#the big enemy room in 3-1 was one of the big challenges for me

[birdkittenn]

[elliesfavbae]

Summer camps and dead mouses, Part 2 SERIES

Summer camp with enemies to lovers Ellie Williams

part 1, part 3, part 4

synopsis: This summer, you go to a summer camp for the first time. You've met so many new people, but one of them stands out for being a total jerk. Unfortunately for you, you run into each other all the time. Is that just a coincidence?

pairing: mean!Ellie Williams x reader

warnings: use of y/n, Ellie is still a bitch, swearing

wc:4000

Ellie is crouching ahead, probably tying her shoe, just a few feet in front of you. She hasn’t noticed you yet. You sneak up slowly from behind, almost there... And then you step on a dry stick buried in the grass.

A crack echoes in the surroundings. Ellie turns around in less than a second. She stands up and reaches over for your lanyard, but you're quick too. You deftly avoid her grasp, spin around, and start to run. A plan forms in your head. You notice her chasing you—perfect.

You dash towards the main building, bypassing the main door for the entrance to the basement, hoping it’s empty. Luckily, it’s unlocked. You silently thank Olivia for showing you this route earlier.

Of course, Ellie is still in pursuit. She rushes through the door behind you.

The room isn't large, rectangular with a shelf in the middle. You sprint to the end of the basement, hiding behind the big shelf while Ellie positions herself on the opposite side.

“What’s your plan now, hm?” she says with a smirk, raising her eyebrows.

You catch your breath. "Well, we’ll find out who’s more agile."

A while passes before Ellie decides to rush towards you, and you start running away from her. Suddenly, you turn around, hoping to catch her off guard.

But she’s ready. She tries to grab your name tag, but you manage to grab both of her arms. She falls onto you and you both collapse to the floor. She lies on top of you, momentarily still, seemingly processing what just happened. You continue holding onto her arms, feeling the tension in her muscles beneath your fingers. Unfortunately, this distracts you from everything else. It’s as if the world stops for a moment. You feel her heavy breathing on your face, so close to yours. Her hair falls onto your face and—snap. Ellie takes advantage of your distraction and tears the name tag off your lanyard.

You look up at her; she’s wearing that familiar smirk again.

“Bitch,” you murmur under your breath. She’s still lying on you and clearly hears it, raising her eyebrows, still smiling.

She gets up from the ground, and so do you.

“Got any more tags?” She reaches out her hand.

“No,” you roll your eyes.

“Shouldn’t have challenged me if you couldn’t keep up.”

“I would’ve caught you if you—” You don’t finish the sentence out loud. “—if you weren’t so... attractive,” you conclude in your thoughts. You cringe; it sounds cheesy even inside of your head.

“If I what?” She asks, playing with your name tag. “Whatever. You better stay away from me next time; you’re honestly pissing me off,” she sighs as she heads for the exit without looking back at you once.

She closes the squeaking door. You leave the basement soon after. A campfire awaits near the main square for those who lost. You drag your feet towards it, anger filling you. It’s not just about losing the game; it’s about Ellie, her attitude. She’s so proud and haughty, you wish you could wipe that smirk off her face one day. 

And the fall? Her body on top of yours? Did she do that on purpose? What? Of course not, why would she? Or maybe? You saw her being quite successful with the counselor earlier…  A flood of questions occupies your mind. You can’t help but replay the moment one last time, still feeling her hands on yours and yours on her arms. Her heavy breath hitting your forehead and auburn strands of hair falling on your cheeks. Snap out of it, you tell yourself. You still dislike her, especially when you replay all those moments when she acted like a bitch—and there are so many, even though you’ve only known her for two days.

You arrive at the campfire and notice all your roommates are already seated. Actually, a lot of people are here. Maybe watching the sunset took longer than you thought.

You sit next to friends from your cabin and sigh. The warm flames nicely warm your body.

“Y/n, you died too? Well, at least you were the last of us,” Emma, one of your roommates, points out.

“Yeah, I guess. But the way I died was so embarrassing,” you groan.

“Why, what happened?”

“Do you guys know Ellie?” You look around, seeing mostly confused faces. “The girl who took the mouse out of our bathroom yesterday? The one who was late to the assembly?” Heads finally nod in recognition.

“Well, what do you think of her?” you decide to test the waters.

“I mean, she helped us with the dead mouse yesterday... And the way she pissed off the director was kinda funny,” one of the girls remarks.

“Yeah, but doesn’t she seem, like, super bitchy to you?” No one agrees except Olivia.

“Yeah, sometimes she looks at me like she wants to kill me,” Olivia chuckles. “But I guess I don’t pay much attention to her.”

 Are you seriously the only one she irritates? Maybe the problem is you, not her… 

“I shared a kayak with her today, and she was a total ass, seriously.” You try to defend yourself.

“How so?”

“Like... um, I can’t remember her exact behavior right now, but she was just straight up mean,” you admit, feeling a bitter pang in your chest. Not because of someone’s harsh words, but because you feel like you made a fool of yourself. Does no one else find her infuriating besides you?

 “Yeah, I asked about her because she killed me in the game,” you clear your throat, “and who killed you?” Changing the subject successfully.

You enjoy the rest of the evening; it’s peaceful, and eventually, your mood improves. You’re so tired after the first day that you don’t even join your friends when they sneak out of your cabin to hang out with others; you collapse onto your bed and fall asleep immediately.

***

The next morning, an alarm clock wakes up the whole room. Since you got the most sleep last night, you are the first to actually get out of bed and have plenty of time for yourself. Looking at your other roommates, you doubt if some of them got any sleep at all last night.

You walk towards the main square with them as they discuss the events of last night.

“Seriously, y/n, it’s a shame you weren’t there yesterday. You should totally join us tonight,” Mia playfully punches your arm.

“Yeah, we had to sneak around so the counselor wouldn’t catch us. We made it to Lily’s room, and at first, we just talked—”

“Yeah, but then we started playing spin the bottle, you know. We only managed like two rounds before we heard the counselor coming, and we had to bail.”

“Mhm, we’re planning on continuing the game tonight. You’re in, right?” Mia asks.

Thinking about it now, you regret not joining the girls yesterday; you usually never say no to fun.

“Of course I am. I wish I had been there last night too,” you admit with a smile, and the girls get enthusiastic as well.

***

You’ve already chosen the activities for the day. First is swimming, then sailing, and lastly, rock climbing. Olivia is supposed to accompany you on each activity too.

You change into your swimsuit and wrap yourself in a towel. You join your group in the assembly area, recognizing some familiar faces. As you walk towards the lakeside, you pass by the horse stable. Looking closer, you notice Ellie cleaning one of the horse stalls—yesterday's punishment. You try not to burst out laughing with Olivia when you see her.

The first activity is nothing special; as soon as you get into the water, instead of swimming, you start splashing around with the cold water. Since it’s early summer, the water has barely warmed up from the sun. The rest of the activity is spent either tanning on the shore or occasionally dipping into the water, only to quickly run back to dry land as others splash you.

Since the next activity is sailing, you don’t bother changing out of your swimwear, assuming you might get wet again. However, it’s just the start of camp, so the instructor begins with theory lessons on land: boat construction, the wind rose, basic maneuvers. By the end of the lesson, all the new information begins to blur together in your mind. There’s too many. 

It’s alright, you calm yourself down; you have the whole month to learn.

After lunch (it was spaghetti today!), you spend the break reading a book in your room and hanging out with your roommates.

Now it’s time for rock climbing. It’s your first time trying it, but you’ve always wanted to try it. You change into more sporty clothes and follow Olivia to the main square. You join the crowd until you arrive at the climbing wall. You look up; the wall is about 50 feet tall—is that a lot for a climbing wall? You have no idea; it looks average.

The activity starts with the instructor’s introduction and a little theory, but fortunately, it doesn’t take up all the remaining time. First, everyone who wants to climb has to pair up with someone heavier and more experienced to belay them.

You look around; Olivia is about the same size as you, so she wouldn’t be the best match. You turn and spot her: a girl wearing a black tank top with smooth blonde hair in a single braid. She looks much more muscular than you—perfect. You approach her.

"Hey, do you mind belaying me?" You ask Abby, who looks at you with a neutral expression at first.

"Sure, why not," she responds with a warm smile lighting up her face.

The instructor gives you a bit more instruction before helping you with the climbing harness. Abby, clearly more experienced with this type of equipment, manages hers effortlessly.

"Tell me when you’re ready." You stand facing the wall, Abby behind you holding the rope to belay you. As you look up, the height suddenly seems much more daunting than the supposed 50 feet. Okay, you can do this. That’s what Olivia next to you reassures, too.

Around you, some people are already climbing, while others watch from below. You take a deep breath and grab two handholds above your head, placing both feet on lower holds. With your hand reaching for another hold, you feel the rope tighten, lifting you slightly higher. You adjust your foot and continue upwards.

The holds require more strength than you anticipated, but you push through, climbing a little higher. You’ve moved about five holds up already. Your fingers of both hands reach another holds, but they’re too small and you feel them slipping on the polyester resin slowly— you know it's only a matter of time before you lose grip.

Just before you fall, you glance down. You let go of the hold, and Abby’s rope catches you, holding you at the same height for a few seconds before she carefully lowers you to the ground. She helps you remove the harness.

"How was it?" Abby asks kindly.

"I didn’t realize climbing was that hard," you admit, your hands sore and muscles tense.

"Was that your first time?"

"Was it really that obvious?" You whine.

"Well, you got pretty high if it was your first time. Most people are too nervous to even attempt the wall," Abby encourages.

You look at the climbing wall and the point from which you fell. You climbed about, wow shocking, 7 feet. You know Abby is probably being just polite and not honest, but it's still nice of her.

"I was only up there for like 5 minutes, but thanks anyway… Do you climb often? Sorry, that's a dumb question. You look… well, clearly experienced," you say, noticing her muscles.

"Yeah, I swim too, but climbing has always been my favorite," Abby admits.

The counselor announces the session's end, and people begin to head back to their cabins.

"Well, I’ll see you around," Abby waves with a smile, leaving you and joining her friends.

You gather your things, and Olivia finds you.

"Abby, huh?" she grins teasingly.

"What do you mean?" you shake your head.

"I saw the way you were checking her out. Interesting, wouldn't have pegged you for being into the head counselor’s daughter…"

"What? No, it's not like that! Yeah, she's attractive but—" You stop short, processing her words. "Wait, did you say Mr. Anderson's daughter?!" Your eyes widen in surprise.

"Shh, not so loud. Yeah, she’s Abby Anderson. To be honest, they do look alike, kind of," Olivia laughs.

"No they don’t! Gross! She’s cute, I guess. But definitely not my type," you assure her, the rest of the walk filled with idle chatter. You prepare for dinner and head over with your group, sitting together at a table.

"Mrs. Miller told me we're playing Treasure Hunt tonight, but she said not to tell anyone, so be quiet," Leah, your roommate, reveals while eating.

"That children’s game? Oh God," you groan, anticipating it'll be boring.

"No no, it's different here. It's actually quite fun," Olivia chimes in mischievously. "Once it's dark, everyone gets paired up randomly and gets just a flashlight and a treasure map. The treasure's hidden somewhere in the woods…"

"Yeah, and the first pair to find it gets a prize." Emma adds.

"And what's the prize?" you inquire, starting to get curious.

"A fancy dinner or something, but that's not the point. It’s about being out in the dark with just a flashlight and possibly some… hot company," Olivia explains, winking at you.

"Yeah, some people really… well, they take full advantage of the occasion, you know two people left alone in the dark" Emma smirks.

"What? The way you put it sounds pretty horrible," you admit.

"No, it's thrilling!" they try to convince you. "Plus, the counselors try to spook you. Come on, it's so much fun…"

"I guess it could be fun…" You're still unsure, particularly about being alone in the woods with others trying to scare you. But you're up for new experiences, right?

"If you give up on the treasure hunt idea, we’re moving Spin the Bottle to the woods. We’ll meet by the pond."

The after-dinner break is longer than usual, you have to wait till the night comes. Three hours later, everyone gathers in the main square. Leah was right; the counselor confirms it’s Treasure Hunt night.

The rules are reiterated, although you’re already familiar with them. Finally, the pairs are announced.

"Y/n and Amelia Oakley."

You walk to the center and see Amelia approaching. Short brown hair, glasses— right, you met her at Arts and Crafts yesterday. She seemed nice. You both approach another counselor who distributes flashlights and the treasure map.

"Hey, we met at Arts and Crafts yesterday," you initiate the conversation.

"Yeah, I remember you," she says warmly.

She might not be the "super hot company" your friends were telling you about, but the game should still be enjoyable with her as a partner. At least you didn’t end up with a total nightmare like Ellie for example. Phew.

You all gather at the main gate, waiting for the game to commence. It’s a serene night; the sun has already set, and while it's dark, it’s not completely pitch-black yet. The stars are beginning to twinkle above, and you can hear the rustling of leaves and the breeze through the trees.

The director opens the gate, and as everyone prepares to dash off, he speaks up.

"You have to be here in exactly three hours, or sooner. Whistles will blow 10 minutes before the end. Don’t even think about leaving the designated area; the counselors will find you anyway. Remember, we have eyes and ears everywhere." You gulp, recalling the stories your friend shared about counselors lurking in the dark woods. "Let the game begin!"

The rush is palpable as the crowd surges toward the nearest path. Amelia grabs your hand, and you both join the sprint. Initially, everyone follows the same route, but as time passes, the group thins out as people take different directions.

"Let's turn left now!" Amelia shouts above the din, and you follow suit. After a few moments, you stop to catch your breath.

"Okay. What's our plan? How do we find this treasure?" you ask, still panting.

"Well, according to the map," she shines her flashlight on the paper, "we need to head to the west side of the woods. But are we really here just for the treasure?"

You look at her, confused.

"What else would we be here for?"

"I mean, for many, the appeal of this game is the freedom. For one night, you’re left alone in the woods. It would be a shame to use that time only to find some hidden treasure," she suggests, her face softly illuminated by the flashlight.

What are her intentions? Hopefully just friendly…

"Yeah, I guess… But what else could we do?" You were kind of looking forward to the treasure hunt before.

"Some people form groups and hang out, others like to spook the other campers," Amelia explains.

"That sounds more interesting than the original game," you admit.

"Okay, but how do we find them?" you wonder aloud.

"Well, we either stumble upon them, or we could sit quietly and listen for any approaching footsteps. Though that might seem a bit creepy," she laughs.

"I suppose we could try the first option…"

You start walking through the woods, unfortunately without encountering anyone. It’s now completely dark; your flashlight is your only source of light. It’s getting chilly, and you regret not bringing a hoodie.

"You know, thinking about it now, letting teenagers loose in the woods all night seems like a pretty risky idea. What if someone goes missing or something?" you voice your concerns.

"For the past 30 years, it hasn’t happened. And the counselors are everywhere. They might even be right behind you," Amelia says, sending a shiver down your spine. "Don’t worry, if you were to yell for help, three of them would probably appear instantly."

"That's a little unsettling," you chuckle nervously.

Suddenly, you hear the crackling of leaves behind you. You whip around, and Amelia grabs your hand. Both of you freeze, listening intently.

The sound comes again— louder, closer…

"RAAAAAH!" a scream echoes right behind you. Startled, Amelia lets go of your hand and bolts. You run after her, the creature in hot pursuit behind you.

You continue running until you reach a fork in the road. Glancing back, your flashlight reveals two human silhouettes giving chase, they’re so close now. You turn back, noticing Amelia is missing. Fuck, she has already chosen a path, but you’re unsure which one. Deciding quickly, you turn right, hoping to meet her there.

You shine your flashlight ahead but see no sign of Amelia. After a while, you can’t hear footsteps behind you either. Turning around, you realize you’re now alone. Alone in the woods with only your flashlight, you’ve lost the treasure map long ago. That was probably the fastest you’ve run in your life.

"Fuck…" you curse under your breath, standing still to catch your breath. You look around, finding no one in sight. Your first instinct is to backtrack to the fork in the road, but as you start walking, you realize you lost your way in the heat of the chase.

You're on the verge of calling out for counselors, as Amelia suggested, when a distant flashlight catches your eye. At this point, you're indifferent whether it's the chasers, Amelia, or anyone else; you just can't stand being alone in these dark woods anymore. Flashing your own light a few times, you hurry over to the source. As you shine your flashlight in their face, you realize it’s… Ellie.

"For fuck’s sake, can you stop blinding me with that damn thing?!" You would’ve recognized this tone everywhere, even if you didn’t know it’s Ellie.

"Ellie…"

"No way," she groans, hiding her face in her hands. She realizes it’s you who she has bumped into. "I've been wandering alone for twenty minutes, and you are the first person I meet?"

"Why are you alone?"

"I ditched my partner ages ago. At first, I was scaring the other campers," she smirks. "It was hilarious— they were all pissing their pants. But then I got bored and headed towards the pond."

Right, you remember. Your friends mentioned they were meeting there. A thought appears in your head.

“I was walking towards the pond, too”

"They invited you to play too?" she sighs, clearly mad. "I was hoping to leave you here once you’re done talking."

"Not that simple, Williams," you reply, feeling just as displeased about the reunion. "Do you know the way?"

"It’s on the map, genius," she scoffs.

"Well, I lost mine. Looks like we're walking together," you say, hearing Ellie emit another groan.

For a while, silence hangs between you both. It's not exactly awkward—more like a mutual animosity. 

"I lost my partner when we got chased," you eventually mention.

"I don't care," Ellie cuts you off with a sharp tone, prompting a sigh from you.

"Ellie, what is your problem?"

"My problem? What do you mean?" Her tone betrays her disinterest.

"You are such a bitch to me. Since the first time we’ve talked."

"Thanks."

"Answer me, Ellie," you insist, growing tired of the tension.

"You annoy me. Your face, your voice… I don’t know. What do you expect? Maybe I'm just a bitch," Ellie sighs, revealing a glimpse of vulnerability.

In the distance, you hear murmurs of human voices from behind the trees.

"Looks like we're here," you comment as you and Ellie approach the gathering.

You see about ten people gathered in a circle. Spotting your friends, you walk over to them.

"Hey, Y/n! We've been waiting for you!" They greet you eagerly.

"How long have you been here?" you ask, settling down as they make room for you.

"Not long. Just got here about five minutes ago. We're still waiting on a few more," Olivia informs you.

You glance around. Someone has cleared the leaves and sticks for seating so the ground is clear. Some people have placed their flashlights on the ground, while others still hold theirs. A greenish pond shimmers a few feet away, reflecting all of the lights.

After a while, five more people join the circle. Despite the dim lighting, you manage to recognize some faces, including Abby, the girl who belayed you while climbing earlier.

A deep voice cuts through the murmurs. "Quiet, everyone! Let’s start the game."

Taglist: @littlelittlebear

[arogaba]

The Gemstone Legacy Challenge

It's been a very long time since I last did a challenge, and in the days leading up to my new computer I decided to come up with some ideas for a future legacy challenge to more or less christen this bad boy. This is a 10 generation legacy with a fairly heavy focus on different family dynamics within certain generations.

Tag: 'gemstone legacy challenge' or @ me!

Rules:

✔ There are none! Have fun and follow the generational rules as you see fit!

Generation 1: Rose Quartz

‘You were raised as an only child by a single parent. It was a happy yet lonely life but you always wanted more: you wanted a large, hectic home, a loving spouse, and kids of your own. A surprise inheritance finally gives you that opportunity, and you move from the big city to a small country home, with all the room to grow that you could want!’

Recommended colour: light pink Recommended traits: nurturing, good, family-oriented, natural cook

Move to a small house on a large lot (50x50 or 60x60 is recommended!). This will be your primary legacy home throughout this challenge.

Begin working in the culinary career

Meet the one not long after moving to town. You quickly start dating and soon find yourself expecting your first child.

Get married after you have two children

After you have your third child, you decide to become a stay-at-home parent - you can continue to add to the household funds through various hobbies if you wish!

Have a total of five kids and one must be adopted!

Generation 2: Lapis Lazuli

‘You grew up in a loud, hectic family home. Whilst you didn't hate it, you always preferred the quiet, keeping your head down to focus on schoolwork and eventually your career. As a young adult, you throw yourself into the law enforcement career, but eventually realise that is not your true passion and decide to follow your dreams as your parent did many years ago.’

Recommended colour: dark blue and/or light blue Recommended traits: workaholic, genius, supernatural sceptic, loner

Finish high school with an ‘A’

Be a part of an after-school club in high school

Optional: Graduate as valedictorian

Join the law enforcement career after graduation

Meet your future partner (can be a work colleague)

Optional: Get married

Have at least two children 

After reaching level 5 of your career or becoming an adult, you decide to change your life and quit to become a ghost hunter

Separate or divorce from your partner but remain on good terms

Generation 3: Ruby

‘You came from a rather unusual family. Your grandparents married young and remained devoted all their lives; your parents divorced as adults, dividing your family. Like your grandparents, you want to find your soulmate, but unfortunately despite having a kind and loving heart, it does not come easy to you. After several failed relationships, you question if you will ever find the one, or whether your parents' failed love has doomed you.’

Recommended colour: red Recommended traits: flirty, irresistible, hopeless romantic, friendly, schmoozer

Have at least seven friends

Work a part-time job as a teenager before becoming a nectar maker as a young adult

Travel at least once to Champs Les Sims

Have three failed relationships before finding the one

Have two children

Throw or attend a party at least once a week

Generation 4: Onyx

‘You grew up in a happy, loving family, but you were always a little different. A quiet, shy thing, you preferred your solitude and books, instead of interacting with others or participating in parties like the rest of your family. As you grow older, the differences between you and the rest of your family cause a wedge to form, and you long to find someone who understands you. A chance encounter with an occult opens up a whole new world to you.’

Recommended colour: black and/or dark grey Recommended traits: bookworm, shy, grumpy, supernatural fan

Be close with your family as a child but start to grow apart as a teenager

Become enemies with your sibling

Become a writer

Meet your future partner at a park

They must be either a vampire or a witch

After two dates, allow yourself to be turned or become a witch

Move into an old, mysterious mansion (up to you as to how this looks!)

Have children

Generation 5: Bloodstone

‘You were born as an occult. Regardless of your opinion on the matter, you were raised to be the best vampire or witch you could be, not to be ashamed of who you were, nor to hide from others. Will you follow what's in your blood or fight to change your destiny?’

Recommended colour: dark green and red Recommended traits: genius, charismatic, virtuoso

Note: This generation can be played in two ways!

Vers. 1

Do not cure yourself and do not buy a cure

If a witch, you will become an alchemist and try to become a zombie master

If a vampire, you will become a fortune teller (scam branch) and will try to turn the town

Get married (partner must be a witch or vampire like yourself)

Have one child

Vers. 2

Do not cure yourself but try to find the cure or make it yourself 

If a witch, follow the alchemy artisan LTW

If a vampire, join the music career (symphonic branch)

If playing as a witch, you can only use positive spells/charms and potions

If playing as a vampire, you cannot drink from anyone (save for your partner, if you wish) and must feed yourself by plasmafruit

Get married (partner must be a witch or vampire like yourself)

Have one child

Make or purchase the cure for your condition, but do not use it on yourself 

Generation 6: Pearl

‘Your parent may or may not have been able to cure themselves, but you will not fail. You hear of a cure being advertised at the local laboratory. It seems too good to be true but you take a chance and are rewarded for your efforts. Congratulations, you are now a human. A new life reveals itself in front of you and you can live as you see fit. You've always been a compassionate soul and decide to join the medical career to help and heal others.’

Recommended colour: white or pale grey Recommended traits: socially awkward, genius, workaholic, heavy sleeper, nurturing

Become human (use either the cure from your parent, or go to the science lab)

Join the medical career

Master the logic skill

Move back to the old legacy home

Never get married, you may date and have a partner, but you cannot marry them

Have your first and only child as an adult

Move the other parent of your child into the family (up to you whether you live as a couple or not)

Generation 7: Citrine

‘You have a rather unconventional family and an upbringing that's different from most. You love your parents but find their lives too neat and too clinical. With or without their approval, you decide to become a performer, it's less stable than their careers but it brings you joy, and perhaps you can bring others joy along the way too!'

Recommended colour: pale orange, yellow, and/or white Recommended traits: charismatic, natural born performer, friendly

Join one of the ‘performer’ careers as a YA (in this case it is counting as singer, magician, or acrobat)

Master at least one instrument

Have ten friends

Have children with at least two different sims

Get married 

Become a celebrity 

Generation 8: Moss Agate

‘As a child, you loved living the high life thanks to your famous parent. However, as you grew older, you began to resent that lifestyle, hating the paparazzi and the lack of privacy. People always speculated you might follow in their footsteps, but as a teenager you discover your green thumb, before taking a leap and deciding to live as a farmer as an adult.’

Recommended colour: pale green, dark green, and/or white Recommended traits: green thumb, animal lover, gatherer

As a child, focus on either painting or the violin skill, before dropping it in high school

Start building your gardening skill in high school

After graduating, make a sudden purchase of a farm

Work as a ‘farmer’ with most of your income coming from selling your produce

Own a large pet (dog, cat, or horse)

Optional: raise said pet from their youngest lifestage

Get married 

Have kids

Generation 9: Aquamarine

‘Born on a farm, you understood  and appreciated the value of hard work from a young age. Despite your love for your home, you have other dreams, and from a young age have a passion for swimming. As an adult, you decide to become a lifeguard, spending time by the water, and saving lives at the same time.’

Recommended colour: pale turquoise Recommended traits: loves to swim, angler, athletic, disciplined

Join the lifeguard career as a YA

Master the athletic and fishing skills

Meet a mermaid

Get married

Have two kids

Generation 10: Moonstone 

‘You were always a little different from the rest of your family. An eccentric dreamer amongst a family of grounded rationalists. You love painting and exploring the mysteries of the world. One night, a chance encounter with a mysterious sim turns you into an occult, and suddenly your life is flipped upside down.’

Recommended colour: pastel colours and white Recommended traits: eccentric, good, childish, artistic

Become a painter or a sculptor as a YA

Master painting, sculpting, and writing

Meet either a fairy or werewolf at night and become one

After becoming a fairy or werewolf, change your lifetime wish to either: leader of the pack (if a werewolf), or greener gardens/magic makeover (if a fairy)

Optional: travel and live in the future 

Optional: get married and have kids

[doggoboigaugau]

Stray dog (Part 5)

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4

Pairings: Ghost x Soap x Male reader

Summary: A person from the past appeared in front of Male reader, and they would have to work together on the new mission. It was not a comfortable reunion.

Word count: 3323 words

Warning: Mention of self-h4rm behaviors.

Price had announced that on the next mission your team was going to collaborate with another team from Russia, mainly because the location of the mission would be a little bit challenging, and you would need assistance from people who were accustomed to that kind of condition for safety and efficiency. Informed that the new mission would be a tough one, you and the other men of the team had been training especially hard to prepare for it. Ghost’d been helping you and Roach with improving your close combat skills against big men as your enemies would be the Russian “bears”–a nickname given to them due to their considerable height and exceptionally powerful physique. 

Soap was standing from afar, watching you and Ghost on the sparring ground with amusement as the smaller you tried to pin the towering Brit down. It was then that Price approached him and said, “The Russian team who we’ll work with will arrive at 1400. I have a meeting with the higher-ups concerning the mission at that hour, so you tell Ghost and Y/n to go greet them.”

“Can I tag along, Cap’?” Soap smirked.

“Do whatever the hell you want, just don’t act stupid like usual. Save me some face.” Price shrugged and hurried to leave the room, not allowing Soap a single chance to bite back.

Soap was about to curse at the older man when a roar of applause attracted his whole attention. He turned his eyes back to the sparring ground, and his mouth lifted in a broad, proud smile the moment he saw you sitting on top of Ghost, your hands gripping him by the wrists and your legs pinning those of his own. The recruits were screaming, whistling, and jumping in excitement, which was an understandable reaction of them given all the fear and respect Ghost had earned from the sparring ground during the training. Every time new groups of recruits arrived, in the very first training, that masked man always made sure to literally kick some newbies’ asses in front of everyone as a way to warn them and keep them in the right place. Sometimes some men of higher rankings would challenge Ghost as well, but of course none of them ever won. 

“You won.” Ghost looked up at you, his eyes, which were the only thing not covered by his skull mask, softened almost like those of a proud big brother.

“I think you have a soft spot for me, Ghost. You underperform to let me win.” You released his wrists, pouting a bit at the thought of Ghost deliberately letting you win.

Then, your body shuddered as you could feel his touch on your inner thigh, “I never do that for anyone, even if it’s you or Soap.”

His eyes were burning, the man beneath you, and for a moment you were taken back to that early morning in the TV room when his hand caressed your cheek, drew a gentle, burning line from your neck down to your lower back, and then snaked under your shirt to fondle your warm flesh. You jumped, standing up so quick that your body almost lost balance and fell outside of the sparring ring, the alarm run off inside your head as you feared that he might know. He might know so damn well that you had already been awake at the moment he showed love interest in you and your body, and he was also aware you were pretending you hadn’t realized that.

“Sir, are you okay?” A recruit that was standing near the ring held the sides of your arms to help you regain balance. 

“Hah, I’m fine. Thank you.” Your timid and soft nature made you turn your head and smile at him, only for you to find out that this boy was a head taller than you, and from the position that the two of you were in right now, it looked like you were nestling into his embrace.

Your face turned bright red at the realization, but before your brain could come up with the most normal and “no homo” way to sneak out of this awkward situation, a strong hand grabbed the collar of your shirt and lifted you up.

“What the hell–? Ghost, put me the fuck down!” The man dragged you out of the arms of the recruit and down to the ground below the sparring ring. No matter how hard you were punching and kicking him, which was almost nothing to his thick skin, he continued to walk to where Soap was standing, unbothered by your resistance. Soap laughed so hard at the sight of him holding you up like a cat–and you’re a grumpy one–that the man fell to the ground, hugging his belly.

“You’re such a dramatic bitch, Soap. I hate you two.”

“We love you too.” Soap winked at you. “OK, no more jokes. Your dad was just here, Y/n, he told us to welcome the Russian team at 1400.”

“My dad…?” You panicked at the two words, a familiar and frightening face emerged from the depth of your memories and filled your head.

“Who else besides Price? Why do you look so scared?” Soap’s facial expression dropped for a moment, realizing that he might have mentioned a disturbing piece of your past. 

“Nothing. Let’s get lunch before they arrive. Ghost, put me down!” You pretended to miss Soap’s question and came back to throwing your fits and kicks to the larger man who was built like a fridge. 

Fortunately, Soap didn’t intend to pry either, “No, no, don’t put him down hahaha. Let’s get to the kitchen like this.”

“No fucking way! Put me down!!!”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Russian team finally arrived. You, Soap and Ghost went to the ground outside of the base where the helicopter would be dropping them. 

“I heard they’re very huge, like you, Ghost.” Soap chatted.

“What with all the fucking tall people.” You mumbled, clearly not amused by the fact you’d keep being the shortest one in any of the teams you were and would be working with. 

“I feel you, boy.” Soap put a hand on your shoulder, and you were almost touched by him trying to be understanding when he proceeded to say, “I used to be the shortest one, but luckily you and Roach have taken my place.” 

“God damn it, Soap Mactavish!!!” You nearly threw yourself at the man, and finally Ghost had to step in between you two to prevent any embarrassing occurrences in front of the very eyes of another team that could forever change the image of Task Force 141 in the stories people had been telling.

The helicopter was roaring above your head, and as it landed, you felt Ghost’s strong hand again on your bare skin, or specifically the nape of your neck. You glowered at him since you knew damn well what this man was thinking that led him to do this kind of gesture, “I’m not gonna be blown away, Ghost.” You couldn’t–and hell you didn’t want to–recall the first time the men of 141 did this to you, being unnecessarily worried about your light weight and slender body, always acting as if you’d be blown away, broken apart, or kidnapped the very moment they didn’t notice.

“Better safe than sorry.” His eyes looked down at you for a few seconds before lifting up to meet those of the Captain of the Russian team who was heading their way.

Ghost obviously heard your murmured curses at him, but chose to ignore to exchange a handshake with the Captain.

“Nice to meet you, the legendary 141. I’m Captain Alfred.” The man smiled amiably. He seemed to be in his mid-thirties and you could almost sense from him the same vibe as from Price. ‘Seriously, are all the Captains like this?’

“Ghost.”

“Of course I know who you are. All the three of you.” He eyed the three of you, from Soap on the left to Ghost in the middle, and then to you. “Especially you, Private Y/n.”

“Huh?” You were lost for a moment. What did he mean by that, especially you?? Were there any bad rumors about you that had been circling around without your notice?

“Why do you look so bewildered?” Alfred chuckled. “My Private has been speaking so fondly of you, Y/n. Ever since he’s transferred to my team. The kid was so shy about sharing his past but you were the only exception. Fyodor, come here!”

Fyodor…

Oh.

Fyodor.

Your heart skipped a bit. It almost felt impossible to breathe normally at that present. For no tangible reason, your vision went blurred and you were taken–no, more like violently hit by a train–back to one of the times in the past that you had been successfully burying deep into your consciousness, or at least it was what you thought so. 

His likable smile. His silly laughter. His stupid humor. His Russian-rich English accent. His breath lingered with the smell of the cheap cigarettes that you two shared your little money to purchase at a convenience store which now had been replaced by a coffee shop. You had fooled yourself that it was easy to forget him, and forget all the slow, calm moments you spent with him outside of that convenience store, talking away all the past trauma, the intolerable pressure life put on the tired shoulders of two young men who were forced into adult lives too soon. You had fooled yourself that it was easy to forget your feelings for him as well as your desire for something between you which was destined to never happen.

And now he was here, in front of you. His strong build and massive body still carried the smell of the exact cheap cigarette brand from when you were close. The version of a world–empty but manageable–inside of you crumbled, and once again you felt like you were the heart-broken boy in that damn night, lonely and heart-wrenchingly pathetic, sitting alone in the balcony at 3AM in the morning, ignoring the fact that you’d have to wake up in two hours for a training to smoke two whole packs of cigarettes to repress your overwhelming emotions. A piece of screwed-up paper sat quietly at your feet that night, and it was from him. Fyodor.

“Hi, Y/n.”

“Fyodor.” You nodded, your face looked as cold and expressionless as ever, till the point that Alfred thought he was seeing a smaller version of Ghost.

“What is this? I thought you two used to be close friends as recruits?” Alfred blurted. He was exactly like a father who was trying to make his child get along with another kid.

Soap shrugged it off, “Well, I guess our boy Y/n here may get influenced a little bit too much by his admirable Lieutenant. After all, Ghost is just a legend here. Everyone wants to be as good as he is.” 

Alfred laughed out loud, “Well, I guess!” 

“Shut up, Soap. Let’s get back to the base.” Ghost said to Alfred.

“Alright boys and girls, follow Lieutenant Ghost.” 

You glowered at Fyodor before turning your back on him and following your Lieutenant. You despised yourself for doing so, seeing that Fyodor was still the kind and quiet boy as he always was, while you just became more and more selfish and sinister day after day for being consumed with bitter jealousy. You knew you were angry at him for nothing, it was not his fault in any way, but you could not stop yourself from doing so. You would never forget that night, being wide awake until the morning after, fighting with the inner demons every fucking second to keep yourself alive from your own hands. Neither could you stop feeling it was not fair for you, trapped with feelings that could never be relieved, while he could go out anywhere, hitting on and getting any girls he wanted. 

It just hurt so bad. 

And you were so fucking stupid for falling for a straight dude, a hot one even, with a smooth mouth that never failed to attract any women.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ghost led all of you to Price’s room. He knocked on the door to inform Price that you had arrived and opened it for everyone to get in. 

“We will have a brief meeting about the next mission, and tomorrow at 0500 we will hop on a helicopter to get transferred to the target location, that’s where we will have some training together to get my team familiar with the weather condition before getting into the real fight.” Price perfectly asserted himself in front of the Russian team with confidence and dominance.

As the meeting went, your eyes locked on Price’s face and the projector screen, but at the same time you couldn’t help watching Fyodor from your peripheral vision. He stood there attentively listening to you two’s Captains, and whenever he was quiet like that, the man always gave off a kind of passively intimidating vibe, like a bear enjoying his peaceful slumber that would turn into a furious monster and easily bite your head off if you dared to disturb his sleep. During the whole meeting, he did not look at you for once, and to be honest, it made you feel horrible. That was just it, right? Everything that used to be going on between you was just a complicated lie that man had been weaving to lead you around like the stupid laughable loser you were. 

“I will always be here for you bro.”

“If there is anything, just tell me. I’ll always try to help you as much as I can.”

“You mean a lot to me.”

“I will never give up on you.”

Lovely words they might sound. But you’d learnt the hard way that those were just downright lies and hollow promises. Your ‘brother-like’ relationship was as fragile as a thread that when the smallest unpredictable thing happened, it tore apart. When you stopped being a useful weapon or a great listener to be taken advantage of and showed your broken heart and bleeding soul, you stopped being of value to him, and he would withdraw his effort put on your relationship and start to hang out with the other recruits.

The funny thing was it was not the worst you had been through, because during your childhood you’d been literally through hell. It was not the reason why you two ended up like this, you asking to be transferred to anywhere but that base and leaving him behind, and him getting over the loss of your presence too quickly by being sent back to his home country, Russia. The real cause of it was because you accidentally fell for him, a straight man who had a pretty impressive number of body counts. You’d known that he was straight right from the start of your situationship, but you couldn’t help it. The way he called your name. The way he looked at you as you shared about your traumatized past with so much care in those dark eyes. The way he seldomly touched your shoulder, grabbed your arm to drag you around. Along with some trivial moments you spent with him that probably meant nothing to him but so much to you. Like when he tried to include you in the conversation with other recruits. Or when he laughed at your jokes. Or when he held the lighter in his big hand, lighting the cigarette that was in between your lips for you. You had never been showered with that amount of intricate care and love from any men before that you felt weak in your knees. You could not help falling for him.

As the meeting was announced over, you almost stormed out of the room. Tears were threatening to brim over your eyes and you could not afford anyone to see that, especially Fyodor. You turned your back to everyone else there so fast, and as a result you missed the worried look of your team, as well as Fyodor’s.

Running to somewhere quiet and normally no one would pass by, you put your trembling hand into your pocket, fumbling for the pack of cigarettes to try to put yourself together by smoking it away. And before you knew it, the head of the cigarette was already pressed against the skin of your arm. You exhaled in relief, feeling thankful that the temporary pain on your flesh always succeeded in repressing the agonizing pain inside your heart. You threw that extinguished cigarette down to the ground and violently stepped on it, as if it was that same piece of paper that Fyodor sent you on that night, almost begging you to call him back to talk and resolve whatever conflict you two were finding yourselves in. You lit another cigarette, and were about to press it on your arm against until a strong hand grab the wrist of your hand that was holding the cigarette.

“What the fuck are you doing?” You heard the angry howl from the Brit.

“Let me go.” You murmured.

“Private, I’m asking you. What. The. Fuck. Are. You. Doing?” Ghost heavily seethed out every word.

“Y/n… why are you doing this?” Soap arrived a few seconds later than Ghost, and in contrast to the masked man, he was trying to be soft to talk you out of this behavior.

“Let me fucking go. Why do you care so much??” Your stomach was burning with how much indignation you were having. Sensing the Brit’s grip on your wrist was as firm as a rock, you growled in your throat and bared your teeth at the two men like a disturbed stray dog. 

“Why do you keep pushing us away then? Why do you refuse our care and love?” Soap reached out his arm to touch you in an attempt to somehow calm you down, but quickly withdraw it back as he saw you set your jaw.

“I don’t fucking need your kindness! Whatever the fuck you’re doing, it’s only out of pity. Now let me the fuck go!!!” You got extremely violent and began to do absolutely anything to make the Brit let you go. You screamed at him, scratched his arms, punched his face, kicked his legs. Your aggressiveness definitely took the two men aback as they wondered how much rage must be stored inside that small body of you to make you behave like an absolute wild animal. 

“What is going on here?” Price and Alfred arrived at the scene, and behind him was the rest of the two teams, which certainly included Fyodor. 

You could see how he was looking at you at the moment. Bewildered eyes and a terrified face. Everyone else here was with those kinds of expressions. Nice. Absolutely fucking nice. Now you were like a fucking joke in front of everyone. The utmost shame and anger filled your whole body and made your blood boil, and suddenly you were fueled with the most destructible power ever–the primitive force when an animal was pushed near the verge of extinction, when it realized that if whatever was happening kept happening, it would die. And that was the scariest power ever, what one could do when they realized they had nothing else to lose. 

You could not remember much about what occurred after that. Everything flashed before your own eyes, and the only two things that your five senses could make out of was the pained expression on Simon’s face and his reddened eyes. Another thing was how you run off from that place where everyone was surrounding you and watching you as if they were the concerned citizens and you were the rabid stray dog being restrained by officers from the animal control and welfare service in the broad daylight.

to be continued...

:)) the reason why this part is so long i bc im having the second mental breakdown in the month and have come back to skipping meals and smoking 2 packs of cigarettes every day.

Taglist: @q8852p

[milksuu]

Hii! This is my first time sending a request haha! Well, could you Heartsteel Aphelios with Reader who’s a hardcore Gamer?

(I mean, like ungodly amounts of hours on a multitude of games. Always hitting new high scores. And the classic, eyebags from lack of sleep.)

⌜heartsteel!aphelios x fem!reader⌟ ╰ ❝ YOU CAN'T WIN A GIRLFRIEND IN A 1 V 1 ! ❞

❥ prompt: Aphelios thought there wasn't a single soul in the entire universe stupid enough to challenge him to a 1v1. But apparently, the 'God of Gaming' thought to use their last brain cell to bet their final testament. Little did you know, you'd fall from grace, then forced to play in some idols sick twisted game of pay-back. ❥ content/warnings: enemies to lovers vibe, affectionate bullying, name calling, teasing, fake relationship, fluff (?), 100% emotional dmg ( + crit. bonus on reader)

░꒱♡‿ִ₊˚→ 'GOD OF GAMING'....that's what they call you. An immortal being born to play and dominate the realm of video games in all facets. Sleep's inevitably for the weak and uncommitted. It's a mark of honor to wield dark, heavy under bags beneath your eyes, so long as it meant keeping your rightful place on the throne.

Even in the realm of FPS, no one dares contest your dominance on top of the leaderboard. It's impossible for anyone who even thinks to get more than three hours of daily sleep. Until this night, at the deathly hour of 3 A.M on a Tuesday, an unknown player sweeps in announced. First round on top was a newby flook. You were busy taking a few breaks in game to sip on your energy drink. Second time, the damn bastard is kill stealing from even your weakest team mates. Third time he makes top of the leaderboards...now that's a personal attack on your reputation.

It's not long till various social tweets race like wildfire across all media platforms. Nothing more than constant jabs and reminders of how fickle your place is in this revolving door of a world. It makes you crinkle your fifth can of gamer fuel. There's only one way to respond to this usurper trying to contest your territory.

░꒱♡‿ִ₊˚→ APHELIOS sits back in his chair, tapping a finger on his desk. He narrows his eyes against a blaring screen. Who even was this? He had no clue. All he can recall is playing some random game out of boredom, then a monsoon of social tweets pestering him and some other guy who likes gaming. Maybe a little too much, he suspects.

He does his own social media rummaging, scuffing at his findings. You practically live inside your room, dedicating your whole life to playing video games. Apparently, it's your entire livelihood. He doesn't envy you one bit; pity is the better word that comes to mind. Your entire aesthetic is wearing an oversized hoodie that covers everything (probably your man boobs), and even your face. Except for your eyes. Holy hell, those eyebags were heavier than Sett's banana hammock on a hot summer's day.

Lazily, he opens up his calendar; checking event dates, rehearsal dates, fan meet dates. Tomorrow's his only free day for the week. Luckily for you, that's the one day you demanded from him. And of course some holed-up undesirable would ask another guy to challenge him at a internet cafe. No big deal. He'd set aside a few minutes to put you in your place. Then, completely forget about your entire existence the next day.

Aphelios accepts the challenge and locks in the date. When the day of divine retribution comes, he shows up twenty-minutes before hand. He purposely waits in front of the internet cafe you chose. Only to enjoy the sight of watching some idiot (you) sweating in a hoodie, barely able to catch your breath before you stood at his feet. Oddly enough, something different turns the corner. Eye-catching, even.

"Hey. Looks like you didn't chicken out on me," you comment, brushing away your done up hair from your shoulder. "Guess I'll give you kudos for that."

Aphelios does a double-take, trying to process the image of you online to what's standing in front of him. From his perspective, you look every bit of a model that just stepped out of a photo shoot. Where did those bags go? Man boobs? No, girl boobs? Was being reversed cat-fished a thing?

(Imagine the power of a whole eight hours of sleep and wardrobe change)

You quirk a brow at his silent, mile-long stare. "Um, yeah. Let's make this quick. I have plans to go shopping after this. So I want to get this over with so I can get on with my day. Sound good to you?"

Before he can respond, you brush pass him, slipping through the doors behind. Blinking away his sense of whiplash, Aphelios follows. It's not surprising to find a group of fans swarming and buzzing around the entire place. He's still stun-locked by your unexpected appearance. Observing as you go about in graceful fashion, greeting and hugging those in support of you.

"How about we make a deal before we start," you approach him again, placing your hands hotly on your hips. "I win, and you announce on all your social media platforms that I'm the better player. And your terms?"

Aphelios pauses. He made a hasty assumption. Thinking you were some guy living like a wall rat inside his own apartment. The slight margin of error has his lips curling in the most sadistic fashion. This was going to work out much more in his favor. And there's no intention of letting you off so easily. Being an attractive girl was never a default for mercy. He pulled out his cell, and typed the following:

If I win, you have to be my girlfriend for a month.

░꒱♡‿ִ₊˚→ YOU READ the words out loud, and the whole atmosphere cuts to silence. Your mouth trembles, before you burst with laughter as does the rest of the room. Clutching your cramping stomach, you swat the air in frantic motions. "Y-You can't be serious," you say with attempts to catch your breath. "You think you're going to win? That's so funny. How embarrassing for you. To think you'd even have a single chance to date me." Calming your breaths, you send him one final death glare and spit out the word. "Delusional."

Walking to take your seat, you ignore his unfaltering gaze trailing you. There's a glint in his eyes that tells you he's enjoying whatever hamster wheel is spinning inside his head. You need to add the poor hamster is obviously sick, forced into labour and probably part of a lab experiment.

When the match starts, no one feels the need to invest too much into the game. You were, after all, the 'God of Gaming'. It wasn't going to be a fair match to begin with. Until the game ends before anyone can blink twice; especially you.

The rule to win the round was simple; land the first headshot. Needles to say, you didn't.

Your eyes widen against the screen. Your death screen pops, and your lifeless body collapses. Adding unnecessary amounts of salt in the wound, your scumbag of an opponent crouches over your head. Repeatedly. Your trembling vision shifts away, past your monitor to the opposite side. Slowly, Aphelios leans casually into view, a cocky eyebrow cinched high into his forehead.

You grit your teeth, hand tightening into fists that would mark the inside of you palms. Pestering whispers and scandalous talk rise and echo around you. There's no way to escape the shame. You bow your head in defeat. What else can you do? There wasn't any use in fighting. You have to save whatever drop of class and honor you have left. Anything out of pocket, and your whole reputation could crumble. You push yourself away from the desk, pacing to meet your bastard of an opponent on the other side.

"Good...good game," your voice strangles to leave your tight lips. You try hard not to ruin your face with a scowl. Especially when Aphelios stands pretty damn tall, staring down at you like a child that just had good a spanking. Taking out his phone, he shows you some text:

Sure. Guess you would call it a good game. And now that you're my girlfriend, it's only reasonable to go on a date with me. As my reward and all. Those were the terms. Right?

The blood inside your veins boil. You want nothing more than to slap that phone out of his hands, and crush it beneath your heels. You reserve to grinding your teeth. Aphelios merely smiles through a devilish crinkle in his blood moon eyes. And it's now dawning on you; he's made a full-proof plan to make you suffer.

From what I know, girlfriend's hold onto their boyfriends hands. And also call them 'babe' as a loving pet name. Right?

You want to scream at the top of your lungs right now. Holding your breath, you withhold it from your surrounding scrutiny. When he reaches out his hand, you take it tensely. He chuckles when your manicured nails dig aggressively into the skin of his hand.

It’s cute how badly my girlfriend wants to hold my hand. I’d be careful, though. The harder she squeezes, the more I kind of like it.

You gulp and loosen your grip. Honestly, where the hell does he get off saying stuff like that so casually? How humiliating. And it was just the start of your month of impending doom.

Like any ‘proper’ date, he drags you to one of his usual spots in town for a meal. It's odd to witness him take the lead so naturally; as if you really were his damn girlfriend. When he offers to order and pay for the both of you, you almost hesitate. However, you weren't going to turn down a free meal. Even if it came from your current worst enemy.

“Oh. Um…then I’ll have the burger. No pickles.” Aphelios sends you a yard long stare, and you know he's siphoning you for more. You blush, turning a cheek. “Please, b-babe?”

You can tell he leers underneath his mask, like a cat whose gotten his cream. He leaves you briefly, before returning and setting a tray of food in front of you. For a moment, you stare at the hamburger with warranted skepticism. You raise your pair of squinting eyes at Aphelios, whose already pulled down his mask to quietly enjoy his meal. After a beat, you lower your restraints, and slowly take a bite. You immediately stiffen and gag, spitting up into a napkin. There's definitely pickles—loads of them.

Aphelios almost chokes on his own laugher at your award winning expression of disgust. He slides his phone across the table:

Oh. Sorry. I thought you said extra pickles. ㅋㅋㅋㅋ

Freaking bastard! Before you can smack his phone off the table, he snatches it back to the safety of his pocket. With a growl, you slough off the heaps and slices of fermented food. You're able to de-pickle the patty, but there's little joy in eating something with the faint essence of the nastiest condiment.

And after a not-so-enjoyable lunch, he takes you to a nearby pâtisserie for dessert. While waiting, and you have a half a mind to run out. Or call the local circus so they can come get their evil clown back. You're terrified to see what he's planning to bring you. And when he does, your mouth instantly waters. You stare down at a cute, decorative dessert parfait. It looks perfect with no hidden pickles (don't put it past him though). Your eyes glisten at the extravagant layers of yogurt, fruit compote, and whipped cream. Not to mention, the glazed whole strawberries on top, glittering with snow powder sugar. Giddy with excitement, you almost forget the silent devil sitting next to you. Before you can take the first bite, Aphelios intercepts your hand, brings it to his lips, and claims it for himself.

There's only one spoon, you know. And like any good girlfriend, it only makes sense to hand feed her boyfriend. Down to the very. last. bite.

There's a twitch in your face. You really want to dump the whole dessert pile onto his head. Unfortunately, that would be a major insult to the parfait. Exhaling your fury through your nostrils, you belly the desire to murder him with a plastic spoon. Grumbling, you perform your embarrassing 'girlfriend' duty. Nearing the end of this round of torture, he smiles—all at your expense, of course.

Wow. Am I full. Thanks for that. I'm actually feeling kind of generous from all your devoted attention. Tell you what. I'll let you have the last bite.

"Yeah, right," you snort. "Like I would ever share the same spoon with you, let alone anything you've touched on this Earth—hmph!" Before you can finish your berating monologue, Aphelios flips your hand around and slips the spoon inside your mouth.

ㅉㅉ You shouldn't talk with your mouth full. Silly. You might choke. And I rather not have that on my conscious.

You whine, trying to swallow your way through a verbal tantrum. Who knew it'd be so difficult to argue with delicious yogurt in your mouth? Still, reality settles shortly after the sweetness melts from your tongue. A certain thought springs a bitter aftertaste. For all intents and purposes, you both just shared an indirect kiss.

You smack the spoon on the table, feeling your face heat up. Yet, he's just sitting there, sly with composure. Not bothered by any of it—this sick 'fake dating' sims game. It wasn't fair. Nothing about this was fair! How many times did you have such an experience through your dating visual novel games? Too many to count. Yet, despite all those perfect moments with your various 2-D boyfriends, this fake 3-D imposter, just ruined the whole trope experience for you. There was no way you could replay those scenes and not think about your suffering today. You would damn this man to Hell again, but obviously, he enjoys vacationing there.

It was funny when you thought your gruelling date would conclude after dessert. Aphelios made sure to think of various, and random places to drag you to for no good reason. He's perfecting the art of physically and mentally exhausting you. Stroll in the park? He may or may not have put a caterpillar on your head. Watch you freak out about it, and then relish in having you beg him to help you. Lovely time window shopping at an outdoor mall? He makes sure to slip away and watch you panic trying to find him in the mass of busy bodies. Before you know where your head's at, you blink up against lit downtown buildings, store fronts and street lights.

Well, today's been fun. Just one last thing to make this date perfect. Something my girlfriend will definitely love.

An all too knowing smile creases his mask again. Taking your hand, he leads you away to the next destination in mind. With your eyes half-lidded with fatigue and feet already beaten to a pulp by your heels, you force yourself to stop caring. Like everything else, you'll just go along with it and pray it's over soon.

⌜LUV-U ♡ HOTEL⌟

Your mouth drops at the sight of a pink and flickering neon sign a few steps away. Did he really just drag you to a Love Hotel!? You swallow hard. Nevermind, you did care. You cared a lot! "This has to be a joke, right? You're out of your mind if you think I'm going to let you take me inside—"

You're cut short as you're tugged forward. Nearing the entrance, your heart pounds louder than the surrounding nightlife. Your thoughts are racing. And watching another couple walk out looking rather satisfied with their stay doesn't help your emotions at all. That is, until he casually leads you past the hotel and around the corner, where there's vending machine against the wall. He releases his hold and gestures to it.

What are you talking about? Take you inside where? And no. There's no joke about this being the best vending machine in town for canned coffee. ㅎ_ㅎ

You stare with dumbfounded horror as he purchases two cans, and places one in your stiff hands. You look down at your coffee and contemplate just about everything up till this point. How big of a mistake it was to meet someone like him. Worse yet, be at his mercy over a stupid bet you set in place...and actually lost. How did your life turn out this way? Regret and humiliation well up as tears against your eyes. You pinch your bottom lip between your teeth. With the last of your dignity on the line; you'd rather die at this point than cry in front of him.

░꒱♡‿ִ₊˚→ APHELIOS lowers his drink from his lips, watching you from the side of his lashes. Looks like you were at your limit. Maybe he went a little too far. But every bit of his ego wants to rationalize it was well deserved. A pestering knot tightens like a fist at the base of his sternum. It bothers him enough to turn his neutral expression into a frown. His gaze catches your trembling legs, and traces them all the way down to your heels. His eyes widen by a margin; it's insane to think you hadn't complained about your feet hours ago. Looks like that knot wasn't going away anytime soon.

He tosses away your cans and raises his phone:

Take off your heels.

"What?" You're at a complete loss for words. Was he now going to force you to walk barefoot on the gross streets? You shake your head. "No way. Forget it. If you want me to take them off so bad, then do it yourself—Jerk!"

Aphelios flutters his eyelids in annoyance. More so that, for a split moment, he found himself not entirely hating the insult used against him. Forgetting the stupid interruption of his brain, he bends down and starts unlacing your straps. "H-Hey, wait a second you freaking weirdo. I didn't actually mean it literally."

It doesn't take much effort to hoist you onto his back, wrap your arms around his neck, and press your thighs snug against his waist. He anticipates a spit fire reaction. To his surprise, you simply huff and puff out your cheeks, muttering another possible insult. Honestly, he was sure you would've taken this opportunity to choke him out in a headlock. (He would've done it, but glad you didn't).

With a final adjustment, he hands you his cell phone, open with the map application. It seems it takes you a moment to realize he wants you to put your address so that he can dump you back wherever you live.

"You really plan on carrying me all the way to my house?" He can't see your expression, but by delivery alone, he can hear the blush in your cheeks. After a few taps and a mutter, he gets his phone back. "You better delete my address later. Or your new name's going be 'Stalker'."

Aphelios can't help but scuff. Like he would waste any more of his free time on inflating your already big head. He wonders how you even manage to fit your head through any shirt holes.

For a short while, you don't speak. As he walks through more quieter neighborhood streets, he feels your body condense further into his back.

"Mm, you know, for a being a cold jerk...somehow, you feel super warm," you breathe sleepily against his earlobe.

After a mumble or two, you commit to a terribly sleepy idea. Closing your eyes, you place your lips against his neck. Lingering, your mouth is soft and warm against his skin. Slightly sticky from whatever lip gloss you still have left. After the longest moment of his life, you abandon your spot. But he can feel your sleep drunk smile from how close your lips still are.

"Heh, there..I already kissed you, so...now you can't make me do it later....jerk."

When you finally doze off with light breathes and snores, Aphelios comes to a complete halt. It takes a moment to process. Then, without his consent, his neutral complexion flushes bright pink. The spot where you kissed him feels like it's burning a hole straight through him, down to his thumping pulse. He exhales a hot and heavy breath. It's warm enough to puff in the night air. With a shake of his head, he finds his walking pace, continuing towards your apartment.

He refuses to let you sway him with whatever tricks and flirts you have up your sleeve. He wasn't a swoonful idiot like most. And Aphelios knows he has a whole month worth of you still left. He'd make sure you always knew who you were dealing with. And by the end of it all, he'd make sure you'd never be able to get him off your mind.

A brewing smirk lifts one corner of his lips. This game was going to be more fun than he expected. And just like every other game, he would ultimately win.

Too bad for you, he mused to himself.

an;; ahhh thank you all for all your sweet messages i've been receiving through my hiatus. really appreciate it. trying to get back in the swing of things of answering anon. reqs. and working on my cleaning lady fic as well.

ngl, i swear, i hc so hard the phel can be such a sadistic/vengful bitch hell bent ruining anyone's life. like hes so unbothered by things and keeps to himself, that the minute you try to test him in that department, yeah no, you're officially on his shit list for life. how sweet how my man can hold grudge. <3

[take-a-cchonce]

My New Masterlist

1. Don't Forget Where You Belong (Series for Wordplay) (T)

Ghost AU

Harry and Louis own a Bed and Breakfast on the summer island of Liset. When they host Niall, an investigator, they realise there's more to the Island, and their property, than they thought.

2. Get Out of My Kitchen (E):

part 1 and part 2 (the smut)

“Get out of my kitchen,”

Harry quickly stalked over, poking his finger into Louis’ ribs. “Lou, you’re- I’m trying to cook over here. Out of my kitchen. I mean it. Out. Take the whole bloody block of it if you must but don’t-”

“Your kitchen, huh? Say that again,” Louis challenged, tilting his head to the side, a smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.

Read on AO3 

3. You Control Me (Call This What You Like) (1doff) (E)

The one where Louis almost leaves his mic on while cockwarming Harry <3

Read on AO3

4.  If You Like Causing Trouble Up in Hotel Rooms (E)

The one where Harry makes Louis wear a buttplug throughout the whole day on his LATAM press tour.

Read on AO3

5. The Little Things You Do (1DLibrary exchange) (G):

“What’s that supposed to mean, then? I’m romantic, aren’t I?!” His voice went up an octave with indignation and Harry couldn’t help but giggle at the offended look on his face.

Harry sat back up from where he was snuggled up with Louis, careful to not spill any of his wine onto the older man as he leaned forward to peck his cheek. “Sure you are, Lou,” he grinned.

Read on AO3

6. He's An Angel (1D Folklore Fest) (G):

What might be the oldest enemies to lovers story, loosely based on a folktale from my part of India <3

Read on AO3

7. I Put A Spell On You (1D Teamwork Fest) (M):

With @elmeiko88 <3

Come and discover Harry, our big-hearted witch, and Louis, our shifter cat. Zayn, our Guardian and Liam, his golden retriever. And of course, not forgetting Niall, who pole dances ;)

How their paths crossed, how their paths have always been linked...

Read on AO3

8. One Life For The Two of Us (miniseries for BMV) (M)

A WW2 AU fic with military doctor! Harry and Soldier! Louis

9. Let Me Be Your Last First Kiss (BMV Fest) (G):

Soulmates AU -

There was one boy in particular, with rectangular glasses and a beanie pulled down over his hair who caught his eye, gesturing extravagantly as he boomed out the lines to what sounded like Grease in front of a small group gathered appreciatively in front of him. 

10. When I'm Fat and Old (BMV Fest) (G):

Louis shares his dreams of them growing old together <3

11.It Was Always You (BMV Fest) (G):

But standing here, in the urinals, of all places, Louis would have put his hand on a DVD of Grease and sworn to it. 

He was in love.

12. Dress Me Up (T):

Louis was just doing his best to protect the neighborhood. Getting injured wasn’t the plan. Harry gets worried and just wants his husband to feel better. Fluff ensues.

Read on AO3

1. I'd Follow You To Any Place (G):

“I do,” Niall hummed, placing his chin on Harry’s shoulder, his heart racing a little faster at how the words sounded, as silly as it was. “We’ll go there someday too. Wanna dive there with you. Dive in all the places with you. Hell, I’d dive in that enclosure with you,” He pointed his thumb over his shoulder to a corridor winding away.

OR

The one where Niall and Harry are on vacation in Bali <3

2. Hope We Grow Old, But We Never Grow Up (BMV Fest) (G):

Niall Horan x Zayn Malik

Three glimpses into a snowed in day with Ziall!

[katyspersonal]

Well- I've made really great strides in SoTE! FINALLY! Going to write down the progress in 2-3 posts in order before I forgot, but at the moment I reached the final boss gfhtfjj

1) So, I was checking remaining points of interest, such as finishing killing bosses and minor enemies! Turned out there was a furnace golem I needed to activate to fight, that was blocking Ruins of Unte! You need to throw a Hefty Furnace Pot in its opening!

So, behind it was the secret place with flowers, an incantation, and this item:

2) In fact, I've gotten REALLY good at killing Furnace Golems x) I finally adapted to the timing of jumping when they attack!! Like... I didn't even need their Cracked Tears, nor they drop much runes, nor I had anything to explore left that they prevented me from. I just made it my mission to kill all of them and I did bfgthfh

However, one on the way to Manus Metyr and one in Charo's Grave ('the red area') are only killed by getting at the high spot and throwing like 3 Hefty Furnace Pots in them! There was in fact an in-game hint to do that in one of the broken ones before entrance to Shadow's Keep, I just forgor 💀 so @val-of-the-north had to explain me XD But yes, this is why there are Spiritsprings near them and their legs don't get damage!

3) So, after all dragons and all Furnace Golems were gone from the DLC map, the only thing left was remaining Tree Spirits and big hyppos!

^ Interesting lore (dropped by the Tree Spirit in the Elac river that leads to Cerulean Coast eventually!)

4) Again, my other objective was to kill two big hippos that I remembered were on the way to the way towards Abyssal Woods, just didn't engage with at the time! I got stuck though, because I didn't see what it gave me.. so I asked Val and he mentioned Village of Flies should have been somewhere around!

Apparently it was some place I've missed, even despite the fact that I did activate the grace needed for it before! I never got other instructions, however, now that I knew there was some secret place nearby, I started to find one secret nook after other!!!

^ For example, this was in a secret waterfall nooks! I did explore that area before, just.. not enough, I guess? This is a really cool symbol of why they searched a new way! fAlLiNg LeAvEs TeLl a StOrY

5) However, that was NOT the village I was seeking, knowing nothing but 'it should be here', but I found it in another turn!

THIS IS A SURPRISE TOOL THAT WILL HELP US LATER because trust me some big lore discussion with Val followed regarding the flies sickness gfhghgj That happened later though!

I just think it is so funny how this area was actually easy to find if you explore well... and I DO explore well. For example, right now I have Scadutree Blessing lvl 18 and I did NOT look up any guide to find these! I just discovered them as I proceeded to explore every corner! Sometimes you can only find something as long as you KNOW it exists XD Psychology is hilarious

5.1) Honestly, Scadutree Fragments + Revered Ashes mechanic is one of the coolest things in DLC! Extra rewards for exploring the open world game are!!

6) Another loose end to pick was to finally challenge Dane, who kicked my ass too much earlier:

Granted, he kicked my ass again hghhghg Guess his concept of getting stronger by not allowing much interaction, let alone attachment, works just fine :p I won though

They added cool dual wield and fist combat weapons in this DLC though, I like that! Can't wait to get to NG+ to try all the new stuff in the base game properly!

7) At first, I didn't even know this seal existed:

I learned about it when I was taking closer looks at Spirit Ashes, and when me and Val were done losing it at Queelign's image I asked him what WAS he holding in his hand. ...turned out that was really easy to find, it was in the room at Shadow's Keep's drowned church with headless Marika statue after water got drained 🤡 "I explore the world well", huh?

8) Speaking of Shadow's Keep, it had a painting puzzle in it earlier that I never solved gfbgjf It gave one of the dragon hearts:

Another one apparently was supposed to be a reward for defeating Bayle picked from Florissax, that I've never gotten because I completed her questline properly! (Got her incantation, spirit ash and her calling me 'my good lord' affectionately tho 😳)

So whereas her transformation would empower Dragon Cult incantations (the zappy ones), this one empowered Dragon Communion ones (the head/claw ones received by eating Dragon hearts). Does this item imply that before, even the Drakes' hearts were more stone-like? They really are just a branch of alternative evolution from Ancient Dragons, aren't they? :p

9) And there was another painting puzzle, in that area where we learned Formless Mother lore! In the furthest part on the hill! There was also variant of Leda's armor

^ this was the reward for that puzzle!

10) For final one, I vaguely recalled that I saw an item in Belurat that I never figured out how to pick up! In search for it, I ended up also finding a letter from Leda and a Cross below that I've missed earlier, but apparently was supposed to check 🤡🤡🤡 And I did get the item, it was a dried bouquet that powers up attacks if the spirit you summoned dies!

11) So.. I really, really could not think of any other loose end to pick up. I did literally everything except for proceeding with the "actual" game. xd (If I forgot anything @val-of-the-north and others you know where to find me gfhhghh)

I killed every optional boss/enemy and I picked every item I could think of, so I had to go to the Rauh Ruins.. That was a bit of headache :^) Though looking back at it, it was fun.. Okay I'll share in the next episode post!

[handsome-jacks-bottom-bitch]

Alright, let's talk about Easter in November, and by Easter, I mean easter eggs. The Borderlands franchise is chalk full of them, some obvious, some not. I'm gonna go over some of my personal favorites. Note, I'm not gonna go over EVERY easter egg, as that would take all day, so instead, I'll include the others in some future posts.

First easter egg I want to tell you about is in Borderlands 3. It's real easy to find, as it's a whole quest. Ever watch the best movie of all time, The Room, created by the best mind of anyone's generation, Tommy Wiseau? No? What are you doing with your life?

Well, regardless if your cultured or not, Tommy Wiseau makes a special appearance in his own quest "Buff Film Buff", located in Devils Razor. This quest becomes available once you've completed the main story quest "Blood Drive". The whole quest entails you helping Tommy Wiseau, or "Buff", get his film on the big screen for all to see, instead of the Calypso Twins propaganda videos.

Next easter egg is a smaller, more obscure one, but I still thoroughly enjoyed stumbling across it. In Borderlands 2, in the head hunter dlc "T.K. Bahas Bloody Harvest", you can come across a fun egg to classic horror films "The Blair Witch Project", "The Ring" and "Poltergeist". Scattered about the map are three televisions to find, and upon approaching them, little scenes will pop up referencing the films. They can be found in hidden, off the map areas.

You ever watch a movie and at the end, you sort of just sit there and think "what the hell did any of that mean?" Well, that was me watching Stanley Kubricks "2001: A Space Odyssey". So, imagine my confusion when I stumbled upon the all infamous monolith in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. If you head to Stantons Liver, search out the cave to the east of the map. It'll be chalk full of torks, so you'll know it when you see it. There will be a little opening towards the back of the cave. Hop in and follow the path, until you find it. The monolith. There will be some enemies in the area, so take them out, and then touch the monolith. You'll touch it about three times, each time taking you to a little area referencing different scenes from the film. At the end, you'll be greeted with a weapons chest, and that all too weird baby in space.

This particular easter egg is probably one the most known ones, but it's also one of my favorites. It first showed up in Borderlands 1, and even made a comeback in Borderlands 2, offering a little challenge if you go find it. I'm of course, talking about the hidden Claptrap of Fyrestone. In the town of Fyrestone, you can climb up onto a little fence when you first enter. Make it up to see onto the cliff, and you can find a green Claptrap unit waving and greeting you. Fast forward to Borderlands 2. Return to Fyrestone and follow the same path, however this time, you can approach the unit. Unfortunately, due to Jack destroying the product line, the Claptrap unit is now dead. However approaching it will reward you the challenge "Hey! Over here!" for 5 badass points. There's also a red chest waiting for you!

Those are just some of my favorites, but I don't want to make this post *too* long, as I could write all day. I'll make posts about other easter eggs in the future. In the meantime, I'm working on a thesis of sorts as to why Handsome Jack isn't as terrible as he may seem, and also a detailed telling of his entire backstory, working through all the plot inconsistencies that have shown up throughout the games.

[greatwyrmgold]

One thing I'll criticize about Tactical Breach Wizards: The Proving Grounds are kinda dull. They feel like something endgame, something you're not supposed to dive into until you've mastered the game and pumped your characters to max level. That's what I did, and I steamrolled the entire game mode. Boredom was a greater obstacle than any of the enemies.

Problem #1: Monotony. Every Proving Ground is more or less the same; a bunch of enemies pour into the room, usually 1-3 a turn, and you have to survive for ten turns. There's no special objective, like there are in most main-campaign level or dream-training levels.

The level design usually doesn't allow for many defenestrations, either. Just shoot and knock them into walls or explosive barrels or whatever's behind them.

Run around, shoot dudes, next turn, repeat ten times. Then repeat that eight or nine times. One level has a couple turrets, one level is mostly split in half, one mixes in more special enemies than the others.

Problem #2: Pace. Part of the problem is that I played all the Proving Grounds in a row to clean up confidence goals, and most of them twice in a row so I could get all the confidence goals. But part of the problem is the design of the Proving Grounds.

Again, the Proving Grounds are ten turns long. Most missions can be completed in three turns or less if you're aggressive. Ten turns is long in this game. But to make matters worse, there aren't that many enemies around at once. Enemies spawn slowly enough that I rarely had trouble taking them all out every turn with basic attacks, and when the big meanies showed up I had enough mana and consumables to handle them without much issue.

There was never a chance for the enemies to build up and overwhelm me, or even make me feel like I was about to be overwhelmed. Heck, I barely had an excuse to break out Chain Lightning, and I love that spell!

Problem #3: Enemy Variety. Most of the enemies have 2-3 hit points and either a basic gun or a basic grenade launcher. Enemy varieties with armor or more hit points or scarier attacks are scattered through the spawn patterns, but oh so thinly. Have Dall charge the one big guy and shoot everyone else normally. And that's even worse because of...

Problem #4: Zan Vesker. He's too good at Proving Grounds.

Predictive Bolt lets you drop 4 damage on one enemy spawn per turn. That's enough to wipe out most enemy spawns or knock most heavies into one-shot range. The second Proving Grounds sometimes made it awkward for Zan to get within sight of the door which will spawn the scariest enemy, but that's an anomaly. And even if you couldn't, removing one weaker enemy per turn would still make everything exceptionally easy.

Worse, Supportive Fire lets you remove most enemies with a single action. Banks, Jen, and to an extent Rion have mediocre primary attacks (if you want raw damage), but Supportive Fire adds 1-2 damage and some knockback to each. Most enemies can't survive this, and the exceptions just need to be softened up with a Brittling Dart or a second attack. The only issue with this strategy are that Zan needs to be able to see the target, but the Proving Grounds are usually small or open enough that you can manage this with a modicum of forethought.

All of this leads to a one-size-fits-most strategy. Zan shoots the most dangerous or annoying enemy as it runs into the room, Dall annihilates the toughest enemy unit (if applicable), everyone else zaps a mook for Zan to finish off, maybe Zan gets a chance to use his actual action, then he aims at the door which the most dangerous or annoying enemy will run through. Repeat ten times.

Of course, the Proving Grounds need to be balanced for teams without Zan. Proving Grounds can't be both challenging for a team with Supportive Fire and Predictive Bolt and reasonable for a team without.

But that's not the only issue. The first couple Proving Grounds were more tense without Zan, but not overwhelmingly tense. Not endgame-max-level-mastery-challenge tense.

I don't know what's up with the Proving Grounds.

[bug-decal-kissing]

Hey friends!

A new work, Christmas' Intoxicating Concoction of Emotions by Fluffyerflame, was published today, with 1/1 Chapters released! It has a rating of Teen And Up Audiences and No Archive Warnings Apply, with additional tags "Fluff and Angst, Light Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Mutual Pining, Enemies to Friends, Complicated Relationships, Non-verbal confessions, Denial of Feelings, Acceptance, Both Of them Are Dumber Than a Bag Of Rocks, Christmas Fluff, Christmas Party, Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Prism Has Anger Issues, This is Only Slightly Self Indulgent, I had a moment of weakness don't look at me, Not Beta Read, Sickfic, only for a little though"

You can read it here:

Shifting Jewels, by DrakianDH, was updated today, with 3/5 Chapters released! It has a rating of General Audiences and Graphic Depictions Of Violence, with additional tags "another one, i'm back again!!!, Prohibited wish - Freeform, scarab the god auditor - Freeform, prismo the wishmaster - Freeform, I got a beta we live like how Prismo came back!, Angst, Fluff and Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Romantic Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Hurt, Emotional Hurt, How Do I Tag, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'm Bad At Tagging, I'm Bad At Summaries"

You can read it here:

Time Room Shenanigans + More, by DrakianDH, was updated today, with 5/? Chapters released! It has a rating of General Audiences and No Archive Warnings Apply, with additional tags "Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Romantic Fluff, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Fluff without Plot, Oneshot Prompts Challenge, One Shot Collection, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Light Angst, Angst and Feels, Alternate Universe - Human, Kinda, It's really just a big collection or random stuff I made for January's Writing challene, frick spelling btw, Prohibited wish - Freeform, PWish, No Plot/Plotless, Some Plot, Maybe - Freeform, idk - Freeform"

You can read it here:

NSFW works are below the cut :].

A Taste For Him, by ineedlemonade, was updated today, with 2/2 Chapters released! It has a rating of Explicit and No Archive Warnings Apply, with additional tags "Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Oral Sex, Trans Male Character, Manhandling, Smut, Not Beta Read, Shameless Smut, Multiple Orgasms, Non-Human Genitalia, Mildly Dubious Consent, Hair-pulling, Masochism, Dominant Bottom, BDSM, Exactly What It Says on the Tin, Gay Sex, Collars, Tentacle Dick, Foot Jobs, Kinda?, Dom/sub, Now it's an overtone, Implied Consent, Begging, Punishment"

You can read it here:

The Beginning is the End is the Beginning, by grylos, was updated today, with 11/? Chapters released! It has a rating of Explicit and Graphic Depictions Of Violence, and Rape/Non-Con, with additional tags "Genocide, Slavery, Sexual Slavery, Bombs, Suicidal Thoughts, Sad, Happy Ending, Dead Dove: Do Not Eat, Backstory, Slow Burn, Child Abuse, Past Abuse, Physical Abuse, Explicit Sexual Content, Corruption, Consensual Non-Consent, Rape/Non-con Elements, Self-Harm, Grooming, Oviposition, Bugs & Insects, bug sex, Cannibalism, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Suicide Attempt"

You can read it here:

A new work, Distraction by gatoestupido, was published today, with 1/1 Chapters released! It is Not Rated and Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, and No Archive Warnings Apply, with additional tags "This Is STUPID, My First Fanfic, Adventure Time References"

You can read it here:

Nirmata, by DatWheatleyBoi, was updated today, with 15/15 Chapters released! It has a rating of Mature and Graphic Depictions Of Violence, with additional tags "Post-Canon, Enemies to Lovers, Slow Burn, Character Study, Prohibitedwish is real, Action/Adventure, Detectives, Slow Romance, Adventure time but for gods, Trauma, Psychological Trauma, Mild Gore, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, morally gray characters"

You can read it here:

A new work, Cuddlebug by TJade, was published today, with 1/1 Chapters released! It has a rating of Explicit and No Archive Warnings Apply, with additional tags "Smut, Teasing, Guilt, Lust, Oral Sex, Fingerfucking, Non-Human Genitalia, Frottage, Sex Toys, Awkward Sexual Situations, Awkward Boners, Orgasm Delay, Fantasizing"

You can read it here:

[ghostwise]

Self-Rec Tag Game 🌹

Rules: share five of your own fanworks (fic, art, etc.) Then, tag five more people to share the things they've made.

Tagged by @palipunk and @isayashai thank you sm ;v; 💞 I will tag @s1ithers @coldshrugs @arcann @vlwv @ruushes if you like!

Something you absolutely adore:

Four Little Crows off to Meet the Maker :: This is chapter 1 of my Antivan long-fic, Quinta de Talpa, and it sets up Zevran and Hamal's quest to oppose the Crows while also serving as a 'marriage proposal' fic. I think it's a punchy start to a really long project, and I adore it! It motivates me to continue. :)

The door to their room opened before he could knock, and Hamal looked at him, brow furrowed, eyes heavy with lack of sleep. In one quick sweep, he took in the blood-stained clothes. Zevran shook his head. He pushed his way in.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I may have… underestimated things.”

2. Something that was challenging to create:

For Suffering is Such a Part :: AO3 :: This is the first long-fic I finished, and it took me years to complete. I found it incredibly daunting to work on anything longer than 1k, but I was deeply attached to the story and couldn't get it out of my head; I dedicated myself to completing it for several months after picking up an old draft. It's set during the Nature of the Beast quest in Origins. I uh still think about it a lot o_ o;

“My! Aren’t you a poet!” Zevran exclaimed, laughing into his wrist. “Am I just a hunk of meat to you?” Grinning broadly at him now, Hamal settled down on one knee, amid beams of sunlight. “Vhenan, to me you are the spring thaw, and all that comes with it.” Zevran looked at him. He blushed to the tips of his ears. He would definitely have to think of sweet things to tell Hamal in revenge—but he was far more poetic in Antivan, and had been caught off guard, so for now he acquiesced. “The things you say,” he told him softly. “Fine, you win. I’m a spring thaw.”

3. Something that makes you laugh (or smile, if that fits more comfortably):

The Reading Stone :: AO3 :: I love writing silly banter, but I often worry it goes too corny. I fear making anything too tonally dissonant. With this one I just had fun with it, and wrote some ensemble goofiness in Orzammar. :)

“And as I said, there is no need,” Hamal retorts. “You all sound like Ashalle. I can get by just fine without glasses.”

“Not if we go by all those bruises you’ve collected, walking into corners,” Alistair tuts. “How do you manage in a fight?”

“An enemy is just a big shape. I simply hit it until it stops moving!”

“Maker…”

4. Something that surprised you (in how it turned out, how much other people liked it, etc.):

All That Matters is That You've Kept on Living :: AO3 :: This was a sweet short piece between Zevran and Isabela. But it felt unpolished and I almost didn't post it! The response was very positive, I was happily surprised. I still feel I can expand on it. Maybe one day. :)They deserve so much love, two of my favorite characters.

Yanking her legs back she tucks them beneath herself and tackles him with a hug, affectionate but very much exasperated.

“You talk about your husband too much, Zevran! No one will ever want to sleep with you!”

Zevran draws in a sharp breath, then he collapses into laughter.

5. Something you want other people to see:

Not a Homecoming, But Something Like It :: AO3 :: Another fic set in Antiva. This one comes very close to being part of QDT, but ultimately it is able to stand alone. Adelmar is mentioned in FSISAP, too, but only through flashbacks. She's an important part of my extended worldstate, as she helps Zevran heal past traumas, and vice versa (she was a prostitute at the brothel he was born in).

“I’m so glad you’re doing well. So tell me,” she scoots closer and looks at him eagerly, “What sort of life did you have, after you were adopted?”

“Adopted?”

By the kitchen counter, Hamal catches the subtle edge in Zevran’s tone. He pauses, holding the knife in his hand as a lull falls over the kitchen table, but he doesn’t know enough Antivan to guess what’s happened.

What’s happened is this: Zevran and Adelmar came from the same place, and know enough about that life to instantly understand that a lie has been told.

“Oh,” Adelmar breathes after a moment. “You… you weren’t adopted.”

Zevran lets out a laugh. It’s his ‘stalling’ laugh, and now Hamal is looking over, arms crossed, searching his face for clues.

“I was not adopted,” he says.

[hrefna-the-raven]

Kiss me, you fool

Words: 1234

Part 4 of this storyline:

Part 1: First date - tell me more, tell me more

Part 2: Black velvet dress (18+)

Part 3: Cloudy mornings and sweet bareness

SotF masterlist

Kelvin nervously paced up and down his bathroom. His palms were sweaty, and his heart was beating faster than ever before. He had to confront you and talk about the terrible mistake that resulted in you getting a good look at his full naked glory. He, a grown-up army man, was too scared to face that tiny woman in his living room to clear up a misunderstanding. And it clearly qualified as a misunderstanding in his book, it's not like he planned on stripping down naked while having an audience. As he stared at himself in the mirror, Kelvin couldn't help but wonder why he was feeling so nervous. After all, he had faced enemy fire and dangerous missions during his time in the army, even if it never happened directly and he never charged at anyone, he was still present on the battlefield, that had to count for something. Yet, a simple conversation with you seemed to be his biggest challenge, again and this time no amount of alcohol could get him out of this. Taking a deep breath, Kelvin opened the bathroom door, ready to face the music. But as he stepped out, he slipped on a bar of soap lying on the ground, reaching for the door handle as his body stumbled backwards and, as a result of his clever reaction, smacking the door against his head with a loud thud. I'm truly cursed lately, he cussed to himself, groaning in pain. The sound echoed through the entire apartment, and Kelvin knew that you must have heard it.

"Are you okay?" you called out, getting away from the kitchen counter as you rushed to him.

Kelvin groaned as he rubbed his forehead, trying to shake off yet another shroud of embarrassment.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he called back, hoping that you didn't see the whole scene despite his apartment being one big room with only the bathroom and bedroom being separated from the rest. Your hand reached for his head, gently running your fingertips on the small red bump on his forehead while little giggles erupted from your lips, threatening to form into a full blown laughter.

"Are all soldiers this clumsy or are you just trying to entertain me?"

"What can I say? I live to serve", he sighed, taking your hand and kissing it gently, "quite literally. So tell me, are you not entertained?"

He winked at you, trying to hide his shame and unease behind a disarming grin but he couldn't hold it back any longer. No matter how hard he tried, he simply wasn't that smug bastard he pretended to be at work.

"Sorry! Ididn'tmeanforyoutoseenaked! It wasn't on purpose, don't hit me, don't run", the words were tumbling out of Kelvin in a jumbled mess as his face slowly turned into different shades of red.

To his surprise, you simply burst out laughing. It was the most blithely and beautiful sound he had heard from you so far and he could feel a part of the weight dropping from his chest.

"Listen soldier, the only thing will happen if you point that gun at me again, I'll wave a white pair panties and surrender willingly", you joked, hoping to hide your own pinch of embarrassment, glad that he seemed to feel even more guilty about it than you, after all you were the one staring shamelessly at his private parts.

The two of you broke out into silly laughter and Kelvin noticed that he was still holding your hand. In a brief moment of fleeting confidence, he pulled you close, glancing at your soft lips as he approached your face. You lost yourself in the ever-morphing serenity of his brown eyes, instinctively closing in to anticipate the upcoming kiss. Just a his lips were about to graze yours, a rude knock on the apartment door startled both of you. You chuckled at Kelvin's grumpy sigh as he let go of you to open the door. Just as he pushed the handle down, he was being bulldozed by his comrade Fisheye, who barged in as if he owned the place. The other soldier smacked his fist on Kelvin's shoulder, cackling as he waved his arms around excitedly.

"Yo Kelvin, my old man! Two days and it's, drum roll, mission time!", he stressed the last word in a loud suspenseful manner like he was a carny at the funfair, "you know what that means, we're men of tradition, so-are-you-ready-to-get-absolutely-shit faced tomorrow? I know I am!"

You rolled your eyes at the boyish overinflated obtrusiveness of that other man, who, you deducted, seemed to be a friend from the army. You coughed slightly to remind Kelvin that you were still standing behind him which caught Fisheye's attention immediately. He pushed Kelvin aside and took an exaggerated bow as his hand grabbed yours, pulling you closer to him as he planted a quick kiss on the backside of your fingers.

"Hello nurse", he snickered as you pulled your hand out of his, "Sergeant Alex Fish, at your service, ma'am.", he punched Kelvin's shoulder and gave him a wink before looking back at you, "and you are?"

"Not interested", you huffed, earning a hearty chuckle from Kelvin who stepped between you and Fisheye.

"Calm down, Fish.", his hands grabbing his comrade's shoulders, turning him around towards the door, "meet you at 2000 on Monday at Joe's bar. Now get the fuck out of my home and let me enjoy me supposedly well deserved Fisheye free weekend."

Alex nodded at him with a big grin, eyes darting between Kelvin and you, nudging him in the ribs.

"You can bring the lady on Monday, I'd love to hear how a big softie like you got to know this fine ma'am."

Kelvin closed the door and softly bumped his forehead on the wood, sighing relieved that Fish didn't make a scene and he listened to the footsteps heading off in the distance.

"Men of tradition?", you questioned him, raising an eyebrow in suspicion, "getting shit faced the day before the mission?"

Kelvin's face turned red, and he shifted uncomfortably in his feet, his hand reaching to his neck, rubbing it nervously.

"I know, it's kind of awkward", he grinned innocently, "especially since I just vowed this morning to not drink again for a very long time."

"Ah but let me guess, you're a team player, a good soldier who never lets his comrades fight alone", a devilish grin spread across your lips, "count me in if you want. This is going to be very interesting and I'm curious what the Sergeant has to say about you."

"You know if you're truly a gracious lady, you'll kill me now and spare me the shame of Fish's witty anecdotes and another hangover."

"Dream on soldier boy, you now know a wonderous cure, so no weaseling out of this one", you ran your fingers over his chest, "so what was about to happen when we were so rudely interrupted?"

Kelvin's arms wrapped around your waist, pushing you against him, eliciting a surprised gasp from you.

"I think we were about to kiss, my lady", he breathed in a husky tone that made your body tremble with excitement.

"Well", you leaned in, "what are you waiting for, Rob?", you asked as your lips grazed his teasingly.

He lowered his mouth to yours and you both melted into a lingering kiss.

Bonus:

I actually almost died in game taking that screenshot as I was too busy looking at Kelvin's cute face while pointing at me instead of dealing with the cannibal he actually pointed at xD

Part 5: Waiting in the wings

Part 6: You're only falling now? (18+)

[samueldays]

"It's rare to see a full team survive for so long."

Words uttered by Mister Johnson in a Shadowrun5e game I'm playing.

Which led me to consider: what near misses have we had where someone might have died?

-

The dumbest was probably the time we decided to bait out an enemy sniper in controlled circumstances by having our street sam deliberately get shot in a meeting room we'd leaked the location of. He's got cyberplating, see, and can wear armor on top of that, and the mage can cast an armor spell on top of that (it stacks) so he should be able to take a sniper shot with 34 soak, right?

Sniper: 16 damage, AP-9, and 5 net hits. 21 raw damage, against a character with 11 boxes of health track. Sammy: rolls 5 hits on 25 dice of soak, uses edge to reroll failed dice, gets another 6 hits to soak 11 boxes in total. Bioware takes off another box, and the sammy is left at 2/11 hp.

-

The OOC-est was probably the time a major hostile spirit fireballed us. Fireballs and grenades in the Shadowrun corebook are presented as being very deadly because they don't roll to hit target's Dodge defense, they roll a simple attack to hit target square on 3 or better (a "miss" lands d6 squares in a random direction) and damage everything in the vicinity.

Then one of the players invoked a rule from a splatbook which has a pair of interrupt actions: Run For Your Life/Dive On The Grenade (-5 initiative, move off-turn to avoid/contain the blast) and pointed out that despite the name, the rules text allows it to work against a Fireball, and we had more movement allowance than the radius of the Fireball. The GM was rather skeptical because this seems to nerf the deadliness of grenades a lot, but allowed it that time, and added houserules about AOE interactions afterwards. Always a fun time when the GM has to add houserules. ;-)

-

The time we were up against a hostile runner team with opposed objectives probably should have been deadlier in general (one of them was the sniper mentioned above), but what happened in practice was that the mage cast invisibility on the adept, the adept activated Mentor Spirit Power:Movement for 5x speed, the adept carried the day through ludicrous hit-and-run tactics and the fact we were attackers.

-

The techno summoned compiled a Great Form Data Sprite at one point, dubbed "Big Brother", to uncover some information by subverting nearby electronic devices en masse. The GM looked at the Matrix rules for highly attention-getting illegal action and calculated that it would take about 9 seconds of this before the Grid Overwatch Division deployed the kind of big guns that lead to it being called "GOD" on the cyberfuture internet, like autohitting your cyberdeck for 12 e-damage while reporting your physical location to all nearby police forces.

The sprite found the information we wanted in about 3 seconds.

-

The mage summoned a Force 12 spirit. This carried a ~1% chance of immediately dying from spirit pushback (Drain) if it didn't like being summoned.

-

We picked a fight with a team of Renraku Red Samurai at one point. They were delivering a package we wanted. Our sammy had much better soak rolls this time and managed to suffer only 1 box of damage from being grenaded, the mage got fireballed and had to look up the On Fire rules, the rigger was smartly staying away and having drones do the fighting for her, the adept challenged the leader to a sword duel and won through spamming edge. Edgelord builds FTW. (Techno hadn't yet joined the party at the time.)

-

We have managed to avoid shootouts with HTR so far.

[ixcaliber]

Games of the month - June 2023

This month my hyperfocus went towards watching as many movies as possible, so it’s a pretty breezy games of the month

1. Haiku, The Robot

Neat little metroidvania about a little robot. It’s cute it’s pretty fun. My two big complaints would be

1) it felt pretty linear. i don’t doubt that there were probably other ways to get to locations than the ways that i took but the experience of playing it it really felt like each upgrade allowed me access to one new path which would lead me to the next upgrade and so on and so on.

2) i like boss fights better when each enemy has a little name pop up. the designs were cool and did some interesting stuff sometimes. i just wish i didn’t have to think of them in terms of like ‘the car battery one’, ‘the tv one’ etc. It makes them feel less memorable.

Otherwise perfectly fine metroidvania.

2. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Chronologically this is when I finished Tears of the Kingdom but I’m not ready to tear into that just yet so lets move on to

3. Life After Magic

This is a free game available through steam or through itch.io. It’s a visual novel where you control Akiko, a former magical girl who has somewhat drifted through life after the big bad that she and her magical girl team fought against has been defeated. With y2k approaching something is wrong and it’s up to you to bring your girls back together and face one more threat.

Hey. I love this game. There’s a good chance this is pretty high up my games of the year list, if not at the very top. I love the girls. I love the trans and nonbinary inclusion. I love the homages to sailor moon, yu-gi-oh and probably some other stuff that I didn’t even get. I love the way the game plays with nostalgia and the way this narrative reaches a head. If you’re like one of the two or three people reading this I absolutely recommend you get and play this one.

4. Monuments To Guilt

This is a digital museum dedicated to hostile design as featured in the Jacob Gellar video Games That Aren’t Games. Throughout you can see a number of benches designed to be uncomfortable, off-putting or otherwise just inaccessible to homeless people and disabled people. It’s a short experience and it is interesting to see this insidious aspect of design presented in the prestigious format of a museum and to see it talked about openly. It’s an interesting little experience.

5. Down In Bermuda

Fun and simple puzzle game. It’s the kind of think that would be approachable for kids, simple puzzle concepts like pipe dreams kind of puzzles, hidden object puzzles, no towers of hanoi to speak of but lots of puzzles that feel like they’re in the public domain so to speak. Nothing too difficult and taxing.

6. Lone Fungus

Another metroidvania from the recent humble metroidvania bundle. This game is okay. I like the cute little aesthetic and the basic movement is fun. The big big Big criticism I have of this game is that so much of the side content is like these nether gates or these ladybird rooms. The first time you go in these you get a little popup or something to tell you just how completely optional they are and they would have to be. The difficulty of platforming going from the actual game to these challenges is a fucking sheer cliff wall both in terms of reaction speed needed and in terms of the sheer length of time you need to platform perfectly.

At one point in the game I got a new skill ability and accessed a little tutorial move about how to use it and it started talking about using it to propel yourself quickly by doing this one kind of dash into it and for the life of me I could not get it to activate properly. I felt like I was attempting to perform some complex speedrun tech and the inputs I had to do were like spread across four different buttons which all needed to be hit so quickly in succession. Impossible. This was about the time I gave up on exploration altogether.

And like... it’s a metroidvania. For me at least that exploration is the point of the video game. If you’ve put me off of doing it I don’t really know what I’m getting out of the experience any more.

Also frustrating is that the final (fourth of four) sword upgrades is locked behind completing every single one of the ladybird rooms. And like, if you’re good enough to manage that you’re not going to need the piddling 2 extra damage that the upgrade can offer. Overall it really felt like so much of the stuff you can find that’s optional is not worth it.

There’s like a relic system (like charms in hollow knight) but the way it costs out the various relics you can only really wear three at a time, probably only two if you want to use any of the useful ones.

And just as a minor nitpick on top of everything else, all the bosses are bigger versions of regular enemies that you fight in the area leading up to the boss. It’s not inherently negative when you do something like this in a game but when it’s every boss fight then it makes them less memorable and less interesting.

Also there’s like two ways to end the game, some npcs tell you to do things the proper way while there’s a couple who indicate this secret back route and imply that everyone else is lying to you. The thing is that like I finished the game and I would still have no idea how I’m supposed to escape through the backroute exit. The way the npcs frame it is like a skipping out on your responsibility to complete the tasks set to you for the rest of the game, but like if it’s weirdly more difficult than those tasks then something isn’t adding up.

I had a lot of complaints about this one. It’s fine if you put yourself into the right mindset, as I said up top the basic movement is pretty fun and the designs are cute. Difficult to recommend it if you like to experience this kind of game in the way that I prefer to though.

7. Growing Up

This is a weird one to describe. It’s a game, as the name implies, about growing up. The game’s like broken up into different aspects. During each turn you get the opportunity to learn new skills; you start as a baby and have to learn skills such as talking and walking but soon you’re in school and your skills become more academic focused. At the end of a turn you schedule these tasks, completing each one a specific number of times can master it which will give you bonuses to your attributes and knowledge points to help facilitate learning new skills.

It’s a very mechanically focused game. Maybe I’m being a little too in depth with my explanation. Okay lets try again.

Each turn has like three major components. Learning skills. Scheduling tasks and exploring the brain map. The brain map is like a little minigame where you move along a randomly generated kind of sphere grid sort of upgrade tree, trying to optimize the attribute gains and bonuses with the limited amount of brain points you have. Since you do it once a turn each turn it’s like ‘okay what do I want to focus on this turn’ and you might always try to grab the thing that upgrades the amount of brain points you can have at any given time, but also skew towards knowledge points if you want to learn something new. It does encourage you to be thinking ahead towards your goals and as you play through the game new kinds of tile are unlocked which add dramatically to the complexity of this minigame and how you play it.

I think this game is very good mechanically. I really enjoyed the loop of learning skills, mastering skills, playing the brain map to try to optimize my ability to learn new skills.

The weakness in the game is the way the narrative is delivered. Which isn’t to say the narrative is bad. In my playthrough I got to befriend some good girls and then date and eventually in the epilogue marry my best friend Alicia.

(Also something of a sidenote but should mention that I got this from the humble pride bundle. It’s great that it does allow for gay and lesbian romances but it doesn’t seem to facilitate playing a transgender or nonbinary character. I’d love to see something added to facilitate that in a patch or free dlc.

(At the birth of your character you’re given the option to pick gender or to let fate decide. If you choose to pick you get to pick male or female. I wouldn’t want non-binary or transgender options added here, but like when you get to an age where you’re going to school to have some pop up or prompt that asks you if you feel comfortable in your gender or something like that and that sets you off along a path of transition. Or to have it opt in, an object you can unlock that allows you to schedule ‘self reflection’ or something that can lead you to a path to transition.

I understand that that might be a lot of work though, as there are a lot of characters in the game and making custom conversations for each of them to acknowledge your transition might be quite time consuming)

The other thing I wanted to point out in regard to it being on the humble pride bundle is at the beginning you can pick your parents. I picked to have two moms. The game allows this and is fine with it. There is however an unintended consequence.

Very early on, when you’re still a baby, I learned how to speak and got this cutscene where one of my mom was encouraging me to say ‘Mommy’ as my first word. And so I did and then my other mom was disappointed that I hadn’t said her name first. Maybe this is a one off oversight, because later in the game when I started dating my girlfriend she did acknowledge that we were both girls, but here at least they’ve not disallowed you to have gay parents but they haven’t made any specific accommodations for it.)

So the way that the narrative works is that the game is sort of presented in a semi-roguelike kind of fashion. It tells you up front that every life is unique and I think what it means is that at each stage of your life it will introduce one new character from like a stock set of characters. I met Jake at like primary school, Alicia at high school and Felicity at like college or something. All the schools were using american terms for the school levels so idk.

You get choices in each of these relationships that can branch them into slightly different directions (i think) but like your control over that interaction is minimal. If I’d been given the option I would never have spoken to Jake again. Not because he did anything wrong but just because I would prefer to be talking to girls. But the way the game is set up these events just sort of happen intermittently as you play and aren’t really informed by any of your decisions in the actual game you’re playing.

And your relationship with your parents is limited to occasionally they’ll give you a goal that you can complete to get a special currency you can turn in for some rewards. They don’t really have characters or expectations or preferences for you. Neither of my moms had like a desire to see me do really well at sports for example.

The other weirdest part is how okay at some point in the game you get two bars to manage. Happiness is your own enjoyment. Get it high enough and you’re relaxed and can schedule extra activities, get it too low and you’re stressed and you can’t learn new skills. And there is parental proudness or something. Get that high enough and you can get perks from them and I don’t know what happens when it gets toward the lower end.

Each activity you can do has some effect on both these meters. Studying will decrease happiness but increase parental proudness. Playing games will do the inverse. In addition to your main academic skills you have stuff like sports that you can gradually gain access to. And they reduce happiness but increase parental proudness. I learned how to start along a creative writing course and that reduces happiness but increases parental proudness. Hell I fucking learned magic (partially because I really liked the magician NPC Daz) and that does the same; decreases happiness but increases parental proudness.

I guess I can see it from a balance point of view but it feels so weird to be playing as a character with no passion. Nothing that they try to do makes them happy. I really feel like you should be allowed to find, or develop an interest. Like when your character is unhappy because they’ve been practicing their magic tricks for too long clearly something is wrong, right?

The overall vibe I get from this game is... you know those posts that circulate on here sometimes where it’s like “If you’re hacking the rules of dnd to do what you want then something is wrong. The mechanics are supposed to lead to the storytelling and if they don’t then you should be playing a different ttrpg where the mechanics do support the kind of narrative you want to tell/experience.”

The mechanics are good, the narrative is sometimes fairly interesting. They are essentially entirely seperate from one another and that’s a shame.

2. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

(some brief spoilers i suppose)

i don’t fucking know man.

its good. its undeniably a good game. better in some ways than breath of the wild, maybe a little too padded out. i never felt a great compulsion to fully explore the depths. It was neat that they were there but they felt so empty. Just large open stretches dotted with huge monsters I don’t want to fight and sometimes I’ll follow a treasure map down there and it’ll lead me to a colliseum full of lynels and I’ll be kerbstomped so hard that it drains my will to continue playing.

That’s how I felt towards the end. The game does the same thing as breath of the wild where the longer you play the more silver enemies it spawns in and though its more managable with the introduction of sages I never found myself wanting to engage in combat.

I genuinely do feel like the silver enemies ruin my experience of the game. I feel like I’m making progress, getting stronger, feeling more capable of dealing with threats. Now that I have my sages with me sometimes I’ll actively seek out a combat encounter and not hate it. There’s this sweet spot where that’s all true for a little bit, and then silver monsters start showing up and my enthusiasm ebbs dramatically. I never killed a single lynel in this game. By the time I felt that maybe I was good enough to start fighting them they’d started spawning in silver versions. 

All that said ascend is such a good ability that it sort of changed how my brain worked a little bit. Playing games immediately afterwards I would just keep thinking ‘oh i can just ascend up there’ and having to remind myself that no most video games do not allow this.

I think I had so much to say about Zelda. About how it feels like too much, about how sometimes you’ll just find yourself caught in a thing of not really accomplishing anything and come off feeling miserable, about the one afternoon where I spent literally hours in a pirate cave trying to solve a puzzle that didn’t exist. I think I’ve just exhausted all that in my brain and all my brain has left to offer is ‘just give me a fucking accessibility menu, let me turn down the damage and the health and turn what is a very good game that I sort of resent into an experience I’d actually like to play’.

[micalpixel]

May Flowers Game - August 2024 Progress Report

Hello everyone! It's time for the August devlog entry for my indie game work-in-progress! Here are the topics for this month:

World and Story

Gameplay

Features

Graphics and Sound

Research

What's Next

World and Story

The #1 goal for August was to finish an outline of the entire main quest. Here it is. Shrunk down heavily. Because, ya know, this would spoil the entire story. :3

Summary of the chart:

May must collect 6 use-able items. These will be obtained in a linear order. The goal with these is to slowly enhance May's abilities in a way that builds on the abilities she learned before. The order really is important.

May must collect 7 sets of 3 quest items (21 items total) to win the game. These can be obtained in ANY order. The goal with these is to encourage exploration. While exploring an area, you might not find one of these items. But you may find a component of one of them. Which means you can start working towards it, by accident. Exploration is meaningful and will be rewarded.

The columns indicate items, characters, locations, types of events, and descriptions of said events.

I'm really excited with some of the cutscenes and characters. And others, not so much. This graph will be iterated on and improved over time.

Gameplay

Two major updates for gameplay...

#1: So, in the very first week of development, I made a few decisions in order to limit the scope of the game (so it wouldn't get too big and hard to complete):

No HUD or health bars (complexity)

No combat (combat requires balancing, more items, etc)

No equippable items.

But then, I made a critical error. I assumed that a game with no health bar and no combat meant a game with no enemies. And...that is not correct. I completely forgot that games where the goal is to avoid touching enemies, rather than fight them, exist. Watching a playthrough of an old game called "Ancient Empires" made me realize this. And there are other famous such games where that is the entire point, like "The World's Hardest Game."

So, May's game won't just be about puzzles and meeting NPCs anymore. I'm going to start adding enemies for May to avoid. (Sorry, May) :3

And this is actually really important. Avoiding enemies can be a challenge. Avoiding enemies as efficiently as possible can be an even harder self-imposed challenge for players. A game with no enemies, and with kinda simple puzzles, is kinda not challenging. Without challenge, a game becomes boring. Even really simple enemies moving around, blocking the way, will make the player stop and think about the best way to proceed.

In the end, I'm confident that adding enemies will make the game more fun.

#2: Another new major mechanic will be the ability to pick up and drop items. These items can have various properties. Some might be part of a delivery quest. Some might interact with puzzles in unique ways.  During this time, she won't be able to use her other abilities. She WILL be able to carry them from one room to another, though.

Since items are not equippable, and there is no HUD, how will the player know which item May currently has?

May will hold it over her head as she walks around. :3

In short, you're going to see May holding things above her head. A lot. :D

(Placeholder yellow square for now. :3)

Features

A couple of new features were added to the game engine this month:

Gamepad and Touch Input Support: The game now supports controllers, and touch input too. Touch inputs involve an overlay of buttons, similar to how many mobile emulators work. Eventually, I think these will be moved to the left and right sides of the game, rather than blocking the view. But do non-touchscreen players really want to see that? This is something I need to think more about.

(This is a placeholder UI. Not final!! It works, I swear!)

Large Scrolling Maps: I think I'm going to keep puzzle-ish rooms to a single screen size. However, for open areas, I think having large traversible "rooms" will suit the gameplay better, and be a nice change of pace.

Minimap: The game now has a functional minimap screen. You can see your current location, and also  move the cursor to view others. I ultimately want to see if I can have sidequests in-progress be managed here too.

Text Features: The game now supports more dynamic text. During cutscenes, I can change the text speed, add pauses, and wait for player input. This will be important for adding characters' mannerisms. And comedic timing too. ^^

Better Scene Management: Code for cutscenes was tidied up. Multiple different NPC objects now rely on a common script. Also, May can now switch between player-controlled movement, and movement dictated by cutscenes.

Code Cleanup: Lots of improvements to the code were made, to help keep things less buggy and make it easier to add new maps. For example: Each room spawns a "May" so it can be tested independently, but moving to a different room will no longer spawn a second "May". It used to. And it was deleted immediately. But this caused weird flickering issues due to multiple cameras being present, even if it was just for one frame.

Graphics and Sound

No updates on sound...

For graphics, though. I made a mockup of the inventory screen.

I also studied lots of pixel art games with similar character sizes. And I realized, even for such small sprites, there's a ton of variety. I don't expect May's sprite to change much. But for the environments, there are so many different ways to do things. Need to think about that more.

And also created the first full-size art of May.

One person even made fanart of her!! 🥲 Thanks, Loren!!

Research

Lots and lots of research was done this month. Especially for that main quest arc above.

I realized that it would be much easier to think of ideas if I had a list of things in front of me. So, instead of wondering, "What item would make sense for this character?", I can just browse a list of hundreds of item ideas and see if anything jumps out. Items, characters, professions, locations, adjectives... Lists for all of these are now ready to use.

I also did some research on specific real-world topics. On beekeeping, since May is a beekeeper. And also a few other historical things.

And also, watched/played a few video games:

Played: The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls (I studied how it handles quest and item progression)

Watched: Mother 1 (I forgot so much of this game, just wanted to see it again.)

Watched: Quest: Brian's Journey (made me realize I should think more about environmental graphical styles)

Watched: Ancient Empires (reminded me that you can have a game with enemies but without combat)

Playing: OneShot (yes, finally!)

What's Next

So...What's next on the agenda?

Take another swing at the main quest arc chart above. I took notes on the first one, where I felt it was lacking. And I'd like to addres them in the next version.  For example, focus more about designing tasks that require use of May's abilties, rather than just delivering things. I may even build another chart, completely from scratch, with all new characters and locations. Just to see what kinds of ideas shake out of that.

Think more about major themes. What is this game about? What is this game's world about? Who is May? What is village life like?

Make a test dungeon. An interconnected series of rooms with puzzles and enemies, to see what the gameplay feels like.

Create a "Vertical Slice" of the game. This means a demo of part of the game where everything is 100% polished and is something a lot of game developers create. It's a way of saying, "The game will be exactly this, just more of it."

Maaaybe work on graphics for characters and scenery? At the very least, experimenting on different styles.

A major term on my mind is "Iterative Design." Making something, and then improving it. Again and again. There are so many parts to a game, all influencing each other. Until now, they're all been worked on independently.

But that main quest chart shows how things are becoming connected. Characters, locations, items, abilities, themes, puzzles, the world itself. When one is changed or improved, it means the others are impacted and thus need to be improved too, to get them on the same level.

So, I think a lot of the work going forward will be to smooth over everything with a finer and finer comb, and do the same to everything else.

Thank you for reading. See you next month!

[purinfelix]

purinfelix's formula one masterlist! ₊˚⊹♡

key: ➷ - oneshots ✧ - headcanons ★ - blurbs ꕤ - series

featuring: oscar piastri, carlos sainz, charles leclerc, daniel ricciardo, franco colapinto, ollie bearman and multi

oscar piastri

ꕤ from the start - when you show up to your first day of work experience at McLaren, you're greeted by a friendly face and a whirlwind of old emotions ⚬ ch. 1 - (w/c: 2.6k) ⚬ ch. 2 - (w/c: 2.5k) ⚬ pt3 coming soon <3 (you can send an ask/message if you'd like to be added to the tag list!)

★ his favourite interviewer ➷ fever-ish - in which your boyfriend gets the flu, but also refuses to admit it (w/c: 1.1k)

carlos sainz

➷ by midnight - you find yourself at one of the hottest parties on campus, eager to land a kiss before New Year strikes to avoid bad luck (w/c: 2.3k) ➷ show me how - (spiderman!au) your new neighbour is a mystery to you, and so is the masked vigilante that you've heard news of around your city - but the chances of them being related are impossible, right? (w/c: 2.8k)

charles leclerc

★ acts of chivalry ★ making you laugh ➷ new recruit - (TopGun!au) the age-old tradition of Top Gun pilots spending the night before a mission at the local bar is interrupted by a new, boyishly charming, face (w/c: 1.8k) ✧ pilot!charles headcanons - (a part 2 of the previous au!)

daniel ricciardo

★ secret enemies ★ i'm with the band ➷ special treatment - to others, there might be absolutely no reason for you to be spending the night at your nerdy classmate's dorm room, but you know that he's the only one who you trust to check over your code - and look good while doing it (w/c: 1k)

franco colapinto

➷ lost and found - when you find a curly-haired rookie lost in the wrong garage, you don't think much of it - that is, until he continues showing up, and you begin questioning his intentions (w/c: 1.3k) ➷ good journalism - you find a way to make your job as a journalist more interesting while piquing the interest of the new boy on the grid (w/c: 922) ★ small talk ➷ just for the weekend - [fake dating] your teammate has an absolutely ridiculous plan to bring your team back from the dead - but it might be just crazy enough to work (w/c: 5.5k) + semi smau ★ second nature ➷ you're here that's the thing - your boyfriend tries his best to make your schedules, as a racer and student, work - even when miles apart (w/c: 900) ★ baby picture ➷ clumsy - being a mechanic is a tough enough job - but with a driver like franco who can be oh so distracting, sometimes it feels impossible (w/c: 1.1k) ➷ a taste of his own medicine - you've had enough of your boyfriend's shameless flirting during interviews, and hatch a plan to get back at him for it (w/c: 1/3k) ➷ beautiful stranger - as your city's turn to host a Formula One race rolls around, you're not surprised when your usual morning commute is disrupted. the arrival of an unexpectedly charming face, however, takes you by surprise (w/c: 1.2k) ➷ didn't you believe in me? - following São Paulo, it's your job to remind Franco that one tough race isn't the end of the world (w/c: 800) ➷ doctor's orders- as if your hospital placement hasn't been stressful enough, you're thrown a new challenge - an injured biker, and his big mouth (w/c: 1.7k) ★ know-it-all

ollie bearman

➷ sweet as sugar- it isn't everyday you see a classmate shopping at the grocery store you work at, especially not when he's buying the most expensive ingredients possible (w/c: 3.4k)

multi

★ f1 drivers as meet cutes - small blurbs about meeting some of the drivers in situations that are equal parts awkward and romantic !! ⚬ pt. 1 - ft. Carlos, Charles and Danny ⚬ pt. 2 - ft. Oscar, Lando and George

requests are open right now! you can check my rules here