#to be fair it makes more sense then new players being added

[qtrump]

q!trump revival? 🤞

[runariya]

My Beloved Villain (JJK) • Chapter 6

pairing: hero!Jungkook x villain!female reader genre: dark romance, gore, villain!AU, hero!AU, slow burn rating: MDNI, 18+ warnings: DDDNE, foul language, denial, a little bit of fluff, drugging, detailed description of r@pe, blo0d, gore, punch!ng, carving, cum, anger issues, shur!ken, kick!ng, f!ghting, realisation, wishing of being d€ad, pls lmk if I forgot smth word count: ~ 4.2K

a/n: pls don't hate me—hate the characters instead 🙂

a/n 2: This work is purely fictional. All characters and events are entirely imaginary and do not reflect reality. Content errors related to med school are not excluded. Please do not use this story as your own. No translations are allowed without permission. Thank you for understanding! 💕

prologue • 01 • 02 • 03 • 04 • 05 • masterlist • 07

Two weeks go by, and with each passing day, you find yourself and Jungkook drawing nearer, though you had always believed, in the depth of your long friendship, that there was no further closeness to be gained. Yet still, there you are, sharing not just your days but, more often than not, your nights as well. There’s a certain way in which time fades into insignificance when you’re together, and though the light of day holds nearly no barriers for the way he maps your body, it’s the cloak of night that allows you to strip down more than just all of your clothes—it is there, in that twilight intimacy, that you feel you might finally be able to touch the entirety of his soul and him yours. He rearranges you completely in those moments, a cartographer of your flesh and spirit alike.

Taehyung, on the other hand, has had that difficult conversation with you far too many times to count—each instance his eyes filled with that same uncertainty, the struggle not only on his face but yours too as he questions whether telling Jungkook the truth, baring your past and present alike, is truly the right course of action. You’ve known for a long time it isn’t fair to leave Jungkook in the dark, not when this darkness is part of who you are, tethered to you in ways you sometimes wish it weren’t. It’s not easy to admit that parts of you have been moulded by decisions you never wished to make, paths you walked out of necessity rather than real choice. You can almost see how Jungkook might listen, his usual patient, understanding self—but with every moment you imagine his reaction, you also see him turning away, running when the truth becomes too much to bear.

And so, though you know you can’t be selfish in love—especially not when it’s him—each time you try to tell him, the words seem to stick in your throat like glue. You’ve tried so many times, only to falter at the last moment, unable to bear the idea of that carefree, incandescent smile slipping from his face. So, you promise yourself that you’ll tell him tomorrow, or maybe the day after. Always tomorrow, tomorrow, and tomorrow, each new day bringing with it a fresh round of procrastination and a fresh wave of guilt for the secrets you continue to withhold.

Gradually, you convince yourself that your relationship hasn’t yet reached the point where it can withstand such a confession, blinding yourself to the reality that the beginning of love is precisely when such truths should come to light. And yet, deep down, you know you’re deceiving yourself, creating a shelter of denial in which you hide from the storm that must eventually break.

At the same time, you’re beginning to sense that Jungkook too harbours his own secrets. There are nights when he quietly slips away, his reasons vague and evasive. He doesn’t share everything, and you’ve noticed it. Sometimes, he avoids your bed, though he never quite admits why, sidestepping your questions with a soft smile or a gentle touch. It’s something you don’t press him on—those absences leave you with the solitude you need to focus on the darkness you still carry and use to scheme, to map out your next move, like a chess player preparing for the final play that will topple the board eventually.

Those nights, while Jungkook is elsewhere, you roam the shadowed streets and buildings around Dojin’s office, gathering information about him, timing Sangwook’s weakest moments too, plotting when and how both will fall. And sometimes, on those nights, you catch a glimpse of Pulse, who never comes close, but you feel his eyes on you, the burning of his gaze a silent threat to dare make a move. He watches from a distance, still a spectre lingering on the edge of your plans, and his presence haunts you—his gaze lingers on your skin and mind since two weeks ago, like a thorn embedded too deeply to remove.

But when the nights are spent in Jungkook’s arms, curled against his warmth, the world feels different—quieter, almost safe. You listen to his soft, steady breathing as he sleeps beside you, utterly unaware of the poison bubbling inside you. Yet even then, as his embrace cocoons you, your mind remains restless. You lie awake, feeling torn between two worlds, wondering whether the path you’ve chosen is worth the price you might have to pay. Are you wasting precious time revenging your beloved parents? Or are you, in some twisted way, moving closer to the freedom you crave?

You let yourself dream, if only for a moment, that perhaps the happy ending is simply the softening of your being, the ability to remain gentle despite the rough hands life has dealt you. Perhaps it is a calm nervous system, a peacefulness that cannot be threatened. Perhaps the happy ending is you moving on with Jungkook by your side, where you finally reclaim the love you’ve lost, but always wanted back. Perhaps the happy ending is you embracing change, is you going in the direction of the person that grows you and moves you and magnitates your spirit.

But even as you entertain that hopeful vision, a darker force pulls you back. It wraps around you like it’s one with you, refusing to let go, as though with every step you take towards Jungkook, it drags you back three. For every word of love he whispers to you, a thousand doubts rise in your mind. Each time he brings you to the peak of ecstasy, it only pushes you deeper into a chasm you fear you’ll never climb out of.

The silence that followed Chulsoo’s death—the way it was wiped clean from the media, hidden from view so as not to tarnish Dojin’s image—only served to feed the fire of your revenge. That burning desire for justice, or perhaps just for release, is still there, gnawing at you like an unquenchable hunger of thousand starved demons. And so, despite everything, you find yourself returning to your plans, hoping that, in the end, they will finally give you the salvation and freedom to carve out the future you so desperately desire with Jungkook.

And now, two weeks later, it’s all set. Every piece has fallen into place. You called in a favour with one of Seokjin’s IT specialists, a man who owed you a debt for helping his daughter years ago with her SATs. It was a small thing back then, but now, that kindness has ripened into something vital, something almost fated. He fabricated a message, making it seem as though Dojin himself had ordered Sangwook into a night shift at the office. You thought long and hard about how to exact your revenge, and the answer came to you like a whisper in the dark—a plan perfectly devised to balance the scales that tipped over so many years ago. 

So here you stand now, darkness flowing through your veins like it never has before, alive and pulsing and fatal. You’re in Dojin’s office, with Sangwook before you, drugged and unconscious in the chair, his head lolling to one side, bound by the anaesthetic you pilfered from the lab days ago. Everything is ready—the second scene has been set. And the only question that remains is whether, when the final scene comes to an end and all is said and done, will the path truly be cleared for the future you dream of with Jungkook by your side. But you lock that thought away, deliberately procrastinating again until your demon screams ‘action’. 

Sangwook hovers in the haze of barely held consciousness when your boot collides with his side, sending him sprawling to the floor with a graceless thud. His face catches the weight of the fall, and though a pained groan escapes him, you find yourself devoid of sympathy, feeling nothing but the cold resolve that fills the room like silent smoke. The office is as barren as you anticipated, a hollow shell of corporate sterility, its emptiness bearing silent witness to the reckoning about to unfold, a ghost of a place where no one will hear the echoes of what you are about to do.

“You know,” you murmur, your voice a dangerous lull that barely masks the venom beneath, “I saw you smiling while he raped her. Perhaps it’s time you discovered how it feels to be on the other side, hm?” You crouch beside him, your fingers ghosting over his cheek, now wet with drool and slack with stupor. His eyes, bleary and unfocused, swim beneath heavy lids, his breath a sickly rasp that rises and falls in broken stutters.

You kick him again, flipping him from his side to his stomach with the ease of someone handling dead weight. His groans are quieter now, more distant, but you pay them no mind. You’ve come prepared for this moment, the cable ties rigid in your hands as you bind his wrists behind him, securing them with an efficient brutality. Once the ties are tight enough, cutting into his skin with a satisfying snap, you shift his body once more, forcing his hips up so that he kneels with his face pressed into the cold, indifferent floor, his knees scraping against it with a dull sound. 

With a nudge of your foot, you spread his legs apart, widening the space between them as you reach into your hidden pocket and retrieve one of your shuriken. The blade gleams faintly in the low light as you slice through the fabric of his trousers and boxers, leaving his exposed ass an ugly, vulnerable thing that turns your stomach. You swallow the disgust, pushing it down, focusing instead on the cold fury that hums inside you like a living thing.

From another concealed pocket, you pull out an oversized black vibrator, letting it dangle in the air between your fingers like a grotesque trophy. You wave it lazily in front of Sangwook’s face, his glazed eyes flickering with some faint recognition. “Oh no,” you say, voice dripping with a mocking faux-innocence, “I think I forgot the lube.” You pout, a cruel smile twisting your lips that aren’t hidden by your mask. “Looks like history repeats itself more than I thought.”

You move back behind him, your heart beating calmly despite the anticipation of what you have prepared next. And with a force born of all the pent-up rage you’ve carried for so long, you ram the vibrator into his exposed asshole, not bothering with gentleness or care. 

The effect is immediate—Sangwook’s scream tears through the silence of the office, a visceral sound that cuts through the fog of drugs clouding his mind. His body convulses, buckling against the intrusion, but you press your hands into his hips, forcing him to remain in position as you reach for the duct tape from your pocket, securing the vibrator firmly in place. His flesh resists, bleeding around the object, the blood flowing freely, but you push it deeper still, the tape tightening until you’re certain it won’t budge.

The blood, the pain, his broken sobs—all of it comes together to create an image that stirs something dark and primal within you, something that has long been caged but now finally feels liberated. His pitiful sounds mirror the cries you remember, the cries that haunt you from this distant, unbearable night, and for the first time in so long, you feel a strange, twisted sense of peace begin to settle inside you. It’s a perverse kind of satisfaction, seeing him brought low, powerless, humiliated. His sobs fill the room like symphony meant for masses, and with every tear that falls from his face, with every tremor that wracks his body, you feel your breath coming a little easier, feel that demon within you finally soothe itself into something manageable.

You stand back, watching with a detached sense of curiosity as snot and tears pool beneath Sangwook’s face, mixing with the blood that drips steadily from his ass. His humiliation is complete—the blood, the shame, even his unwanted orgasm staining the floor beneath him, the fluids mingling into a sickening mess. He can barely withstand it anymore, and you sense that his endurance is nearing its end, the agony almost enough to make him pass out. Almost.

You step forward and rip the vibrator free from his body with a vicious yank, taking the duct tape with it, peeling away skin and hair in the process. The sound is gruesome, the ripping noise followed by another hoarse scream from Sangwook, his head lolling against the floor. The satisfaction swells inside you, filling the space in your chest that has long been empty, and for a brief, shimmering moment, it feels as though you’ve finally taken something back from the world that once stole everything from you.

But this isn’t the end—not yet. You can’t let this be another act buried by Dojin’s power, another silenced death hidden from the eyes of the world. So you push Sangwook’s slack body back onto the chair, his head rolling from side to side in drugged disorientation. You calculate the dose just right, ensuring that though his body is weakened, his mind remains painfully clear, aware of every agonising second.

“It felt good, didn’t it?” you mock, your laughter low and dripping with menace. You step closer, forcing his face upward until his dulled, tear-filled eyes meet your own, your gaze lifeless as steel. “You remember what happened after, don’t you?” His silence is met with a sneer as you push his face aside and reach for your shuriken once more, the blade glinting in your hand as you rip open his shirt, exposing the heaving rise and fall of his chest, every breath laboured and uneven. Blood still pours from the wounds you’ve already inflicted, but you don’t care. “But first, let me leave a note, yeah?” The blade hovers for a moment over his skin before you press it against him, carving deep, big letters into his chest with more force than necessary.

‘Father, don’t forgive them, for they know what they do.’

The blood spills over your writing, cascading down his body in thick rivulets, pooling once again on the floor beneath him, mingling with the other stains of his disgrace. You step back and admire your handiwork, feeling an odd, almost surreal sense of fulfilment as you gaze upon the wreckage you’ve created.

It feels like freedom—like the release you’ve been chasing for years. You don’t care if anyone else understands it, don’t care if Jungkook would understand. In this moment, the world shrinks to this room, to this man, to this beautifully orchestrated vengeance. And for the first time, you feel as though this is the right path, the only path that could ever set you free. You toss the bloodied shuriken to the ground with a resounding clang, the sound echoing in the hollow space like a final punctuation to this violent symphony.

And then, you strike—fist meeting flesh again and again, until Sangwook’s face is nothing but a pulpy mess of blood and bone beneath your knuckles. Each punch sends a wave of release through you, every hit drawing out the grief that’s lain dormant inside you for so long. Tears blur your vision, and you let them fall, unheeded, as you continue to rain down blow after blow, releasing years of pain in a single, savage outpouring.

But suddenly, the sound of faint movement is heard through your frenzy, and your instinct kicks in. You spin on your heel and release a shuriken in one fluid motion, sending it hurtling towards the intruder behind you. It misses its mark by a hair’s breadth, embedding itself into the wall beside Pulse’s head. He stands there, watching, his eyes wide with shock, his expression stricken. But despite everything, despite the violence, despite the blood, his gaze remains—soft, empathetic, as though he can still see something within you worth saving.

“What the hell do you want?” you scream, voice raw, feeling too close to madness, eyes narrowing at the sight of him standing there, his presence alone an irritant to your senses. The sight of Pulse—of this man, this moron—makes your blood boil with a heat that consumes every rational thought, every shred of patience you might’ve had left.

“You can still stop Stasis,” he says softly, his words slipping through the chaos like a breeze through fire, and there’s something infuriatingly calm in his tone that makes your fists curl tighter. “It’s not too late.”

“Shut the fuck up,” you snap, voice dripping with venom, “I don’t have time for your bullshit.” You spin back to Sangwook, channeling the surge of anger into your fists, striking him again—he groans, barely a sound escaping his bloodied lips, but it’s enough to quell the fire in your veins, if only for a fleeting moment.

“This isn’t the right way,” Pulse insists, his voice still thick with that maddening compassion, that softness you cannot bear to listen to any longer.

“Oh, fuck off!” you spit, turning back towards him, seething. “What the hell do you know about anything?”

“I don’t need to know everything,” he replies, his voice unwavering. “I only need to know that it’s not too late.”

“Not too late?!” you bark, flinging your arms into the air, exasperation dripping from every word. “Do you even hear yourself? Don’t waste my fucking time with this fuckery—go fetch some petty pickpockets if you’re feeling heroic.”

You start to turn away, fed up, ready to pour all your anger back into Sangwook’s trembling body, but Pulse’s voice hooks you mid-step, tugging at something inside you, and despite yourself knowing better, you pause, facing Pulse once more. He stands there, almost pleading with you, a figure so at odds with the carnage around him. “I can help you,” he says, voice much gentler now. “You don’t have to do this.”

A low, biting laugh slips from your throat, raw and empty, more like the growl of something wounded than the echo of any true amusement. “Help me?” you sneer, the corners of your mouth twisting into a cruel smile. “Oh, I’m doing just fine helping myself.”

“That’s not helping,” he says quietly, and there’s a softness to his words that feels like nails on a chalkboard, like he’s trying to pierce through the layers of darkness that have long since engulfed you. “If you could just—”

But you don’t let him finish. You spin around again, but this time something’s different. Something cold and sharp slashes through the air in your mind, halting you in your tracks. Sangwook sits still, the rise and fall of his chest no longer there, his eyes now glassy and fixed on nothing. It’s as though the world shifts beneath your feet. His wounds, they’ve finally claimed him, and you missed it—the exact moment when life left him, when that miserable soul slipped away.

“He’s dead,” you whisper, though the words are nothing more than a breath, laced with an anger so potent it seethes from your pores. The demon inside you roars with a feral intensity, its presence so loud, so overwhelming, you reckon the entire city must hear it. But your blood, it doesn’t run cold—not in the way people speak of fear or regret. No, your blood burns hotter than ever before, an inferno raging through your veins, pushing you beyond the boundaries of reason, of sanity, into a space where you never been before. 

“He’s dead!” you shout, the fury shaking your body and walls, vibrating through every nerve as you reach for your shuriken. One after another, you hurl them towards Pulse with reckless, unrestrained violence, each throw fuelled by the white-hot rage that blinds you to everything else but this freak standing before you. Most of them miss, slicing through the air uselessly, but one grazes his side, drawing blood and a sharp hiss from his lips. You see the pain flash in his eyes, but it’s not enough. “You fucking idiot!” you scream, voice cracking under the weight of your fury. “You had to ruin everything!”

You launch yourself at him, driven by that blinding fury, your body moving faster than your mind can comprehend. The force of your kick catches him squarely in the face, sending him sprawling to the ground, but Pulse—fuck him—manages to scramble back to his feet, dodging and deflecting every punch, every savage blow you aim at him and his stupid face. He’s skilled, a professional, and you can see that now in the way he moves with ease, with a calm that only makes the inferno within you rage hotter, more fiercely.

You land a hit against his face, a sharp crack against his cheekbone, and for a moment, his composure slips. His eyes narrow, the warmth in them replaced by a cold anger, a frustrated irritation that mirrors your own. And then, for the first time, he strikes back. His fist connects with the side of your head that makes your vision blur for a moment, but that’s all it is—a moment. You recover quickly, shaking off the dizziness, your lips curling into a smug smirk as you catch the flicker of disbelief in his gaze.

“Jealous it didn’t faze me?” you taunt, your voice dripping with poison ready to take him down, your breath coming fast and shallow, though you force it to remain steady, to keep the superiority alive.

“As if,” he growls, his tone clipped, though there’s a flicker of frustration behind his words, a crack in that calm façade he wears so well.

The fight escalates, a brutal dance of fists and kicks, bodies slamming into walls and furniture bruising you both more than the actual hits. He throws you around like you weigh nothing, a mere doll, but you hit back with equal force, aiming for his weak spots with precision born from years of knowing where it hurts most. You’re both panting heavily now, bruised and bloodied, but where his strength begins to wane, your twisted advantage of feeling no pain holds firm. 

“Give up Stasis,” Pulse gasps, his voice ragged with exhaustion, but still, there’s that damn plea in his tone, that maddening refusal to break.

“Never,” you spit, a wicked smile twisting your lips as you fling your last shuriken towards him. It grazes the edge of his face mask, slicing through the straps with a clean cut. The mask falls to the floor silently,  in slow motion, leaving his face exposed to the dim, flickering light of the room.

And in that moment, the world stops last. 

The air is sucked from your lungs as you stare at him, your heart plummeting into an abyss that you thought you’d already reached the bottom of. His face—his face is the face you know so well. A face you’ve kissed, a face you’ve held in your hands, a face that, until this moment, you believed belonged to someone pure, someone who hadn’t been touched by the darkness that now consumes you. Jungkook. It’s Jungkook standing before you, bruised, bloodied, and trying to stop you.

You take a step back, your limbs trembling with the force of the adrenaline still coursing through your veins, but more than that, they tremble with the force of your breaking heart. “No,” you whisper, barely audible, the word slipping from your lips like a plea to the universe itself. But Jungkook doesn’t hear it, or if he does, he doesn’t care. He doesn’t see the devastation in your eyes, the cracks forming in your soul as the reality of this nightmare sinks in.

“You’ve finally had enough, haven’t you?” he taunts, voice cold, cutting, as he steps towards you, uncaring that his mask has been stripped away. His steps are slow and menacing in a way you’ve never seen from him before.

You can’t breathe, can’t think, can’t seem to make sense of the world anymore. Jungkook—your Jungkook, your friend, your lover, the man who filled your life with light and warmth for years—is standing here as Pulse, the man who’s tried to stop you, to save you, from the path you’ve chosen. It breaks you, fracturing the remaining parts of your soul, and for the first time since your parents died, you feel as though you’re drowning all over again.

There’s nothing left to do, nothing that could possibly fix this, fix you both, nothing that could make the universe undo its cruel joke. So you do the only thing you can think of and what you should have done years ago—you run. You turn and bolt, fleeing from this nightmare, desperate to escape the truth that has gutted you so deeply you wish you had died with your parents. 

You run, hoping the darkness will swallow you whole before the pain can.

prologue • 01 • 02 • 03 • 04 • 05 • masterlist • 07

a/n 3: hope you've enjoyed it👀 lmk what you think in any way you like! MBV-Game Part II:

a/n 4: please send me a message, ask or comment if you would like to be tagged for upcoming chapters 💕 also - character asks and drabble requests are open

Like what you read? Check out my other work here!

All Rights Reserved © @runariya 2024

taglist: @darkeneddiary, @dumbheadblog, @jksusawife, @jayhoneybeecomb, @kookienooki, @hagridshaircare 

[aratedfreyjablog]

This is an extreme hot take but when PB say "players have complain", I'm starting to believe that it's true now. After it was announced that victory Lucifer was going to be added to the standard pool, it was understandable that p2w players would not be happy about that as they had paid a pricey amount to obtain him. However, it becomes a whole different situation to say in the midst of pointing out how they have paid to get him, that f2p should NOT be able to obtain him and get actually blocked from getting him.

As a p2w player, even I find that incredible rude. Whether it's p2w or f2p, NO ONE should be blocked from being able to enjoy a game's content including being able to obtain a character they like. F2p players have their own reasons to be f2p, the biggest factor being due to irl obligations. But to express discontent by saying it's not fair when f2p don't pay to even support the game? Ridiculous.

Then there's the recent group of players that have been actively "policing" others that have been sharing spoiler content by sending messages that nearly goes to the point of being called harassment. Educating someone is different from going up to a fellow player and blaming them for ruining their own fun and it's because of them they're no longer playing the game when the player posting the spoilers have either warnings OR not even tagging the post with anything at all so it wouldn't appear under any of the tags that may relate to the game and search. With all of this, PB's latest announcements made a lot of sense as to WHY they were making them. And it's disappointing that it really was due to these types of players that led to said decisions. As we receive new content the next two weeks, I hope we learn to be more civil, respectful, and sensible to each other so that we could all enjoy the game.

[anim-ttrpgs]

An absolutely incredible review of the beta version of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy by review Willy Muffin on youtube, complete with visuals and actual analysis!

I'm going to also add to this post a comment that I left on the video, offering further insight into the design intentions of the game, though the comment might not make as much sense if you haven't watched the video yet.

Hey, lead writer of Eureka here, first of all I wanna say how good and professional this review is, it’s almost indescribable how it feels to see our project taken so seriously and given real analysis, complete with visuals and everything! We would be super impressed and happy with it even if you didn’t like the game—but luckily it sounds like you loved it hahaha

I’d also like to address a few things throughout the video, not as arguments or rebuttals, just further developer insight for everyone

Re: “Urban Fantasy.” “Urban Fantasy” is basically just another term for “modern fantasy”, just a fantasy story that takes place in the 20th or 21st century and deals with the intersection of contemporary life with the supernatural, and it might be an Americanism, or even a Southern-ism, since it has a lot of connections and origins in the living folklore of New Orleans, so I shouldn’t be surprised it isn’t a term everyone is familiar with. Just think of it as the kind of genre where instead of the vampire living in a secluded scary castle, his name is Phil and he’s your roommate haha. What We Do in the Shadows, Shadowrun, and the World of Darkness games are all some other good examples of “urban fantasy.”

Re: Scooby-Doo. Oh we would LOVE for you to run a Scooby-Doo-like wacky mystery with Eureka. Even though the main tone is dark and gritty and noir, we did intentionally build it so that it could run more lighthearted stuff as well! There’s even a few Scooby-Doo references to be found throughout the text, and if we hit a certain stretch goal on the Kickstarter, we’re going to be adding a bunch of Scooby-gang-inspired traits, including the option to play a Talking Dog!

Re: Combat being the largest section, even larger than Investigation. First of all, that’s kind of an illusion that is the result of the game being unfinished. I have a tendency when I write rules to use really long sentences, overexplain things, repeat myself, etc, and that dramatically bloats the rules text and page count, but that’s why we have an editor! She goes through after the fact and trims most of the fat off my bloated writing style to make it flow smoother and read faster, and take up less space. The PDF that was read for this review has had the Investigation chapter copy-edited (and cut down in size by about 25%!), but the editor hasn’t gotten to the combat chapters yet, so they still have a hugely inflated page count. When she’s done with them, you can expect each combat chapter to also be cut down in size by about 25%, so they won’t be nearly so large a chunk of the book.

Secondly, I’ll explain our reasoning for why the combat chapters and advanced combat rules are such a big chunk of the rules text, it’s intentional design which I will now explain. If anyone still doesn’t agree with that design, that’s fair, and that’s why we made the Basic Combat Rules an option.

The reason that the advanced combat rules are the default, and the reason they exist at all, is because it incentivizes and rewards Investigation. If combat is super deadly, it makes Investigation, snooping, and spying more appealing than kicking down the door and getting your head blown off. But of combat is super deadly, it also needs to be very deep and tactical, because if it’s deadly but shallow, then there’s no player agency. “Combat starts, roll some dice, okay your guy is dead.” That’s no fun. So by adding rules and modifiers for cover/elevation, distance, the difference between a pistol and an assault rifle, etc. we make it so that not only is combat its own high-stakes puzzle, but make it so that when the PCs HAVE to engage in combat, all their investigation can really pay off and save their lives. Spying on a building to find out the number of goons stationed there and how they are armed helps you plan and assess risk, stealing the blueprints to the building helps you know how to get the drop on the goons, and know the best places to attack from so that they are stuck out in the open and you are not, etc. and having rules for those things means that all the PCs’ snooping and planning makes a real mechanical difference in whether they live or die.

That’s just my opinion though, and one of the biggest reasons WHY we decided to write the combat with as much depth as we did.

Anyway, thank you again for this review and analysis of our project, our Kickstarter jumped up by about ten more backers in the evening when this video went up after several days of no new backers, and we have to assume we have this video, and all of you watching and reading this, to thank. You’re really making our dreams come true. :)

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is kickstarting from right now until May 10th! Back it while you still can!

If you want to try before you buy, you can download a free demo of the prerelease version from our website or our itch.io page!

If you’re interested in a more updated and improved version of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy than the free demo you got from our website, subscribe to our Patreon where we frequently roll our new updates for the prerelease version!

You can also support us on Ko-fi, or by checking out our merchandise!

Join our TTRPG Book Club At the time of writng this, Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is the current game being played in the book club, and anyone who wants to participate in discussion, but can’t afford to make a contribution, will be given the most updated prerelease version for free! Plus it’s just a great place to discuss and play new TTRPGs you might not be able to otherwise!

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

[catwithyellowwings]

Brett Talbot x fem!Reader (Y/N Martin/Lydia's little sister)

Please be gentle. English is not my native language. I'm still learning it, so there's probably a bunch of mistakes 🙈

"You'll see, our team will kick your ass," Y/N said confidently, lifting her chin and pushing back her red braid. At the moment, she was so annoyed by the self-confidence of one of the Devenford players that she could barely restrain herself from making more harsh statements. She had a negative attitude towards the captain of today's rivals instantly when she saw how he publicly mocked Liam in front of the whole school. Dunbar is only new to their company, but Y/N already considered him, if not a friend, then a member of Scott's pack. So Liam is part of their strange and diverse family, and the girl was not going to give offense to her loved ones.

"Well, we'll see about that", Brett smirked at her, accepting the challenge thrown by a stranger. Now he had two incentives to win today: to take revenge on Dunbar for what he did to his former coach's car, and to win a bet from a beautiful girl who was so ready to defend the honor of her school. "So what happens if you lose?"

"We won't lose, I'm confident in our guys", looking clearly into the boy's eyes, Y/N said decisively. Then she turned her gaze to the warming–up players of the Beacon Hills school, among whom were her friends - Scott, Stiles and Liam. Dunbar, as if sensing that they were being watched, turned around, meeting the eyes of the younger Martin for a couple of seconds. He was quite confused that she was talking to his main enemy of the last few months, but he did not comment on this in any way.

"So maybe we can make a bet about something substantial? " Talbot never let up, assessing the girl from head to toe. Her cropped top with a leather jacket and tight jeans with a high waist perfectly emphasized the naturally slender figure of the younger Martin, so the guy's interested look flattered her. Mentally, Brett was already anticipating his victory.

"About what, for example?" Y/N asked, folding her arms over her chest, raising an eyebrow slightly. She was also confident of her victory, especially realizing that there were now two werewolves in their team, so ordinary people simply had no chance against them. Unless, of course, Scott decides not to use his superpowers on the field again for the sake of fair play.

"Well, I don't know," the guy chuckled, thinking for a while. "Let's go on a date? If we win, and we'll win, you're going on a date with me".

"Then if you lose, and you'll lose", Martin deliberately mimicked him with a short grin, "you… apologize to Liam in front of the whole school, just as you mocked him today as soon as you arrived here."

"To Dunbar? Nah," Brett just laughed at this formulation, glancing over his shoulder at the former co-commander, who was now talking to one of the Beacon Hills players.

"What? Are you scared? Oh, what a pity," Y/N smiled, slightly pouting, already feeling her superiority. "Then there will be no deal".

"I didn't get scared," Talbot said, squaring his shoulders and grunting with displeasure. "Okay, you got it. If your team beats us today, I'll apologize to Dunbar, so be it. But don't think that our enmity with him will be over".

"The game will show which one of you is better," now it's time for her smug grin. With her hands on her hips, Martin involuntarily looked around at the guy. The green-and-white sports uniform with the number 28 on the chest and back, although partially hiding the guy's body, but it was obvious that he was very well-built. Tall, half a foot taller than Y/N herself, sly light green eyes, slightly curly brown hair and natural charisma only added to Brett's attractiveness. Ah, if it wasn't for his bullying of Liam, then Y/N as a whole wouldn't mind flirting a little with this handsome guy, but she had to keep her face. You can't show your weaknesses to the enemy, so putting on her self-confident mask, Martin turned on her heels and headed for the stands. Her sister Lydia, the sheriff, and Dunbar's best friend Mason were already there.

"Hey", suddenly she was stopped by a light unobtrusive touch on the elbow, forcing her to turn her head, "at least tell me your name, beautiful stranger. I'm Brett, by the way".

"Y/N," she admitted, pleased with the effect. "My name is Y/N".

[fyeahnix]

I keep forgetting to make my comments here but here's my initial thoughts on the MHWilds demo so far:

Out of the weapons I've tried so far—SnS, IG, SwAx, CB, LS, and HH—they all feel REALLY good so far. Got some good stuff from Iceborne and Sunbreak in there. It's a bit weird trying to relearn weapon button mappings again with the new moves and combos but that's not horrible.

Focus mode. I saw a lot of people complaining about it on Twitter and it doesn't make sense to me tbh. It feels like Dark Souls discourse all over again. I'm still very new to the Monster Hunter series compared to a lot of other players but I'm also not bad at the game and have just over 1400 hours between World and Rise. I know what monster hit zones are, I know what weapon motion values are, and between those I know where would be the most effective places to wail on a monster for the most damage. I know how to manage my positioning, I know how to roll through and guard/counter roars. I know what guard points are. Basically, I know what I'm doing.

HOWEVER, people are acting like Focus mode is the absolute worst thing they've added to the game because it "cheapens" the experience and idk I just don't agree there? I'm seeing it as a way for people who have previously not jived with the game to have a way to help them correct their positioning mistakes on the fly and improve.

I think there's something to be said about the way people love to make themselves feel more self important because they're good at a video game and any attempt to make it more approachable to fans who may otherwise not even try it is...idk embarrassing? I used to have this mindset but when I approached it from the angle of accessibility, I saw the point. Monster Hunter is definitely not an easy game to get into and you absolutely might get filtered out when you hit that first wall monster. To me, focus mode feels like something that players will eventually grow out of relying on once they get better at the game and for the rest of us (or at least how I'm using it), it's a nice way to see wounds on the monster and use move that destroys them. But it's not required!! Like at all! You can destroy wounds by repeatedly attacking them. So for people to get upset about it being included is just weird to me..but that's just my opinion. The devs seem to be including this for the purposes of being more approachable but that doesn't mean the game's difficulty has changed at all.

Anyway moving on. My biggest complaint in the game was the Seikret movement. I LOVE the Seikret a lot, from a design and implementation perspective, but one thing that annoys the FUCK outta me was how hard the game pushes you to be in auto movement mode. I prefer having full control over the thing so I found it annoying. I even tried changing some settings and have realized that exiting out of auto mode into manual actually might be bugged. In any case I decided to give auto mode a fair shot and I'm starting to see why they included it. When chasing the monster, I do want to do things such as sharpen on the run, heal, and grab supplies on the way, and with the changes made to the slinger, that is NOW POSSIBLE. I can multitask on giving chase and I do think that's valuable so my mind might be changed there.

Last thing. My current complaint is that the weapon attacks don't feel super impactful. I feel like I'm slicing through butter. There's no real oomph the hits and I wish there was. Maybe it gets better in the full release idk.

Also the game is a beta but the optimization has to be better on launch. I'm hoping it will be.

[magicalmanhattanproject]

MCC Teams for QSMP Guys

Disclaimer: These aren't official teams or even official predictions or anything. I have no idea if the QSMP guys who aren't in MCC already want to play or even know it exists. I'm just autistic.

RED RABBITS: HBomb94, Philza, Forever, Cellbit

This was the first team that came to me and it all spiraled out of control from here. H is the master of teaching new players, which is good if it's not a whole event of new people (spoiler alert: it is). Philza is also a solid player who knows the Brazilians well enough to teach them how to do MCC and also hold his own just fine. I expect Forever would hold his own just fine. A lot of the games that are hard for newcomers are hard because a lot of MCC guests aren't Minecrafters. I expect Forever to be able to handle himself with an elytra, for example, and H is the SOT king and also a Buildmart enjoyer so he can pick up the slack for the rest. Cellbit may be an unexpected popoff in Parkour Tag with his Esconde-Esconde experience. I'm not sure if he's ever touched an elytra.

Sorrel Assigned Sandkeeper: Cellbit. He can have red puzzle too though, as a treat. And the rest of the spawn puzzles will actually get solved for once!

ORANGE OCELOTS: Roier, Tubbo, Quackity, Punz

Roier is Good At Minecraft but he's also shy about the fact that he's good at Minecraft and not particularly interested in tryharding. He would most likely be looking for a team that isn't throwing on purpose, but also doesn't mind if he's not doing homework for the video game. Pairing him with known goofball Tubbo and good buddy Quackity makes sense for that. Punz is a very versatile S tier. He's fully capable of being a sweaty little bastard, but he's good at not being toxic about it and especially at not getting toxic towards his teammates. I think he could do well with just hanging out with a couple old friends and making sure a new one has a good time.

Sorrel Assigned Sandkeeper: Quackity is the best choice as the full bilingual and least likely to survive in the tunnels.

YELLOW YAKS: Shadoune, Etoiles, Aypierre, Baghera

The French Team. Frankly, I think the chance of Etoiles getting into MCC is pretty slim. He is simply too powerful. Scott has talked before about having enough S tiers and needing more mid and lower tier players and Etoiles would Not help with that. Adding Shadoune and Aypierre to that is honestly a bit ridiculous. Baghera is not a nerf to this team either. She doesn't have nearly as much Minecraft experience as the others but she is learning very quickly. I did nearly switch her out to try and balance this obscenely powerful team. Their big weakness though is their MCC inexperience. Shadoune is the only one who has played MCC before and he hasn't even been in a handful of events yet. Late games with high learning curves could seriously hamstring them.

Sorrel Assigned Sandkeeper: Pierre. I was super super impressed with Pierre's comms with Foolish when they broke into the Federation and I want to see him do comms more.

LIME LLAMAS: Illumina, Spreen, Slimecicle, Mariana

Yeah, okay, this is Pink17 with a twist. This is the only chance we're gonna have to pair Spreen with another S tier though so we gotta take it. To be fair, I don't actually know how good Mariana is at Minecraft. That being said, I do know he's not super comfortable in his English abilities. This is essentially two teams speaking two languages wearing a giant trenchcoat, so I figured it would be best to give them Illumina, king of minding his own business and showing up at the end of the game with half his team's coins.

Sorrel Assigned Sandkeeper: Slime. The Spanish speakers know more English than the English speakers know Spanish and asking someone to sandkeep in their second language in their first MCC is cruel.

GREEN GECKOS: Jojo, Vegetta, Maximus, OllieGamerz

The Spanish Team. I really tried so hard to pair Vegetta with Foolish, but ultimately I think he would just be most comfortable with people who all speak his own language. This is another scary powerful team, by the way. Jojo and Ollie were half the team that got the first canon team with two new players a win since MCC 6 and Vegetta is widely considered to be a Minecraft god. I'm not sure his skills transfer to MCC, but it can't hurt! Maxo is here instead of Mariana despite being more comfortable with English because I couldn't deprive the people of their Slimeriana crumbs, however he's another one whose MCC skill I'm not sure of. He's known mostly for his RP like Quackity Slime and Wilbur, but he also has an extremely dope Create mod house so he's definitely more cracked at the craft than them.

Sorrel Assigned Sandkeeper: Ollie. He's trained for it and studied for it before his first MCC and Vegetta and Maximus should both be able to at least survive dungeon conditions.

CYAN COYOTES: Mike, Pac, Fruitberries, Cubfan

Obviously, Tazercraft come as a duo. Do not separate. For them, I wanted people who matched their energy. Specifically, strange, bewildering, and staggeringly competent, while still making the most baffling decisions you've ever seen in your life. Fruitberries was an obvious choice. I think introducing them to Cubfan might be dangerous lest they give each other ideas for projects, but hopefully they'll be too focused on the games for any old projects to come up. I sure hope none of the games resemble any games Tazercraft have previously designed!

Sorrel Assigned Sandkeeper: Cubfan. He is like the Only guy in MCC who I trust equally as a runner and a sandkeeper which means that I trust him to sandkeep here.

AQUA AXOLOTLS: PeteZahHutt, Jaiden, Fit, CPK

This is just a pretty regular MCC team. Pete and CPK is a very strong combination and I don't expect Fit to be bad at Minecraft, but given the absolute powerhouses that are the French and Spanish teams, I think this is probably fine.

Sorrel Assigned Sandkeeper: Fit. Pete has a habit of making risky plays that don't always pay off. I think the scary teacher voice could check that impulse.

BLUE BATS: Badboyhalo, Krtzyy, Smallishbeans, Grian

Here's a PG team for you, king. You've earned it. Yes, Dave can be PG when they need to be. For the record, I'm deeply curious about what Bad puts down on his sign up sheet for his PGness preference. Either way, this is a team of all around strong players without a standout star. We're looking at a repeat of Aqua29 here.

Sorrel Assigned Sandkeeper: Krtzyy. Everyone on this team can run but Dave enjoys it the least and actually had their first decent time ever playing Sands of Time as a sandkeeper for Aqua29. They've been playing since MCC1 by the way.

PURPLE PANDAS: Scott, Shubble, Foolish, Purpled

This is the part of the teams list when I went "okay I guess I'm making a full ten teams now, so I have to get the guys with standing invitations in". For the record, that's Scott (it's his event), Shubble (she's Scott's bestie), and Wilbur (he was one of the earliest believers). Purpled is here instead of Wilbur because he's Ever So Slightly More Cracked At The Craft, however this team is actually impossible and would never happen in canon. Scott Smajor has made it very clear that he would never put Purpled on the Purple team. Anyway, Foolish is also here!

Sorrel Assigned Sanddaddy: Scott.

PINK PARROTS: FireBreathMan, Felps, AntoineDaniel, Wilbur Soot

Y'all remember everyone wailing and gnashing their teeth about Blue29 because FBM was being unfairly nerfed by being saddled with three "bad" players and it was so incredibly mean to those players he was with and also like they got 6th overall and did Literally Fine? No? Only me carrying that grudge? Anyway, here's a perfectly fair and balanced team that no one would complain about at all. No but for real, this is the team I couldn't switch Antoine and Baghera on because that would break it.

Sorrel Assigned Sandkeeper: Wilbur. Sorry Scott got to the daddy joke first.

[honest-moth-of-silver-grove]

Hello!! i hope you’re having a good day!! I would like to ask for a BG3 matchup, please!! To make it easier for you, I’ve added anything that might be necessary here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-9dv4INxKsRYGLfZR22P7dUNY6gNqXnzEklxj_uxbhw/edit

A/N: Lol, I feel you w/ the undercut thing. If I let all my natural hair grow out, it would be its own situation every morning lol. Because you didn’t specify gender preference, I picked one male and female companion for you. 

For you, Google Doc Anon, I think you’d match best with Astarion (Male) and Lae'zel (Female)!

➶ Astarion is an independent person as well. Before he was turned he was a magistrate, a corrupt independent player who was very influential in getting what he wanted done. Of course, after being changed by Cazador, he lost all of his influence but managed to retain his aloofness and ambition. After getting a taste of freedom following 200 years of servitude, he’s insanely stubborn, and very vocal when it comes to voicing his displeasure about doing things. He makes it clear that he’s capable, but his capability is very intertwined with how much he wants to do something, similar to you. He finds such behavior to make sense and has absolutely no problems defending your thought process to anyone who complains. 

Granted, due to your shorter stature, he may not take you seriously upon first meeting you (he does make a fair amount of gnome jokes in game), but once he gets to know you, that all changes. He actually really likes your height difference because it makes him feel all the more  (dominant lol) in charge for once. And he loves, loves, loves your hair! He can’t see his hair in the mirror, but he likes to imagine it looks as cool as yours. He might even ask for your help dying his hair- of course, you’d have to try the colors first so he could see how they’d look on you before he’d dare try putting them on him, but that’s half the fun, right? 

Astarion enjoys the arts. Back as a magistrate, he’d frequent the theater and art shows, get the best-tailored clothes with the fanciest embroidery- anything that crossed art over with luxury, oh boy was he down. He wouldn’t ask you outright, he has his pride, but please please study him and draw him. He hasn’t seen his appearance in so long, and being able to see it through your gifted eyes would be such a marvelous treat. He trusts your craftsmanship 100%. 

And he understands your need for alone time. He, despite putting on a good show for everyone, is very drained after a day of ‘performing’. He needs time alone with you, just the two of you being quiet in order to recharge. He also tends to get a bit snippy when overwhelmed emotionally- which makes sense given his history. So don’t fret, he won’t take it personally if you yell or snap at him because you’re feeling overwhelmed so long as you don’t hold it against him when he occasionally does the same. 

And while he may be pompous at times, in most cases, it’s because he does have the skills to back it up. All the other times however, it’s good he has you to knock him down a peg, and get him to come back down to reality. You let him know he doesn't have to put on a show for you, he doesn't have to pretend. You love him just as he is. And he loves you just as you are. 

💥 Lae’zel is a great match for you because both of you are pragmatic, and disciplined people who do what it takes to accomplish their goals. As you said, you’re an INTP. INTPs tend to search for truth and accuracy, checking situations from multiple logical angles before proceeding. This is very much in tune with several Githyanki principles. However, unlike people who do not take you seriously due to your appearance, Lae’zel takes you as you are, at face value, so long as you’ve proven yourself worthy in your fields, your outer appearance is of no importance to her. 

She is much more focused on battle- the art of fighting. So she is very new to many of the artistic expressions you introduce her to. But if you put a lot of time and effort into your work, she appreciates it, not necessarily for how it turns out, but for the dedication you put into it. She also appreciates how instinctively smart you are. Intelligence is a sign of a worthy ally. 

She too, is not a fan of large groups, preferring to work by herself or with a few she really trusts. You, of course, are someone she trusts explicitly, so to have you around her doesn’t irritate her the way strangers do. In fact, she seeks out your company as a way to destress from the strife working with strangers causes her. 

She understands the need to separate work and social life now that she’s started developing a social life of her own. She respects your boundaries when you ask for time alone to work and does not worry about your loyalty or intentions. 

You are hers. You have said as much. And she is yours. She has said as much. No amount of time spent apart could possibly change that.

[swordswoman97]

Okay it took a while to get some of my thoughts together after finishing the vod but I'm really interested to see where this "Saving Gabriel" plotline is gonna go and what it's affects might be on the server's trajectory as a whole.

Over the course of the questline we learn Gabriel, with the help of the Monsterslayer, is looking for some sort of treasure, though they're not the only ones looking.

Which brings us to the thing I think has the most potential to affect the server longterm. These aren't just random rough pirates, or at least they probably aren't. Their (seemingly) main base of operations is under the Kestrel base. With the main entrance being in the well. The well sitting smack dab in the middle of the Kestrel base. This leads me to believe that whoever these people are, they're Kestrels. It's gonna be hard to consistently access the well if their very presence in the Kestrel base is gonna arouse suspicion. Which, as I said, suggests that whoever they are, they are at the very least affiliated with the Kestrels.

This is gonna have a ripple effect. A group of Kestrels attack a well respected Heron while he's out at sea, capture him, and lock him up under the Kestrel base. Now attacking Gabriel out at sea, fair game, though I feel like locking him up on the faction isles might be a bit of a gray area. Even if it's not actually against the rules, I can't imagine it's going to do anything to improve relations between the two factions.

Now I will say, I think Martyn was telling the truth when he said he didn't know anything about this. He's a new heron, whatever is going on seems to be a big secret, not letting the new guy in on it makes sense. For similar reasons I will assume Scar's innocence. Sausage, Oli, and Kyle though? Them I'm less certain about. I could see them going the "none of the Kestrel players know" route for simplicity, or I could see them having one or more of them in on whatever it is too just for the drama of it. Only time will tell just how many Kestrels are in on this.

I'm also curious what exactly it is that Gabriel is after. He's a Heron so I'd assume whatever it is is of historical importance, and it's also interesting just how many hoops Gabriel has already been shown to have to jump through to find it, plus there will no doubt be more, and who knows how Gabriel found the first clue he had written down in his journal. Whatever it is, it's something big, and the Kestrels at least think it's valuable.

Another thing that is probably gonna come into play again later is that one crypt. The Slayer warns that if it opens it will doom them all, which seems like a bad thing. I'm just not sure how it'll come into play. Maybe they'll have to stop someone from opening it later? Maybe someone does open it and they have to deal with whatever is inside? What even is inside? Honestly there are so many unknown variables with the crypt I'm just adding it to the growing list of Chekhov's guns in this.

Honestly I'm really interesting, and I'm hoping we don't have to wait too long for part 2.

[rwby-encrusted-blog]

Played Portal revolution

6.5/10

It was good cooking, but should've stayed in the Pan for a little longer and had a little too much salt.

Spoilers below

The Good Parts:

Stirling and Emilia are very funny. I liked their dialogues and interactions, as well as their designs.

Stirling felt very much like Wheatley, Virgil, and Nigel, while also being demonstrably different and personable.

Emilia was unique and I enjoyed hearing about her backstory, as well as the fact she's very human, which makes sense.

I like the the Player Character's design.

The first Dual Portal device looks really cool, the exposed wires, the cracked glass, the scaffolding beneath the cover being exposed are all very good. The Jiggle Physics on the loose prong at the front was a nice touch.

The Second was a nice Red color, and the new portal colors were cool. It looked nice as well.

Being able to be outside was a nice change of pace, you know, being able to see that sun and the sky.

The Added mechanics of the Breaker Switches was really cool, and it made sense - the Aerial Faith Plates and such turning off when there was no power was interesting.

The Linked Weighted Pivot Cubes were also very cool, and was a very much appreciated new mechanic.

Bringing the Pipes in as part of it was fun. I always liked their designs.

The Bad parts

We spent too little time with Stirling and Emilia, the amount of time we spent with the one-portal device felt excessive (I Audibly said "No Shit" when Stirling made the Quip about finally finding the Dual portal device) and I think having us change between the Red and Broken ones wasn't necessary - it was neat, but I feel like we should've had just one, because then it would've been our only constant ally when we would be separated from the Cores, as well as making the use of the portal Guns seem less special, given we find just a random working one.

What is Stirling plan? Bring Glados Back, and try to mitigate the damage she does to Aperture and the Humans and Cores inside of it? Glados started this (well Cave did, but semantics) She was killing Test subjects, and the one that survived had to kill her to survive. Maybe he's just scared of seeing his home fall apart so he takes his anger out on Chell, even though He's working to save it and put a killer on the throne.

The mechanics I mentioned above (Breaker Switch, linked Cubes, Pipes) were severely under utilized, especially when in the boss fight, it would've been so cool to have to use them to take out turrets and launch blocks and turn of certain sections of the Spire to traverse!

Some of the writing felt off? Like, Stirling presents the dangers of everything with way too much forwardness. he should've said something more like "Yeah try not to stand under that too long, You'll just make a Mess. I mean, who would guess skin would stick to panels so hard after sloughs off from that stuff."

Emilia is too smart for how human she is, which does break the immersion a little bit, and she doesn't freak out nearly enough for what happened to her. I think her voice is too clear as well, and should've had a filter on it.

Also there was a fair bit of Map Geometry that hindered movement an awful lot, getting stuck on random unseen objects and not being able to jump properly.

And the ending is Disappointing. In Portal you get out, and are dragged back in. in Portal 2 you get out. In PS: Mel, you get out, with Virgil is genuinely sad you have to leave. Nigel's a little bitch and kills you even if you extinguish the fire.

no matter what you do in Revolution, the Spire Blows, you're critically injured and on the moon. Presumably you do survive given you see stuff happening and Hear the record Emilia left, so either there's a sequel in the works, or it's just disappointing.

So I suppose I should give it the benefit of the doubt since you get dragged back in in Portal, but that was changed after Portal 2 came out I'm pretty sure.

TL;DR

There's a lot of little things I like, a few big things I thought were interesting.

There's some stuff I would've loved to see more of, some questions unanswered as of writing this.

There are a few things I disliked, but none of it ruined the game. I had fun, and will likely play again.

[mightyflamethrower]

High school students in the state of New York will stage a walkout this month in support of women’s sports.

Organized by the Coalition to Protect Kids, the “Walk Off for Fairness Day” event will occur on October 24, roughly two weeks before Election Day, during which, the Empire State will vote on Proposition 1 – the “Equal Rights Amendment” – that will add “gender identity” as a protected status against discrimination. As noted by Fox News, the proposition makes no mention of women’s athletics, but critics believe it will allow for men who identify as women to participate in women’s sports.

“Nassau County lawmakers in June voted to pass a bill that would prohibit transgender athletes from competing in girls’ and women’s sports at county-run facilities,” noted Fox News. “The measure, which covers more than 100 sites just outside New York City, requires any teams, leagues or organizations that seek a permit from the county’s parks and recreation department to ‘expressly designate’ whether they are for male, female or coed athletes.”

“Any female teams or leagues will be denied permits if they allow transgender athletes to participate,” it added.

Various conservative leaders in the state voiced support for the staged walkout.

“Girls are being systematically canceled in this state, and ‘Walk Off for Fairness Day’ will give them a safe opportunity to make their voices heard,” said Coalition to Protect Kids-NY spokeswoman Ayesha Kreutz. “So many of these young women are afraid of speaking out, so they’re forced to watch as 50 years of female athletic progress gets washed away by destructive ideologues. Girls are not second-class citizens, so why are they being treated that way?”

Other students, like 16-year-old soccer player Hannah Pompeo of Buffalo, said, “It’s not right for boys to compete against girls in sports. It’s a huge disadvantage for girls.”

Millie McCormack, a dancer at Somers High School, said, “I don’t think it’s right for men to be in our safe spaces. We worked hard for places on our teams. Boys have physical advantages we don’t have.”

You have to be a real panzy (dik?) to celebrate a male victory over a bunch of girls. Where is your sense of fairness and sportsmanship?

What's next? Trannies in the Special Olympics??

[botanicalcanopus]

imagine a dead session that's basically an adaptation of dante's inferno

[note: the planet taken into the session becomes treachery while the black queen is holed up in fraud]

Okay I think this will be rather long but only because I am genuinely in love with how many possible ways you could use Dante's Inferno for Sburb. So bear with my rambling.

First: Holy Fuck Cool Session Idea Like it would be really cool for a 9-12 player session. We only have the small sample size of Homestuck that shows sessions tend to evenly distribute players between moons. But, like I keep iterating like a broken record Sburb literally makes Anything Possible* (yay). So whether you do one dead session like the ask says, a session of nine with each character/land/denizen being represented by one circle, or adding in some extra "circles" such as the the bottom layer with Satan where resides, Earth/mortal realm, and Heaven. Literally a fun concept to give your characters probably even more religious trauma! :D *As far as I've seen

Second: Putting the Dead in Dead (Skip to the Third Section for Ask Answer) What is a Dead Session: A dead session (for anyone new or too busy to research) is what happens when you don't prototype your kernel sprite pre-entry to the Medium. The referenced ask is in relation to Caliborn's session, which is a unique case where if a player tries to solo the game, the kernel turns into a blackhole to bring your entire planet into the session as your land. Skaia then darkens and explodes into 15 planets with a blackhole where Skaia used to be. One must then travel to and defeat either the planet's boss or all life on that planet, and place a bomb strategically somewhere (and by proxy escape said planet) to blast it into the blackhole. This is obviously a reference to the game Snooker (what is commonly called Billiards but they are actually different!) which fits English's whole Pool Ball theme. Once a planet is concurred the player will receive a follower/helper (in Caliborn's case the Leprechauns) and each planet gets progressively harder with less time to defeat the next one. If you survive this and if you survive your Denizen's Choice then you will be granted power beyond comprehension. Calliope did say that it favors Time players and that should be relatively obvious why. It is a fair bit more complex but that's the main gist!

Third: I'll Stop Fucking Rambling and Answer Okay so a Dante's Inferno would be a sick way to handle this and assuming that it doesn't have be exactly like Snooker each time with all 15 planets showing up (or you just get super lucky and have some pocket immediately), it would be 10 total in this session. The Player's planet brought in would be one of the layers like the asker says. The nine layers of hell, and therefore the nine planets that would be summoned would be Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Wrath, Heresy, Violence, Fraud, and Treachery. All of these would need to be defeated in order like we've seen before, skipping 8 for last as well since that seems to be the mechanic. Now Satan in the story technically lives in the last layer (Treachery) but you can also separate him by technically putting him in a sublayer called Judecca. Soooo, if you make Satan/Lucifer/Devil your denizen you could technically have Treachery be its own planet. The Black Queen being holed up in Fraud makes sense. It was the layers of thieves, sorcerers, flatters, beggars, etc. A royal who's main job is to oversee the kingdom would have the silver tongue necessary to charm and make many fraudulent claims. My headcanons for this would be that the helpers you'd get could be something from Christian-based mythos, and since The Felt members were so broken power-wise it wouldn't surprise me if you either get young cherubs, some of the higher ranking demon princes, or some version of fallen angels as your crew. Your Land if you end up winning would be something like Land of Sin and Salvation, but the aspect doesn't have to be tied to Hope per say it just has heavy themes.

Or do whatever you want. That's just my two cents :) Cool ask, Anon.

[the-lotus-pond]

Why I think the Minecraft Mob Vote Isolates it's Players

I think it's fair to say this year's Mob Vote (2023) brought up a lot of long standing issues that have been reintroduced into the Minecraft community throughout the years. Everywhere between basic marketing practices and outright revolution, I want to try and make sense of the chaos I feel is somewhat warranted.

To be blunt, I will be sure to disclaim that I don't like Mob Votes. I've played since a few years after launch, and have since then off and on. Not really due to Minecraft itself (there are some factors), but due to the fact that usually I'd rather just play other games more. That's not a bad thing, and I attribute more to growing up and learning about other games. The reason I mention this is to show I have been through many of a mob vote before, even back when they were Biome votes. From the start, my indifference turned to annoyance.

I believe where I and many others lost our trust in the mob votes was back in during Minecon 2017, the very FIRST one. This presented the community 4 rough ideas of a new creature mob to be added. At the time the Mob Vote was insanely popular, and Mob B, the Phantom, won. However when it did finally get added to the game, I remember many expressing disappointment in what the mob's role would be in the game. On top of that, back when the votes first started happening. Mojang is on record for saying the votes did not decide what got added entirely. They specified it was what was being added first and prioritized, but in later updates the losers of the votes would be added and updated in an appropriate update. And while some biomes as promised have been updated and revitalized, the same cannot be said for the mobs. The very first mob vote was in 2017, and in the 6 years since then, not any of the losers (besides frogs, but I am not counting it because it was in a biome vote.) have been added to the base game. If a bit ironic, they've been added or almost added to side games owned by Mojang.

Because of this, I can absolutely see why people are frustrated with Mojang. Especially when the own the most successful game in the world is Minecraft. That is not an exaggeration, Minecraft is still the best selling video game in the world overall. Multiple activity websites still show millions of players on Minecraft and playing it. It's a big enough game to have a convention just for this game year after year. To call them outright lazy might be a stretch, but there seems to be a fundamental disconnect between Minecraft and it's players. It feels like the line of communication is completely gone. When that communication ends, and you have a growing number of disgruntled gamers, that's how you apparently get Mob Vote revolution, demanding all mobs be added despite the vote, and for it to be removed. It's been nothing but "Feed the Machine" edits demanding to the end of the mob vote. While some are made in good fun, in normal internet fashion, many have expressed their anger in less productive ways. Many outright saying the devs are lazy, when really we don't have any idea what the devs are doing. I don't think I've ever seen this community directly related to the game's development this toxic or plainly pessimistic about the game as a whole. They need to start keeping their promises as a gaming company, or more and more people will become dissatisfied. What do you all think? Im... honestly 50/50, I see both sides.

[kozykricket]

Thoughts on Enjoying Minecraft (and how many ways to play minecraft there are)

was watching a video on how minecraft is less of a game and more of a platform, one that you can enjoy in so many different ways. and yknow what? I'm just thinking about how "mods are better" completely ignores that yes, minecraft is a game that is primarily enjoyed by modifying it to your liking.

and honestly? of course the base vanilla experience isnt going to be interesting for people who have known and played the game for years. putting your own spin on it IS what makes it interesting and guess who has to keep the game relevant and MAINTAIN the code in it? to not only add a few new inspiring playthings, but to add more capabilities to datapacks, commands, etc? mojang. so i find it quite impressive that they manage to keep the game afloat, keep the game RUNNING even with minimal bugs, AND keep adding features. I honestly think a lot of people nowadays are just like, since they've seen so many people sensationalize the vanilla survival experience, they think to themselves that the only way for them to play minecraft is that experience. that ONE experience. but is that really fair for a game that isnt DESIGNED around a single experience, to say "wow, mojang sure sucks at designing for one of the many experiences they realistically are designing for"

i think if they really wanted to, they could just abandon modders, mapmakers, and different playstyles, and focus all their efforts on just adding content to survival. but they wont

and modders may add the content YOU like more, and thats good. It doesn't make them inherently better than mojang, they're just… people pursuing what the game is a good foundation for: making the game what they want it to be. if people cant agree on what they want minecraft to be, and make vastly different modded experiences, then minecraft is succeeding in being minecraft. In a sense, I think some modders are the people who may be most content, experiencing ... happiness, not complaining all the time that one of many experiences isnt to their taste. they just mold the game to be one they like

not to say thats what all modders are like, though. i know plenty who are burnt out of the game. but then theres also a whole thing to be said about the passion for creating stuff FOR minecraft being another avenue of enjoying the game. i enjoy minecraft, but i enjoy thinking about it more than playing it sometimes. thats also fair

and... i know this post was all over the place, jumping between like 3 key points, but it just all came to me, while watching this video

In short, Maybe try mixing up how you play minecraft, if you don't enjoy it. Maybe, accept that the pure vanilla experience isn't one that you'll really care for all the time. That's okay. Maybe you want to modify some recipes, maybe you want to overhaul progression and add more bosses. That's cool too! Theres just. a lot of cautious design around the people making the foundation that you do all of this on top of. They don't really want to make the vanilla game go in any particular one of those directions that YOU could take it more than others. its an all rounder of a game, with an emphasis on player choice. You make the content, you make the goals. Maybe that isnt your thing. Maybe go play a modpack where the goals HAVE been made for you by other players.

[phoenixduelist]

" You.. ah.. you look lovely tonight" ok he's a bit awkward around her after that drunken kiss that time. But he'd not since been able to get her out of his mind. Anything to see that smug golden fanged smile again and quicken his heart.

Due to some unforeseen but perfectly preventable consequences if she listened to her common sense and her crew, the Vihar's voyage was seriously delayed as the high tide made it impossible for the ship to exit the small cave. A perfect hideout at least.

Port Royal was relatively small, especially for criminals yet that didn't stop the whispers nor her from meeting the not quite new player on the chessboard. Rozália had her sights on a guarded Spanish galleon; if played right Mátyás easily could maneuver the Vihar into a favorable position, out of the canonfire. Then she heard there was an another contender for that prize. With not much to do besides fooling the law enforcement, Rozália decided to make her presence known to Cutthroat Carson once she had more than enough intel.

The tavern almost could pass for a respectable one, ideal.

“I'm used to hunting alone Captain Carson. However, from what I've heard of you, I'm willing to reconsider breaking my habit this time, if we can come to a reasonable agreement regarding splitting.”

“Heard ya like to play with open cards. Along with swords. And that yer word's true, which is rare.” Carson commented, leaning back in his chair comfortably

“You heard correct.” Rozália confirmed

“Think half is a fair share. How does it sound Captain?” he proposed after a minute of mulling over, the corner of his scarred mouth curling upwards

“Sounds correct. You have a deal Captain Carson. This is where I must remind you, the fortune we're after is plenty. I can ensure my crew's behavior when it comes to dividing. I expect the same discipline from you as well, otherwise you either kill your disobedient crew member or the deal is off.” the Devil added, leaving the consequences of crossing her unsaid. If he was well informed he was aware of the sure death.

“Ya aren't so bad as the poor bastard said.” somehow the compliment only made her fingers twitch towards the hilt of her sword. “And I have more plans for the future an' the treasure. I'm taking half but also want to take you- what's with the face darlin', my women on my ship have no complaints” Cutthroat Carson laughed as if he just told the funniest joke

“Besides, not like ya'd have a say in it.”

Her chair was sent flying a few feet as she all but jumped with a gold fanged snarl.

“I don't do this often but: Do you have any idea who I am.” the sheer audacity of this little shit with his mercenary crew only sticking around till stuffed with Spanish riches.

The pleasant, rich baritone reached her ears, sharply turning sideways with a confused expression; she definitely did not calculate him being near this negotiation soon turning into a murder.

“I...I don't quite understand but thank you-” what the actual hell was he doing here of all places and why- what; was he drunk again??

“Ignore that navy bastard darlin, can't wait to get a wildcat to my harem! Eh, you can fuck him later if he pays” and Rozália yet again was reminded why she strictly worked solo.

[armchairfootballer]

England’s Harry Kane Problem

Shortly after picking up his silver medal, Harry Kane walked past the UEFO Euro trophy, draped in red and yellow for victors Spain. Despite his record as one of the greatest strikers in the modern game, Kane emerged from yet another major tournament without a trophy — a well documented curse that his plagued him at both the country and club levels.

Some find it funny; others sad. Regardless, in our minds we know that a curse can't really exist (can it?), which makes the reality even more extraordinary. Is it fair for the football gods to bless someone with so much talent and individual success, but forever bar them from glory?

Of course, Kane isn't unique in this regard. Despite being named one of the greatest players of the 21st century, Socrates' closest reach to a major trophy was as runner up in the 1983 Copa América for Brazil. Likewise, two-time Capocannoniere winner Antonio DiNatale could muster only a 2nd-place finish with Italy at the 2012 Euros. But Kane's litany of achievements far surpasses the efforts of both.

The injustice might be more forgivable or understandable if Kane's ego had consistently got in the way of his team's success. It's not a stretch to think that a superstar's self-assuredness could hinder the team dynamic and cost them victory, particularly if it kept happening wherever he went.

But that's not the case with Kane. He's a team player and surely makes England better... or does he?

Lessons from Euro 2024

Kane shared the Euro 2024 Golden Boot with 5 others as the tournament's top scorer. Still, I doubt many would say he had a great tournament, by his standards, anyway. Like much of the England team, most of his play was dull and lacked creativity. He scored from 6 feet out against Denmark — the kinds of goals you pay strikers like Harry Kane to score regularly. His extra time winner against Slovakia was of the same ilk — a header from 3 feet out after an England corner. He'd add another from the penalty spot against the Dutch.

You could validly attribute Kane's relative lack of goals to the irregularity of delivery from his teammates. But there was something else worth noting about England's performances during the Euros...

England played better when Kane wasn't on the pitch.

In five of England's seven matches, manager Gareth Southgate withdrew Kane before the end of proceedings. Kane, who turns 31 this month, is used to playing a full 90 for club and country. But obviously, Southgate new that there were other tactics available to him. And he was right to explore them.

Cole Palmer and Ollie Watkins added some much needed creativity to the pitch when subbed on. Others substitutes like Ivan Tony and Eberechi Eze added speed and urgency. England looked their best when their next generation of talent was taking the reins. Why?

Well, when you have a prolific striker like Kane, in a sense, you build a team and a strategy around them. This is easier to do in a club setting where you have more control over your membership, as opposed to international football, where your available talent pool is significantly more restrained (even for a team like England).

With this style of play, your success depends on the fitness and form of your star player. Even with characters like Bellingham and Saka, England's style with Kane on the field isn't designed to bring out the best in them — part of the reason they contribute much more to their club teams. But something new comes alive when England adapts to Kane's absence.

How does Southgate move forward?

And herein lies Gareth Southgate's dilemma moving forward. How do you reconcile these strategies? How do you utilize your star striker and yet develop this new crop of talented players who are aching to contribute if given the chance?

We've seen this unfold in some respects with Portugal and Cristiano Ronaldo — and not for the better. The last two national managers for Os Navegadores have bent the knee to Ronaldo. Make no mistake, I don't envy their situation. How do you ensure that you utilize one of the greatest players of all time who clearly still has gas in the tank and can change a game in an instant, while adapting your game for the other excellent players who may be better suited for the moment, but you'll never know.

Southgate's challenge is not entirely like Roberto Martinez's problem in Portugal, in that Kane is by no means past his prime. He still has a few years at which he will be at the top of his game. So, do you bench one of the world's most prolific strikers to facilitate a new approach?

Surely, the answer must lie somewhere in the middle. But that is for greater minds that mine to figure out. England can only hope that Southgate is up to task. Harry Kane will need to hope for the same if he wants to finally put his hands on some silverware.