until that point, I had a very particular way I wanted the story to go, but the growing companionship between the MC and the sisters of Crimoria Convent just, at a certain point, hits like a truck. And from then on I was desperately hoping what I first wanted WOULDN'T happen. And lucky me! It didn't! Things wrapped exactly how I (secondarily) wanted, with there still being lots of great weirdness and gore to keep that part of my brain satisfied.

Your favorite book about magical realism?

It's got to be Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia for this one, which is a nice blend of Mayan mythology, historical drama, and magical realism. The story follows a young girl who gets swept up into a clash between the god of death and his brother who, in league with the MC's grandfather, sealed him in a box. It's simultaneously a family drama, a love story to mythology, and the MC's struggle for liberation and agency, set on the backdrop of Jazz Age Mexico. It hops between her nowhere hometown, booming Mexico City, and the Mayan Underworld, and does a phenomenal job of blending the reality and fantasy. It's honestly the best example I can think of for this particular brand of world-building. On top of that, the relationship between the MC and death god is just! So interesting! I loved the slow build of trust and understanding between them, and how, especially from the god's perspective, you could really feel that shift.

I can't lie, there was a huge discrepancy between the ending I WANTED and the ending I GOT; but to be fair, the ending I WANTED wouldn't have been nearly as emotionally rounded or ultimately as satisfying. It's one of those that, if you're like me, you have to sit with for a minute to really appreciate, but once you do, it feels right and good and perfectly suited to the narrative's needs.

#sugar.txt #tyty!!!

2 notes · View notes

anonomi · 3 months ago

Text

About

I figure I should make an intro post its self since it's more accessible, but for further detail about me you check the about tab on my blog.

So, hello ^^ I am Anonomy, I actually go by a lot but my main name is Anonomy. I'm older than 18 (that's all you need 2 know ^^). Aroace and bigender. I have GAD (+selective mutism) and have some situational depression.

I've been into TF2 for about 9 years and have around 5-6k hours (and counting!). Timezone is around PH so if you want to play HMU, I am often busy but I always have room for a round or two. Or if you just want a little chat, that's fine too. My other interests aside from tf2 range from valve games, horror, cosmic horror and sci-fi/fantasy, aliens, the ocean, psychology, SPYFI, I LOVE SPYFI my favourite character ever is SPY TF2

He/him + She/her, please no they/them for me unless you didn't know beforehand.

This is my blog so I do blog things.

I'm into TF2 as a WHOLE. That includes the spyfi 1960s setting, the surrounding lore, the characters, the gameplay, and pretty much EVERYTHING about it. I don't exagerrate when I say I'm crazy about tf2. I play the game very extensively and know a lot of niche mechanics, so if you need advice or tips on tf2 itself you can just ask, I love helping other players. My area of expertise is mainly engineer, medic, and pyro, but I've enjoyed plenty of other classes and subclasses.

Tags:

#myart - this is my art. i used to do a fandom tagging system for myart+[fandom] but tbh it got confusing to me so it's obsolete.

#nomi writes - textposts that I think fall under the category of what could be seen as writing. So like thinly veiled fanfics, posts I put a decent effort into, etc. It's like the formal tag for nomipad. Pr much all of my textposts will fall under this since i'm a perfectionist.

#nomipad - personal tag for any rambles or things that I don't think fit nomi writes. More messy. Tbh there is little difference but I thrive on micro organizing. But more often than not this is for regular rambles

#nomi asks - answers for asks. I'm always up to chat about TF2 but other things are okay as well of course. Specially about mental health, etc.

I occasionally disappear into the shadows and come back, it's normal. Sometimes I just get really busy or am cycling through one of my hobbies. I have a really specific way of doing things and I go on my own time :P

#tf2 gameplay - things related to the gameplay. sometimes I like to talk about the gameplay or recount stories about what I've seen in the many years of playing this game. Pretty meta.

Etc.

That's all, take care!

#intro post #tf2 #horror #pretty fun tbh #will update this accordingly #also a good guide for myself cause everytime i dip and come back i have to relearn how to use this website xD

3 notes · View notes

mthollowell-writes · 1 year ago

Text

Writer Q&A Tag Game

Thanks again to @digital-chance for the tag! You can find their original post here!

1)What motivates you to write?

My own ego (I kid...sorta).

I love creating worlds and giving life to the various voices inside my head. I love teasing out ideas and constructing (too) intricate plots and scenarios. Writing is my escape from the daily grind (for good and bad) and my main outlet for expression. I honestly wouldn't be me without my writing.

2) A line/short snippet of your writing that you are most proud/happy of. If not maybe share a line of someone else's work you love (just please credit them)

I'll share something from a short story currently on ice until I get around to editing it. It's tentatively called "Cosmic Self-Serve"

Unfathomable eldritch horrors weren’t on my Tuesday night bingo card but it takes all types to keep a gas station in the black. I took another pack of gum from the rack and popped a stick in my mouth, praying for brain freeze. Cool mint took over my senses and I felt like a person again. Gary won’t be happy with my lack of respect for “stock integrity” but that’s why our corporate gods gave us shrink. Also Gary’s an asshole so screw Gary.

3) Which OC makes you smile every time you think/talk about them and what are they like?

I'm going to have to give this to September from my Festival Project WIP. He's such a mess of a character despite his best efforts to keep it together. He has a pretty lengthy backstory for "reasons that drift a smidge into spoiler territory." On the surface, he's calm and collected and can weather any storm with clear head, but that comes from a long history of battling demons (both real and internal). He currently puts these talents towards being the Editor in Chief at his newspaper office.

4) What process of writing do you enjoy the most?

The initial brainstorming and outlining stage. I love plotting out stories free from the expectation of making the words sound pretty. I do still enjoy making the words pretty but sometimes I stall getting too caught up in that.

5) What part of writing do you think you are the best at? (Yes stroke your own ego it's okay)

The dialogue, though I will be the first to admit that I can get carried away with it. I also credit myself as a very meticulous plotter, in the actual plot and with character backstories. I've been told that my shorter stories tend to subvert expectation and go in unexpected places (but this too has its pitfalls as my earlier writing has been labelled as confusing by certain peers in writing workshops).

Even when I'm trying to stroke my ego, I keep offering caveats.

6) What is something in the writeblr community is most enjoyable?

Honestly, how supportive everyone is! We're always trying to build each other up and the discussions I see on my feed where people excitedly talk about their stories and OCs remind me why writing is so much fun. And the games, of course. My god, these games! I love them!

7) A writing tool/device you use that helps you with writing? (It could be speech to text, a writing program etc)

I recently took the plunge and bought Scrivener and I'm liking it so far. It's a bit of a learning curve with all the features you can play with, but I love how you can organize stories and bookmark things within each text section for referencing. Best of all, (and as far as I'm aware) you only have to pay once for it (unlike some other subscription based programs). With that being said, I do love Microsoft Word for smaller projects and its backup feature.

I also use a timer on my computer (I have Windows so there's a clock app that you can adjust). On days that I'm really struggling to motivate myself, dividing my time into smaller increments can get me through the slog.

8) A piece of worldbuilding that you like in your own story? (It could be the magic system, a particular place in the story, a law etc)

Egad, what a broad question! I have to think about that for a second...

There's a unique Protestant-inspired church branch within Hollow Grove that's known as the Edelhaus Coalition Church. It's also uniquely American, whose foundation is the old Puritan work ethic that emphasizes hard work as a core tenet that guarantees a path to heaven.

Where it diverges is its belief in The Founder and the concept of The Faithful. The Faithful are the true believers that have gained immense favor with God through their hard work and aptitude. As evidence of his favor, he gives The Faithful powers over nature. The Founder (who many believe was the original historical founder of the town, Goodwin Hollow) was the first Faithful and every Festival of Shadows, the evidence of his will is seen in the resurrection of the recently deceased every festival year. This holiday is celebrated by all in the Edelhaus Coalition church for this reason. It's also why many acolytes within the church opt for natural burial for a chance to walk the earth again.

There's more to it but in the spirit of brevity, that's all I'll say for now.

9) What piece of advice would you say to encourage others to write if they are having a rough patch?

I'll say it again, write what you love. There's no point in writing something you don't.

I also want to emphasize the importance of breaks. Sometimes if the words aren't flowing (or there's just so much going in your life), never feel ashamed of putting the pen down and coming back to a story later. The time away can offer fresh perspective. It can divert your attention to something else that you're equally passionate about. I sometimes like to procrastinate on one story with another. If I can't write at all, sometimes reading or watching something can inspire you.

10) Tag some people whose works you love/have been your biggest supporters

I'm truly inspired by reading the snippets of stories from @digital-chance (that's two mentions now!) @rmgrey-author @palebdot @tabswrites @writingbyricochet and @fatexweaver. I appreciate the support and interactions I've had with @vintagecivet @macabremoons @friendlyshaped @aestatismors @leisoree @words-after-midnight @axl-ul @nai-nty-8 and @nonsenseramble. Seriously, you all rock and I appreciate all of you!

I'm going to go ahead and gently tag all these beautiful folks listed above as well as some newer mutuals who I hope to get to know more @girlfromthecrypt @elhuei @isherwoodj @poemsbymo @robin-writes-a-lot and anyone who would like to participate!

#tag games #tagged #writer's q&a tag #long post #mt writes #writeblr #festival project #cosmic wip

17 notes · View notes

katewalker · 2 years ago

Text

part 2:

also eratum: it's 10 demos not 11

the invicible: i can't say much because doing the demo is apparently set in the middle of the story and is gonna change your perception of the beginning of the game (unless like me you're going to forget the details in a week or two) BUT i'm definitely convinced to buy the game, the atompunk aesthetic is my kinda shit and i was anxious and scared all the way, not because it's horror, it's not, but because the atmosphere is there. still in the wishlist of course and also will probably buy the book by stanislaw lem

this bed we made: another game i really want to buy, finally more new mystery games!!! the game takes place in a hotel in montreal, quebec during the late 50s, you're playing sophie, a maid who loves to snoop around guests' rooms and from what i gathered it's going to adress ptsd from ww2 and lgbt conditions! i hope even if there isn't a dub in quebec french (i would love one that's for sure) at least i hope it'll be translated because i absolutely want to play this with my mom (she's been waiting since post mortem to finally have that kind of game again, even if tbwm it's not an old school point and click). still in the wishlist as well. oh and best moment:

the cosmic wheel sisterhood: what can i say, i'm a fan of red strings club, and the new deconstructeam game looks neat af. i already love fortuna, i like how fluid the dialogs are in french, i love that you make your own tarot card, that you flirt with a demon who will make you worse, the music, i can't wait to see the consequences of my choices, or the multiple branches of the game. still in the wishlist, buying day one etc. etc.

ghost trick phantom detective: i wanted to try it because of shu takumi and also i never played it back in 2010 so it was the ideal occasion. it was fun, i liked the mechanics coupled with the puzzles and the story is interesting and the dialogues funny enough. can definitely feel that ace attorney feel i was looking for. still in the wishlist.

sea of stars: the graphics were very pleasing to me when i saw the trailer and the demo finished to convinced me, i like the mechanics, i like the design, i like the fishing minigame, it seems funny, feels like this is going to be a great RPG!!!

little thoughts about 5 out of 11 demos i played for the steam neo fest:

viewfinder: did the demo a while ago and i loooove the concept, the game is pretty and there's not only one way to solve the puzzles, i want to know more about the little cute lore elements. still in the wishlist.

wargroove 2: i liked the story of wargroove 1 even if it wasn't anything groundbreaking, but i was way less enthusiastic about the gameplay which became boring and redundant real quick, unfortunately even if the new demo let's you play a new more challenging mode, the gameplay is the same and i got bored playing it again. too bad really because i really want to know the rest of the story, but i think i'll watch a yt let's play, still in the wishlist to support the devs, but yeah i probably won't get it.

firebird: french narrative game written by the gm of the french actual play i'm watching, the art is cute, the story and choices looks promising, the protagonists have potential and damn but the soundtrack slaps!! still in the wishlist.

stray gods, the roleplaying musical: ok so i didn't expect it to basically be a real musical in a interactive fiction format BUT i didn't dislike it, the characters' designs are cool, there's 4 songs in the demo i was really convinced by 2 of them, the entire cast reveal sounds cool tho i'm not well versed in brodaway or english voice acting world like i can be with the french one, and of course there's the l.bailey/a.williams/t.baker trio (and like i love ashley and laura and their song together is really great, but feels like déjà vu somehow). there's replayability potential as well so i think i'll play it. still in the wishlist.

en garde: another french game yay, and it is fun as hell!!! the writing is cute and the gameplay is sooo pleasant. if you wanna feel like puss in boots, definitely give this a go. still in the wishlist.

#pau.txt

3 notes · View notes

floral-hex · 3 years ago

Text

I just finished the game Control earlier. Sitting with some coffee now and thinking about it. I absolutely loved it. I feel like I say I love every piece of media I make a text post about, but then again, if I don’t enjoy something I won’t finish it and I definitely won’t waste time writing about it, so 🤷🏻‍♂️

Anyway, bullet points:

AMAZING A E S T H E T I C

Seriously, I loved the old retro office building atmosphere

cosmic horror haunted house

Magic gun is cool 😎

“Don’t eat mold.”

Big big X-Files vibes

The Federal Bureau of Control is what I wanted The Southern Reach organization from the Area X series to be like. I wish the sequel to Annihilation had been more like Control instead of the pretty disappointing book that Authority ended up being.

I love the lore and weird stuff you read about in all of the letters and memos you collect, but then again I’m one of those people that actually enjoys hunting for collectibles. If you don’t, you’ll miss out on some interesting world building.

Telekinetically throwing everything never gets boring to me, especially when you level up enough to throw enemies at each other

Dr. Casper Darling is a fucking daddy and god bless them for finding an excuse to show him in his underwear.

The whole cast is pretty nice! Like, friendly nice! Wow, a government agency where most everyone has the best of intentions!

I love you, janitor ❤️

I dunno, I could probably mention more but I’m sure people don’t follow me for my video game reviews. I will say I wish there were more spooky creatures and whatnot, and the ending felt pretty abrupt BUT you can also disregard both of those criticisms since I still have plenty of DLC to go through (which I’ve been told actually works as more of a real and satisfying ending).

#and that’s that on that #I really enjoyed the story even if it did feel like it just kind of… ended.#I wanted to hurry up and finish the main story so I could surf tumblr for gifsets without getting spoiled #but there’s still a lot of dlc and side missions to do #the game is cool that way. in that once you beat it you get to keep playing and doing stuff and exploring #is that a spoiler? this might be so read at own risk: once you finish it’s like ‘thanks but here’s more stuff we need fixed!’ which is cool #I’ve still got to clear out a mold infestation #also pretty much all of the dlc #I’m happy with that #I really enjoy being in the world they’ve built so I’m happy to spend more time exploring it #seriously tho if you like x-files or Annihilation or cool science fiction cosmic horror mysteries then this is a good buy #I waited for it to go on sale just fyi. that’s my recommendation. not that it’s not worth full price but I mean… cheaper is nice 🤷🏻‍♂️#my only gripe is I’ll have to upgrade to a next-gen system to play the sequel whenever that comes out years from now #I would love a sequel with a more lived in building. more people walking around instead of empty set pieces #even if said set pieces are aesthetically pleasing #maybe have a sequel set right after they’ve cleaned everything up and are just getting back on their feet #or maybe The Foundation expansion will push my opinions in a different direction. I dunno. we’ll see when I start it tomorrow #okay anyway… I love this game!#it’s good!#you can ignore this #text

5 notes · View notes

meckamecha · 2 years ago

Text

I keep seeing people talk about circular narratives

Play Signalis for the love of fuck you owe it to yourself, this is one of the most intricate, well-thought out stories I have ever seen. It's an endless spiral into oblivion, a deliberately unclear story, open to vast interpretation, yet perfectly guided. If you like circular narratives, if you like survival horror, if you like retro-futurism, if you like cyberpunk, if you like cosmic horror, if you like lesbians, if you like smashing your head against a wall of trying to figure out what the fuck is ACTUALLY going on in media.

I fucking love this game so much, please you owe it to yourself to play it

#signalis

745 notes · View notes

slug-cube · 2 years ago

Text

rambling about the concept of a mha rgb horror game but not really just thinkin about it.

i think mha would be a SICK rgb horror game. katsuki would look sick as fuck. he has the yellow hair and red eyes already my guy could be looking mysteriously into the camera and is he the horror? does he know the secrets? midoriya would be the protag but at the end of the story theres a twist to make it the "protag/narrator was the monster all along" because those are always interesting to me. might draw some concepts for it because my brain is like "yes yeesss yes" bc WHY NOT?! i fuckingg love horror like you go lil dudes. bad endings good endings, endings that are silly, endings that are cosmically horrifying but played as a joke, endings that turn the story into a different one at the end, true ending, endings where everythings shit because you made it that way. will never get over it. midoriya being the protag would be so funny to me personally because youd make the most awfullest of choices and hed scream internally. because hes not a protag that shows no emotions (which im not saying is bad, most protags are that way so the player can interpet their feelings and feel more emersed. some protags show no feelings but do subtly have their own personality, away from the player) which is excactly so interesting to me. i want this so badly, i want to draw funky shapes and midoriya going through the ringer. i want to draw lil creatures and other characters and oh my god. oh my god. is it a phylogical horror? is it a "oh my god i got transported to a funky ass world and now its life or death here" or a "you stare into the shadows. it stares back" like please do you see it? do you see my idea?

#smalltalk #rambles #this also just might be my excuse to draw crowded drawings and have it make sense #idk im lazy though we'll see

27 notes · View notes

rawrienstein · 2 years ago

Text

Cool Games of 2022 that I liked

This guy launched with a pretty rough beta and honestly still isn't complete, but it's probably the most enjoyable co-op level based shooter that I've ever played. I've heard Fatshark is pretty good at creating additional content for their games, but you really shouldn't buy a game based on what might be coming. The moment to moment gameplay is just good. It's just really good. Also it's visually incredible...if your graphics card can handle it. (on a 3070ti with DLSS on quality and sometimes I drop to below 60fps at 1440p)

Pkmn LetLet def needed more time in development, but honestly this is probably the most interesting pkmn game overall. I personally only experienced one crash during my play time and performance has been fine. Like, I expect a switch to crumple under the weird expectations this game has, they should've designed those parts better, but even then. It's still a very compelling game. I like the openness, I liked exploring (even if it rarely hit 30 fps), I liked catching new funny little dudes, I liked the characters for once because they don't feel so one dimensional. Competitive is wild right now, lots of interesting teams and weird new stuff. I do hope they continue modifying the pkmn formula, I really want more for co-op. Anyway, I do hope they just slow down with pkmn and the devs can get their shit together properly.

I highly recommend if you're a fan of PS1 horror games. A dystopian sci-fi setting with Lovecraft themes and RE1~esq controls and puzzles and excellently executed anime art style. Everything about this game just works.

PLEASE NOTE THIS GAME DOES HAVE A LOT OF FLASHING IMAGERY AND DOES NOT HAVE A WAY TO TURN IT OFF.

A DOOM-like that takes being called that as a compliment. If you like fast-paced old school shooters, you'll love it. It's got dudes to shoot and you have bullets to feed them. Pretty excellent level design, some bits that make it just a little more engaging than point gun and dude, but not enough to disrupt flow. I really had a good time with it.

I kickstarter'd this game and I'm glad I did. It's a great puzzle platformer with a funny gun that is also a frog. I really love ps1 aesthetics and low poly art and this game does a great job with it. It's also fun to replay and speedrun levels. The frogun's sticky tongue latching on to walls to move around quickly is fun.

Absolutely excellent sprite work with gameplay improvements to an already good beat'em up base. If you need a beat'em up to play with friends, this one is my go to.

It sure does like to say capitalism sucks a lot, and that's a pretty good feature. Enjoyed the story and the characters, the beginning is really tense, but it loses that about a quarter of the way in (which I kinda miss). Still, you'll mostly enjoy following character stories and trying to do the best you can looking for your preferred ending with a funny dice system

Finally, a voxel based game that isn't terrible and actually takes advantage of being voxel based. Tons of creative solutions and interesting challenges. Unfortunately does need a pretty good rig to enjoy a lot of the visuals, but it does looks really good too.

I really liked Shadow Tower and King's Field. There's something really appealing about first person dungeon crawlers. The world here is interesting and full of secrets. Exploration is fun, but sometimes really tense (in a good way). Also, of course, I like ps1 aesthetics and this one really nails its look within that visual style while still feeling like it's own.

It's still in Early Access, but the content that's there is honestly worth it.

Yeah, it's good. Play it. I wrote a bunch of stuff about it before that felt negative overall, but it's still a great game (and better than the majority of other over inflated budget games).

Good job FromSoftware, now stop overworking your employees and please just take care of Armored Core 6. PLEASE REMEMBER THE ANTI-CAPITALISTIC THEMES OF ARMORED CORE. PLEASE REMEMBER THEM. PLEASE DON'T WATER DOWN HOW MEGA CORPORATIONS RUINED THE WORLD OVER AND OVER AGAIN. I WON'T FORGIVE YOU IF YOU DO. I'LL MAKE MY OWN STUPID MECH GAME GOD DAMN IT.

QUICK LIST OF GAMES THAT I'M PROBABLY GOING TO RECOMMEND BUT I HAVEN'T COMPLETED

Super Lesbian Animal RPG Lunistice Goodbye World Gloomwood UraGun Scorn

#rawri makes a funny video games list

9 notes · View notes

karmotrinedreams91 · 5 years ago

Text

Nine Legacies: The Balefire Rekindled Masterpost

Prelude: Magic’s resurgence has changed almost every aspect of life. The “mundane” world cannot deny magic’s existence, and is both fearful and all too curious about its capabilities. Despite public and private pushback against the forces of Olde and Arcane, society must come to accept the presence of Fae and other magical phenomena as something “normal,” just as it did during the golden age of magic. But with the benefits of magic’s return comes the many horrors fueled by it: Vengeful dead have begun to rise, monsters stalk the lands, and legends of old reveal their long denied truths to the “modern” world. Luna Nova itself faces one these emboldened threats now, as a shadowy coven that has plagued the legacies left behind by The Nine Old Witches for centuries plots their destruction yet again. The New Nine and their companions stand firm against the darkness, but it will be the dare-devil firebrand Amanda O'Neill, and the reserved and calculating Constanze Amalie Von Braunschbank-Albrechtsberger who must first answer the call of Olde Legacies. When fate calls them to action, they waste no time in taking up the torch, and light Luna Nova’s way to a brighter tomorrow.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22429150/chapters/62068246

Author’s Note: Hello, and thank you, first off, for reading this post! I hope that I’ve piqued interest! To explain further though, Nine Legacies: The Balefire Rekindled, is the first installment in a series of fanfiction I plan to write, titled under the series name Nine Legacies, as one might expect. This fic, and all of the fics that follow it in the series, are/will be a deep expansion and exploration of the Little Witch Academia world. The main focus of the OG series/ovas was never world building. It was focused on Akko and her journey, and that’s amazing. The original series is possibly one of my favorite and most beloved pieces of media. But it leaves much for the viewer to ponder on, doesn’t it? Who were the Nine Olde Witches? As in, who were they as people? What were they like? What was life really like during the golden age of magic? Where do the Fae come from? How did magical societies organize themselves? How will they do so again now that magic is returned, and how will non-magical, or “mundane” society, as I call it, react to such a sudden paradigm shift? These questions and more are what drove me to write this fic/series. It’s not just an exercise in world building, of course. While that may be one of my great loves when it comes to writing, Nine Legacies is primarily a story about Found Families, love (for the self and others), and how those two things are tested by a world around us that, at times, feels wholly uncaring and apathetic to your very existence. It deals in the above themes as well as in political struggle, fighting for the right to live as you are, with trauma and how to overcome/live with trauma, and especially with the first installment, Balefire, with Vengeance.

It features some horror elements, lots of action, and cosmic horror elements (IE Lovecraftian horror elements; think Cthuluhu, if you’re not aware).

(Credit for above image goes to Alexis Kennedy, and all of the artists who worked on the Weather Factory game named: Cultist Simulator)

It’s not all gloom and doom though; I’m not here to write an unsatisfying story. It may be gritty and grim at times, but I try to balance that out with humor and fluff, both dark humor, and much more light hearted fair that you’d expect from LWA. And yes, it is VERY gay (I’m a trans lesbian woman, if this wasn’t extremely gay then I would have failed myself). This might sound like quite the departure from what you usually read for LWA, and it probably is, but I hope that this is an enjoying and stimulating experience! While it is very much my own canon, I’ve based just about everything I’ve done with the setting on the original series’ material, as well as materials adjacent to the canon, such as mangas, light novels, and the OVAS.

This series will be a four-five part installment of novel length fics. Nine Legacies: The Balefire rekindled, is currently, as of August second 8/2/2020, unfinished, as I write chapter 20 of what will like be 27-28 chapters in total, and it is already the third longest LWA fic on AO3 (archive of our own) at 442,068 words. I began properly writing this fic in full in January, for reference, and started planning out the whole story/what I wanted out of it in november of 2019. I try to update every other week, or every week if possible, and do weekly/two weekly updates on my progress, all posted to this tumblr.

Lastly, and most importantly, there are two things to note about Balefire, and about Nine Legacies as a whole: I give antagonists their own scenes and perspectives quite a bit. I feel it is imperative to my story that the antagonists all get screen time to help better flesh them out. And secondly, each installment in the series will focus on 2-3 of the “New Nine” witches (The New Nine in this case being Red, Green, and Blue teams. Chariot and Croix are NOT New Nine in this, but will play important roles for various characters throughout. Think of them more as mentors for the New Nine). Balefire specifically focuses on Constanze and Amanda, but it also sets up the plots and development for just about every other New Nine witch, and you can expect to see other OC characters in important side roles that will develop and enhance the story, as well as lesser used characters from LWA, such as Wangari making appearances as important side characters. I can’t say much more on the specifics, but I’ll leave this section off with something to entice you: ALL of the Nine Olde Witches (as written by my own canon, essentially) will be fleshed out in full. Their origin, who they were, why they were important, all of that is crucial to the story, hence the series title, Nine Legacies.

“Perhaps they, the new blood.... Perhaps they hold the strength to rekindle our flame.”

I hope all of this has you interested and ready to read! ITS FINISHED NOW! All the main chapters are done, but I intend to go back and do a FULL re-edit, with criticisms, suggestions, and corrections in mind from YOU GUYS, the readers. PLEASE: Never hesitate to send me asks, comment, leave kudos, etc. ALL of that stuff shows me whether or not I’ve done good work, and even if I haven't, telling me HOW I may have failed will always be helpful. I want to make this the best fic it possibly can be, but I can’t do that without reader participation.

Without further adieu: Nine Legacies: The Balefire Rekindled

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22429150/chapters/53589904

#lwa #Balefire LWA #Nine Legacies LWA #Little Witch Academia #fic #fanfic #au #read on ao3 #long reads

99 notes · View notes

revchainsaw · 4 years ago

Text

Sonic: The Hedgehog (2020)

Greeting my flock of film freaks and welcome again to the Cult of Cult. Todays offering is a bit more of the mainstream blockbuster variety, but as films based on Video Games are still actually quite niche and vastly underestimated I think we should open our hearts to Sonic: The Hedgehog and hope that we find it a pleasing tithe to the cult. I am your beloved minster, The Reverend Chainsaw, and welcome to today’s service.

The Message

I must confess to the congregation that I was drinking mighty heavily of the lord’s Tennessee sour mash when I was taking in this movie. That said, I think that this is a great movie to have a drink with and I mean that in the best possible way.

Sonic: The Hedgehog is of course based on the Sega video game franchise and stars Ben Schwartz as the titular blue rat. Schwartz brings his brand of high energy enthusiastic comedy to the voice role. While Schwartz is particularly on brand for Schwartz, is he on brand for Sonic? I’m not entirely sure, but I’m also not entirely sure I was ever in love with the old ways. I am not an avid fan or consumer of Sonic media and perhaps that means I am in a poor position to say. I am most familiar with the Sega games and Sonic cartoons from the 90s, and from what I have grasped the more recent entries with their more anime centric and high lore plots still owe quite a bit to the attitude era of the 90s. Sonic was a hero but he was also a bit of a cross between Mickey Mouse, the Flash, and Bart Simpson. As an angsty 90s boy I wanted to eat chili dogs and go very fast that was very appealing to me, but I’m not so sure it would be appealing to a vast audience of older millennials, or even todays kids. And though I think it would be a fair criticism to say that Ben Schwartz is playing sonic as basically the superhero version of his Dewey Duck from the VERY VERY good DuckTales reboot, I don’t think that it’s necessarily a bad thing.

Dewey Duck the Hedgehog is a small mammal (also not a rodent, I wanted to say rodent and apparently hedgehogs are not rodents, just googled it) from an alien planet where his adoptive mother, an owl named Long Claw, fears that he will be hunted for his special powers, which I think is just super speed but it might be other things. In line with these concerns after an attack by pursuers Longclaw gives Sonic the Moses treatment and floats the special blue boy down the metaphorical river. Unlike Moses, however, Sonic is not found by ultra rich ultra powerful extra special people but is instead alone. Sonic lives alone in exile outside a small American town as a sort of local cryptid.

Thus begins a charming adventure. Through a poor decision to use his powers while working out some personal issues, Sonic inadvertantly draws the attention of the U.S Government and their nasty big brain baddy Dr. Robotnik. Sonic recruits a small town police officer with big city dreams to assist him in finding his magic rings so that he might flee from earth to an uninhabited mushroom kingdom.

Now about these two human characters. Officer Everyman is played by cyclops from the X-men franchise. The actors name escapes me and so does the characters, and while, yes, I just looked up if hedgehogs were rodents, I will not be looking up this information. I like the review better this way. It makes me laugh. And while I don’t remember his name, I do remember that he used to live In Mt. Juliet, TN. Anyway, what you should know about Officer Goodguy is that he drives a Toyota Tacoma!

That Toyota Tacoma is also continuously abused by the mad machinations of our films biggest draw: Jim Carey as Dr. Robotnik. If we were to pitch a Sonic movie, I don’t think anyone would jump to Jim Carey as the must have for the role, but after seeing this film, boy was it the best choice. The way he chews the scenery and plays off the rest of the cast and situations is just so much fun to watch. It’s fantastic to see Jim Carey back in a larger than life role. The Decision to play Jim Carey as the kind of condescending nerd who has taken their lack of social skills and leaned in as opposed to working on themselves was a brilliant choice. We’ve all known that kind of guy who tries to play the misanthrope just because they are too egotistical to recognize their flaws. Here Dr. Robotnik has given up on human connection in favor of subordination. His intellect is his only value, and thus he demands everyone around him acknowledge intellect as the only quality that matters as he has. It was a great choice.

From the point the chase begins the film becomes a road trip flick, and despite the fact that Sonic could supposedly cover the distance required in the blink of an eye we watch the ins and outs of our heroes relationship as they learn what home, and being a hero mean to them. By the climax it is pretty by the numbers, Sonic has come to feel at home on Earth and now that he has friends who care for him they can begin to make a world from which neither will have to flee; and of course, they beat the bad guy. FOR NOW. we are treated to an even crazier Dr. Robotnik stranded in the Fungus Dimension bent on revenge.

The Benediction

Now for all things Holy and Profane in this film, please rise for the Benediction.

Best Scandal: Sonic the Cosmic Horror

The original look of this film was mired in dread when the early footage and trailers dropped revealing a hideously uncanny hedgehog monster in the form of sonic. The memes are amazing, the toys are unsettling, there’s still plenty of Quasimodo Sonic stuff out there floating on the web and I suggest that you search it out, the laughter is good for your heart. Also if anyone wants to send me any creepy sonic merch I’ll take it.

Thanks to the work of online fans and internet harassments, the studio felt it was going to lose money on the project and reeled back the release allowing for the design department to give us a more cartoony but less frightening alien monster. I mean he’s a cartoon, it’s okay for him to look like a cartoon.

Best Scene: Noodle Dance

It’s hard to choose, and it feels a bit biased, but there are a few scenes with Dr. Robotnik that are just what make the movie more than a forgettable IP adaptation. Not that Ben Schwartz wasn’t doing great as the character but I feel Sonic as a whole would be lost in the milieu of CG spectacles and Super Hero Origin stories that we are bombarded with every year if not for Jim Carey’s performances; and even with them Sonic: The Hedgehog is not completely out of those woods. That said, I think Dr. Robotnik’s Alone Time Dance Party has to be the stand out sequence in my memory. I can’t really speak to what makes it so enjoyable, but damn if it isn’t just the best scene in the movie.

Best Character: Silicon Valley Dr. Robotnik

Do I even need to say it? It’s Dr. Robotnik. I’m not a fan of this villain from any other media. I always found Dr. Robotniks look unappealing, I’m not a huge fan of his powers, or using robot henchman. it always struck me as pretty boring how Sonic didn’t have a cool rogues gallery (i’m talking about 90s sonic) the way Mario did. However, they did something with the design, characterization, and performance that just made him such a fun villain. Also, my friend Jacksons mom said I looked like him and it didn’t hurt my feelings so.

Best Actor: Jim Carey

Jim Carey. It really seems like he’s all I’m talking about in this movie. Once again, I think Ben Schwartz did great and Sonic IS basically Dewey Duck in this movie. Dewey Duck is my favorite part of the rebooted DuckTales series, BUT he is just outmaneuvered by Jim Carey in this role. I think it’s a compliment enough to say that Ben Schwartz was even able to keep up with his energy, let alone play his quicker perkier foil.

Worst Scene: Toyota Tacoma Commercial

Sonic: the Hedgehog’s worst scene would probably have to be the forced friend fight between Sonic and Officer Wachowski during the car chase. It’s an overproduced weightless car chase scene with a contrived buddy cop controversy meant to force apart our heroes so that they can ultimately grow a little and come back together later in the movie. Not that I mind a movie like this to be so by the numbers, but it just felt like two of the blandest things on this movies plate being forced into one scene. I do like the idea of giving me the crap part of the dish in one flavorless generic bite, but that still doesn’t save it from being the worst scene in the movie.

That Toyota Tacoma took a beating though.

Worst Feature: Nothing Ventured/ Nothing Earned

I’m sure many fans would feel that the worst feature of the film is that it isn’t loyal to any previous lore laden version of the character, (probably the one they like the most). In the portrayals of both Sonic and Dr. Robotnik there were decisions made that drastically differed from the ways they have been portrayed before. Sonic is naïve and idealistic, a bit childish, Dr. Robotnik is driven by a lot of insecurity. Where are the Chaos Crystals and my original character Grindy the Wolf Cub?

But I think that these are over all positive choices in a film that otherwise chose to play it incredibly safe. In their cautious approach to appeal to the widest possible audience the film makers gave us a pleasant and appealing cartoon romp but we are left with little to hold on to. The worst feature of Sonic: The Hedgehog is it’s safety.

Summary:

Sonic: The Hedgehog is often touted as “the first good video game movie”. A label that I disagree with wholeheartedly. It is certainly a good video game movie, but it’s not the first, and it is not by leaps and bounds better than other video game movies as a whole. It’s a sub genre that gets a ton of disrespect, and in a world where the biggest criticism levied against the Super Mario Bros is that it’s not a faithful adaptation, I don’t understand how Sonic the Buddy Cop/ Road Trip comedy is escaping that attitude.

All that said, I had a good time with this movie. But it felt like playing on the playground as a toddler. You have fun and then you leave and you don’t really remember what you played or who with. I’ll think about Jim Carey and Dewey Duck, but I had a hard time hating or loving anything this movie did in any strong way. I usually feel that a movie that is “bad” or “corny” or “shlocky” is always better than a movie that is generic, or pointless, or boring. Sonics pleasantness and cheerful energy just barely save it from being another Transformers franchise. I get that origin stories are hard, so I’m eagerly awaiting the next installment, and hopefully it’s going to do something that sets it apart. Probably not.

Overall Grade: C

James Marsden! I just remembered!

2 notes · View notes

drcreatureflix · 5 years ago

Text

More Family Content: Setting Up A Grimdark Campaign

Grimdark is a setting style thats focus on dystopian fantasy violence and the ammoral, think less ‘Starving Games 9: the diverging maze runner, girl is special but in love with two guys’ nonsense and more the Warhammer. I myself, (being someone who never grew out his angsty side) is an absolute whore for this kinda stuff. The main appeal for this setting is no matter who you are, you are a villain. But thats good. Cause everyone is a villain in a grimdark campagin and being the villain is cool sometimes. So I thought I would give you my process of setting up a Grimdark D&D Campaign if anyone wants to try it.

Inspiration

Well before we commence on actually scarring our players we need ideas. And to quote Picasso, “good artists borrow, great artists steal”. So lets look at some recommendations for you to read or look up or play to steal-I mean take ‘inspiration’ from.

The Warhammer Franchise: If you looked up Grimdark in the dictionary you would find a image of the Warhammer universes with the words ‘For The Emperor’ covered in heretic blood. The Warhammer Franchise has two Grimdark settings, the ‘40k universe’ and the ‘Age of Sigmar universe’, both good examples. The 40k universe being a high gothic sci-fi universe as the zealous and xenophobic imperium of mankind and their space marines who fight gods of chaos and egyptian alien terminators... and Orks (Yes actual orks) who paint things red to make them ‘go fasta’. Age of Sigmar is the more fantasy side with Giant bat zombies and Rat hulks and whatever the Hell-pit Abomination is supposed to be. Both good starting points, if you would rather read then trying to play the games and get drowned in lore, for the Age of Sigmar angle try ‘Scourge of Fate’, ‘Court of the Blind King’ and ‘Rulers of the Dead’ for my recommendations, though Age of Sigmar has book series for each faction in the game so choose an aesthetic you would like. For 40k, could not recommend anything outside the Horus Heresy series, yes its over 50 books but pick the first one ‘Horus Rising’ and that should help. Warhammer actually even has ‘Warhammer horror’ series set in the universes as well if you want to go a spoopy angle.

The Starcraft Franchise: Moving alittle over and returning to the realm of science fiction there is the Starcraft franchise. The starcraft games really pull from the previous mention Warhammer for its concepts and designs and pulls it off well. Plus I really enjoy the world building almost as much as the warhammer stuff (Okay last time I will mention Warhammer). So go onto youtube and look the games up or go buy and play them. However there are some books aswell if you would rather just read up on the lore like ‘Flashpoint’ and ‘Queen of Blades’. Obviously this is if you want to go for a more sci-fi or steam punk styled game but its D&D, do want you want (And if you want to do a sci-fi, look up the Dark Matter suppliment). But overal a good idea of how to do Grimdark.

The Song of Ice and Fire Books: Now put your pitchforks and torches down, I know season 8 of Game of Thrones was the equivlent of a hooker; that being you expect a huge payoff but you get robbed the satisfaction, being left with nothing but disappointment and a strange itch in your groin afterwards that reminds you of what you hoped for. But we are talking the books not the tv series (Though you can include it I suppose). Many of us know this franchise for its sheer bleak outlook of alliances and the concept of loyalty and the roulette of life that may just kill someone important at any point. Obviously a more medival approach for Grimdark but a good one and I would recommend it to anyone (When he finally finishes writing THE DAMN FINAL BOOKS). Obviously the whole book series is the reading recommadtion so find them cheap somewhere and delve in headfirst.

Other more Eldritch recommendations: Cosmic horror and grimdark go together like a fat kid and diabetes so I thought I would throw some quick recommendations for if you want to explore this angle aswell:

The Yellow King-Robert Chambers: A collection of short stories revolving around cults and maddness... yes please.

Bloodbourne-fromsoftware: Phenomenal game, explores both classic gothic and cosmic horror, I have drawn from this game for inspiration A LOT more than I am comfortable saying. If you can’t get through the game, maybe try the Offical Artwork book as it can gve images that you can use a inspiration for scene dressing in game.

The HP Lovecraft bibliography and the Cthullu Mythos: Seperating the man from his work, the penned work of HP Lovecraft is still some of the best written cosmic horror from the arguable father of cosmic horror... once you get over the racial stuff.

The Dark tower book series and IT- Stephen King: A more light hearted apporach to Cosmic Horror but still good horror to pull inspiration from. Main issue, if you wish to read up on Stephen King, set some time aside

The Darkest Dungeon-Red Hook Studios: Not gonna lie, I love this game probably too much (I will probably blame it for my obesity if I wasn’t aware thats it’s my fault I am a fat f*ck) I think it shows exactly how bad it probably would be a adventurer (I actually base my own stress rules on this game-more on that in another post) so is a good representation on what a grimdark fanatsy world would be like on these characters.

Session 0

Alright now that you have successfully ripped off every grimdark franchise-I mean collected recommendations for inspiration, let’s move onto what to discuss in your Session 0.

1. What are your players okay with?

This one is painfully obvious but a session 0 is like when you lose your virignity; you don’t set some bounderies or go into it somewhat prepared, you are gonna face a sticky situation afterwards and probably get your head kicked in by someones dad for corrupting their kid (Just me?...).On the topic at hand, its good to know what your players are okay with and can inform your story direction. For instance, I had a player who want to play a reform brothel worker but i would not allow it due to the circumstances of another player. Normally the questions I ask beforehand is is the following

Are you okay with detail viseral descriptions of violence?

Are you okay with scenes of torture/depravity?

Are you okay with depictions of slavery or prostitution?

Are you okay with themes like suicide or mental/phyiscal abuse?

Are you okay with sacrifical death or occult themes?

Are you okay with swearing?

Following this you should adjust according to suit your players, you want them to enjoy being evil, not weeping at the evil around them. So before you do anything, set your bounderies.

2. What is their motivation?

Another obvious one but also important one. To help establish characters in the world they live in, you must discuss their motives. Why are they on a quest? What are their intentions with the reward after? And so on and so on. Then once you have that and have discuss you can help the players fit the world alittle more. A thing I have told my players is to think of a motive for a character and turn it into an obession; this is due to the theme of obession is thorough throughout many grimdark settings as it’s easy to make a character’s good intentions twisted when they become so obessed with and wrapped up in it.

Of course you’ll get players that while wanting to play grimdark still want to be the token good upstanding hero because reasons (These would be the people that go to a pick and mix shop just gets white mice the bland pricks). But it is okay, you can work with it and truthfully I like the dynamic of the bright eyed advenutrer and friends that slowly gets tainted by the reality of the world they live in (If you want some inspiration on this I recommend the show Madoka Magica).

3. Understanding

Okay this is a more serious point. Alot of players I have played grimdark have kinda took some of the darker elements for granted as well they haven’t experience things like that. Which in turn can hurt players that have experience in those matters. So I always ask my players (And I am asking you too future grimdark DMs) to look into these themes, research and understand why they are not right and why we should not really have them in real life. If you are playing something like this just so you can be a slave trader without consequence then may I ask you to leave the table.

Playing to be a villain is good, playing to be an asshole is bad.

And that should help, I would in0clude some the additonal rules I use aswell like Stress and Bleeding but I will save them for another post after I am finished rewriting them for the third time and this post is already so goddamn long. If you also have recommendations for new DMs when it comes to running Grimdark, by all means share them. Thank you for reading.

#dnd #dnd 5e #dnd 5e homebrew #dnd 5e campaign #dnd 5e character #dnd 5th edition #dnd campaign #dnd discussions #dnd grimdark #dnd dark fantasy

17 notes · View notes

puttingfingerstokeys · 4 years ago

Text

your confession is mine

tangentially related to Lightning Rod, but a wAAAaaays down the road. I am lazy. No italics. Blah blah tumblr. I really am interested in exploring the dynamics of a mature relationship. I am so tired of love triangles and petty drama when the narrative of Mortal Kombat feels like it demands so much more--the drama is cosmic, era-affecting, HUGE.

Warring Exes (shang tsung/raiden)

Restored Timeline

The breeze coming in over the ocean was salty and gentle; it played with Raiden’s hair as he drifted in that half-asleep state of existence unique to mortals. There were many reasons to appreciate the limited time of a finite existence and this was one of them. In fact, it encompassed more than one. He shifted a little, carefully as he could so as not to disturb his companion, who had similarly fallen asleep, one bronzed arm tucked under the crook of Raiden’s neck as they dozed.

In millions of eras, multiple eons, thousands of lifetimes lived, Raiden had never once envisioned himself this way, naked, draped in only soft sheets, much and more flesh exposed to eyes and to elements—though only two eyes would see it this way—and feeling not a single iota of shame, regret, or horror. Only one thing did hover over his existence this way, a single piece of truth, which would, necessarily lead to all others and perhaps bring this carefully-cultivated new era unraveling around them. It ate at him as he considered it, fingers playing aimlessly about on the shapely chest of the man lying next to him, similarly naked and similarly not offering the world a single care for his exposure.

“Something troubles you,” came the voice from above Raiden’s head. He did not shift, but could feel the vibration of that sonorous baritone in the man’s chest under his fingers. He laid his palm down and ceased its movements.

“I have been… dishonest with you, Shang Tsung, and I… must set it right.”

“Your nature demands it of you, Lord Raiden,” came the languid response, a hand finding its way into the silvery-white mane of Raiden’s hair which was spread over the pillow and some expanse of the sheets around him. Raiden shifted to meet those dark, serpentine eyes.

“You…”

“I have known since Lord Liu Kang brought you to me for my… training. No god defers so obviously to someone who is not also a god.” He spoke as if it was a trifle, nothing of consequence. His smile was languid, but not entirely warm. It was the knowing smile of a predator with cornered prey who has yet time to toy with it and may not even be hungry. “You trained him, as surely as you trained me, and now, for some reason, he is the deity, and you are a mortal—though you are not human.”

Raiden regarded him carefully, not in the reserved way he used to, but with a mixture of awe and uncertainty. Shang Tsung was unpredictable in many ways, but in his interest and obsession with influence and power from the shadows, he never really wavered. His intent and intensity sometimes fluctuated, but the desire was ever present, ad infinitum.

The biggest difference was that this time there would be an end. There was no void from a soul, stolen by the gods, to utterly empty him beyond any mortal’s capacity to fill. There was, ostensibly, a finite amount he could want or desire. Raiden hoped this was the case, at least. He felt the beat of Shang Tsung’s heart under his hand, beneath that warm flesh, and prayed to no one that it was so; he had come to cherish that heart, openly adoring its owner, however flawed. He lay back down, sighing, unsure whence he should next go with this conversation—or at all, for that matter.

“You have a story to tell, Raiden,” said Shang Tsung, reaching down and tilting Raiden’s chin upward to once more gaze into his eyes, still bearing the soft glow of divinity, but also filled with guilt and something else. Fear? Shang Tsung both loved and hated that he could still elicit such a response from a man he was certain had once been a deity—of thunder no less! The power was intoxicating, but it wasn’t all he wanted. “So tell it. I am at your disposal. And yours alone.”

There was a bit of force—not much—in the motion that guided Raiden’s mouth to Shang Tsung’s and still a little more when the sorcerer’s other hand, which had until that point been occupied in Raiden’s hair, found its way to the back of his head and trapped him there. But what a dulcet trap. The grip on Shang Tsung’s chest tightened a little at first, but then loosened languidly as the kiss deepened and sweetened.

Did he ever give anything which did not feel wrested from him? And when, precisely, had Raiden stopped caring, delighting in the titillating dance which led to this give and take? The question of when he had fallen in love was an easy one to answer, so that, at least, was settled in his restless mind. But the remainder? That was the mystery to be unwrapped and if anyone could succeed at this monumental task—as insurmountable as unwrapping the vestments of the man himself—it would be Shang Tsung, without care or reservation and yet with the utmost delicacy, mindful always of the thunder god’s sensibilities. It was absolutely delicious and Raiden felt himself drowning in it.

“I crave your tale as much as I crave you,” whispered the sorcerer, lips parting—though only just—from those of his old, mysterious mentor. “I am breathless,” he purred, “with anticipation.”

“Let nothing be denied you, then—at least where this is concerned; I have… hidden it from you long enough, though not well, evidently.” There was some sheepishness in this remark, as a child admitting to a parent that they had, indeed, removed a sweet from its place, cooling on the countertop. Shang Tsung laid his head back on the luxurious pillow, a Cheshire smile upon his face. The hand which had been used to grasp and control was now weaving through the air, playing magic like strings, causing a low, melodic hum to enter and hover about the room; the colors reflected the strange sunsets in this place, unpredictable and ethereal. In the nexus between worlds, on this island, at its very fulcrum, time did as it desired. It was not bound by the laws of any world and sat apart from all, yet interconnected to all.

“Let nothing be denied me, ever,” warned Shang Tsung, a hint of that old predatory menace in his voice, though his hand did not stop moving. Raiden watched it, weaving this way and that, and felt himself mildly entranced by the sight, though that had not—he assumed—been the intention.

“I was,” said Raiden quietly, “as you have guessed, the god of thunder—I had, for many lifetimes, devoted myself in duty to my… chosen vocation, protector of Earthrealm.”

“A deity of destruction as protector,” Shang Tsung mused, “how like you, dear Raiden. How very like you.”

Raiden’s jaw tightened, but he kept silent, holding his tongue, knowing that the reaction was just what the sorcerer wanted. This was part of their game, this tug of war between them. When had he begun to relish in it? When I made peace with the side of me of which he so fondly speaks. And there was fondness in the man’s voice when the word “destruction” rolled off his forked tongue.

“Electricity facilitates life, as well, Shang Tsung—balance, in all things,” Raiden reminded the sorcerer, who waved this off as if to say ‘when was the last time a lightning bolt healed someone?’. Raiden knew very well that Shang Tsung could see right through him, that he clearly fought his nature, tooth and nail, every day of his long life. The struggle defined him and fascinated his sorcerous companion. “But my… father was the god of death and chaos…”

Pleased with the admission, Shang Tsung began running his fingers over Raiden’s scalp once more, almost as a reward, delighting in the way the miniscule arcs of electricity jumped to and fro as he did this. He came alive when they touched, when their flesh met, in passion or in training; there was such a field of power around Raiden that Shang Tsung could not very well help himself wanting to be near it. When did he take me? The sorcerer found himself wondering.

“So there are more… beyond you and the fire god, hm?”

“There were, yes.” Had it been anyone else to whom Raiden was speaking, he might have been alarmed at the acuity. Given that Shang Tsung had detected him the moment they met at least left Raiden with some relief, that he may have been thinking about this a while—they had, after all, known each other for over two decades… this time—and that he was not simply generating these theories spontaneously.

“Were…?” There was interest in the sorcerer’s voice, now, more than before. He knew a tangled tapestry of fate when he heard it and he was about to be handed the most beautiful of these. As with everything else he had taken from Raiden, it was being freely given. Taking by force had its merits, but not with this one, so cloaked in virtue and chastity. See, now, how far behind you have left that part of yourself, Raiden. See yourself the way I see you and that… will fulfill me.

“Eons before anything… at all,” Raiden began, pushing himself to tell the story of all creation, the true story, titans included. He wove that tapestry Shang Tsung so coveted with beautiful master strokes, no embellishments, and as much detail as he felt he could or should, at the moment. That he had a brother was now known to the sorcerer, that Kronika was, in human terms, his grandmother, that she was a titan, a being of pure passion and desire, having no vision but her own and that the offspring of titans were Elder Gods, the very opposite of that embodiment of uncontrollable, uncontainable power.

“All but Shinnok,” said Raiden, “who sought to overthrow the rule of the others while the realms were still young. Had I stepped aside and allowed him to do as he pleased, we would not be here.”

“But you,” filled in Shang Tsung, having followed the narrative closely, “dutiful son of the Elder Gods, stood between mortals and utter annihilation… and triumphed. My oh my, what a tale.”

“If it ended there,” interjected Raiden with some mischief in his tone, “I would not have enticed you to the story at all.”

“Then by all means…” Shang Tsung made a broad gesture, encompassing the whole of his chambers and they shifted utterly. Night fell outside, a thousand thousand stars from all the realms clashing above the palatial fortress of the sorcerer. Within, torches lit themselves, glowing softly, warmly, casting dancing, tantalizing shadows upon the walls. Raiden watched these things dancing and wondered if they danced at Shang Tsung’s bidding, or if he let them be, appreciating the unpredictability.

“Shao Kahn,” he said, “a name you recognize… has always been a threat… to all realms, but my primary concern has ever been Earthrealm. He, in his ambition and greed, had long ago set his sights on it. I interceded with the Elder Gods on behalf of the people of Earthrealm. I had no choice; they would have been defenseless in all-out war.”

“The tournament,” Shang Tsung guessed. “You tell me our tale, Raiden, but I know of no Elder Gods.”

“These things… they are past, forgotten, and erased, living only in the memories of the immortals who once served them—those who are left,” Raiden admitted quietly. “In that past, you came upon this island on your own and forged a partnership of servitude with Shao Kahn and a deadly alliance with the Netherrealm sorcerer-acolyte, Quan-Chi.”

“Abhorrent,” spat Shang Tsung, having long since decided anyone affiliated with the filth of Outworld was far beneath him. His feelings for Quan-Chi were similar—without the power of a whole Elder God on his side, Quan-Chi had been reduced to little more than a pretender to the Netherrealm throne. Raiden would never regret the stroke which had beheaded his hateful father, though he had not been the one to strike it, precisely. Imbalance, it may have wrought, but had there been another choice? “To serve Shao Kahn,” Shang Tsung hissed. “Nonsense—filthy nonsense.”

“I have opined, in one past or another, that, no matter your perceived station, you have always had a finger upon the pulse of fate, moving whichever way you thought best to put yourself in a place of distinct advantage,” amended Raiden, unsure why he had the urge to soothe Shang Tsung’s ego.

“So why, then, did you feel the need to show me this place of your own accord and to help me… acquire it from the hands of the Shaolin, if destiny was always to give it to me…?”

“Because the acquisition needed to be peaceful. The fact remains that this island is safest in your hands,” said Raiden quietly, not without some hesitance. He had come this far, however. To stop now would be suspicious and the height of cruelty, besides. “In all shifts of the sands of time, this space between realms is wrested from the hands of the ones who have sworn to protect it, by force and bloodshed and unnecessary loss of life. With you, it is never in danger of falling into the hands of Outworld, or the Netherrrealm… and when it is given, it is always with your express consent and for your own aims—never taken.”

“I do not share wealth.”

“Until you do.”

Their eyes met and passion once again ignited between them. The spark became a roaring flame generating its own heat and aching pleasure. Fingers found hair, pulling almost viciously. Hands roamed about grasping, groping and clawing. Tongues tasted, lips teased, teeth grazed. Even outside the arena of kombat, the two warriors, a god and a sorcerer, strove together to achieve the greatest heights of victory and of pleasure.

In the night sky over the fortress, a thunderhead formed and began raining its contents, both those of life and of death, down upon the island between realms.

#cc #cw #mk #mortal kombat #raiden #shang tsung #warring exes

10 notes · View notes