#you could also play with a regular deck of cards

[boygirlctommy]

had a dream i invented a new card game called REAL. it was like a mix between commander and uno and played with pokemon cards

[fuctacles]

Anchored

for @steddiemicrofic delay and @stmonstercalendar cecaelia week and yacht from my mermay bingo card T | 408 | Steddie | Robin's POV, established relationship (of some kind), implied possessive and obsessive Eddie, Cecaelia Eddie, co-captains Stobin AU | Ao3

"We're waiting for the weather report," the deckhand explains to a passenger while warily observing Robin storm down from the upper deck towards him.

"And what's the real delay?" she hisses, despite already knowing the answer.

His face crumbles in distress. 

"The captain's missing."

Robin growls. And starts stripping, handing him pieces of her clothing, which he instinctively accepts.

"Wha—"

"Give me half an hour," she says once she's down to a one piece swimsuit, and before he can react, Robin flips over the railing. 

He runs up and watches her swim away for a moment before he goes to find someone to report that not only is the captain missing but also, his co-captain just jumped the railing. 

====

Unlike some people, Robin never was on a swim team, let alone as co-captain. Playing the trumpet did help with lung capacity but she still hated Eddie's place. If she ever falls in love with a merlady, she's permanently moving into her place, because she's not doing a swim like this on the regular. 

She's always dizzy and out of breath when she breaches the surface inside the cave, which is a good thing for Steve considering how much she wants to yell at him. 

Pissed off and shivering, she walks by the smooth walls of stone, slowly not to slip on the puddles and algae under her feet. By now, the sight of the 'bedroom' shouldn't be bothering her, but she can't help the small tinge of anxiety by seeing her best friend in the arms of a creature that could easily snap him in half. (She once half-joked to him about it and got a dreamy sigh in response. Never again.)

Under, around, and over him, Steve is wrapped in an ever-moving mass of tentacles, one set of human hands cradling his face, and huge black eyes gazing at him with hunger that sends shivers down Robin's spine. He looks blissed-out, high out of his mind and content. She almost feels bad pulling him out of it.

"You lovebirds forgot the time?"

Eddie scoffs. He hates when she calls them that.

"Huh?" Steve reluctantly looks away from his lover. 

"You have a yacht to co-captain?" Robin raises an eyebrow.

Slowly, the fog lifts from his eyes.

"Oh. Oh shit, I'm sorry—!" 

She sees Eddie's grip tighten minutely, before slithering away from his body, letting him go with a soft yet possessive kiss. 

"Go be human. I'll wait."

tags: @wheneverfeasible @phantomcat94 @blasvemous

[geniusphilester]

i'm a bit of a balatro nerd, so here's some notes on dan's screencap in his insta story

if you haven't played before, balatro is poker in its most core mechanics, with single-player roguelike (so you lose a lot and build from playing a lot) deck building (what it sounds like, you build your deck) mechanics to make poker Bigger. you can do some weird and wild things with it, but at its base, you're playing flushes and straights and pairs and trying to score chips.

if you want to see it in action, markiplier has a good video that seems like it'll be first in a series.

in balatro, you get a base level of hands per round depending on your deck/add-ons like vouchers or jokers. for checkered deck, which dan is playing, it's 4 hands/3 discards, so you have four hands to try to get enough chips to get to the next round. there are three rounds per ante, and the regular game ends at ante 8. you can also skip rounds to get stuff.

which is the long version of saying: dan has gotten to endless mode, which means he's beat the regular part of the game and is shooting for a ludicrously high score. he has to get 47 billion chips to win this round and get to the next one. for comparison, round 1 in ante 1 on white stake difficulty (which is the one dan's playing in) needs 300 chips to advance.

also for comparison: i have hundreds of hours on this game and i haven't cracked the 100 million chips achievement on steam

he's doing a flush build (which makes sense for checkered deck; it only has hearts and spades, unlike the normal four suits) and his flush is leveled to 24, which is really good/necessary to get this late in the game. he has a lot of money, he used all his discards for the round, and he has a bunch of face cards with modifications on them. it's good strategy just looking at this much, basically

and then all the jokers he has up top make this REALLY impressive. in order from left to right

gluttonous joker: played clubs get +3 multiplier. odd one for checkered deck (no clubs to start with) but a) maybe he added some and b) even if he didn't, it's a negative card, so it's not taking up room that any other joker could use. (for this set of circumstances, base slots for jokers would be five.)

sock and buskin: retrigger all played face cards, which means all the cards dan is playing in this hand will score a second time. two of his face cards have red seals, which means they'd play a third time, one of those red seals is a glass card that'll give him a higher multiplier...i could keep going, but doing a face-card flush build is a good way to score big.

photograph: first played face card gives x2 multiplier when scored. again, another great joker for a face-card build.

blueprint: copies the joker to the right. GREAT card if you have good jokers. it also has holographic, which means it add a +10 multiplier as well.

triboulet: highest tier of joker (legendary) where kings and queens give x2 multiplier when played. but imagine it twice, since he has blueprint as well.

the tribe: x2 multiplier if hand contains a flush. and he's obviously doing a flush build.

to add to all of this, his order is really good because the cards play left to right. times multipliers stack on each other, and since chips get exponential, you need that to really get anywhere.

tl;dr - while some of this is luck (the store doesn't always sell jokers this good at the right time), dan is good at balatro.

[acrinyx]

Ace Trappola Headcanons

Some of my list of Ace headcanons because why not

He has a slight accent with certain words he says and has a different speech pattern depending on who he's talking to

Has scars on his left hand from a mysterious injury and hides them with his glove on regular school days. If he doesn't have his glove, he's using either makeup or a glamor spell he learned from his brother

He doesn't have many friends back home, but the ones he does have are just as playful and mischievous as he is

Ace learned to count cards and is a master at rigging card decks in any player's favor. He learned by watching his brother and father

Even though he doesn't talk about her much, I think Ace adores his mother and his mother favors him over his brother. On the flipside, Ace's father favors his brother but overall everyone has a good standing with each other

Ace doesn't really like kids all that much, but he's really good at taking care of them and has babysat for neighbors a few times

He and his ex-girlfriend are actually on good standing with each other and they still talk fairly frequently

He's a little insecure about his red eyes and thinks that people might think he's evil (thanks cartoons). It also separates him from his brother and father who both have more orange eyes

He's actually very smart but doesn't like applying himself

Ace is secretive for no reason. One of his friends will ask him a very general question like "What are you doing?" or "Where are you going?" and he will just not give them a straight answer. Just a very private person

He is very accepting of other's sexualities and gender identities and everyone thinks he's just an ally. Yuu is the only person at NRC who knows he isn't straight

Despite his attitude that draws attention to himself, he doesn't like being in the spotlight and deflects any unwanted attention onto someone else (birthdays are a nightmare for him)

He fidgets with his glove when he's nervous/anxious/restless and if he isn't wearing his glove, he plays with a deck of cards

Ace's favorite card games are Black Jack, Hearts, Speed, and Poker (Texas Hold 'em)

Ace's family is full of magicians and illusionists and Ace knows almost every trick in the book

I don't think Ace knows exactly what he wants to do when he graduates and he's mostly going to NRC just because his brother did

Sometimes he's found just sitting alone somewhere super random just staring off into space and/or just wandering the halls if he's bored (cryptid)

He genuinely doesn't have a favorite friend. He'd lose his shit if any of them disappeared suddenly

Ace comes off as a coward and only seems like he wants to protect himself, but the moment you insult anyone he cares about his fists start flying (Riddle is painfully aware of this)

He bottles up a lot of his emotions until he literally can't hold in every thought he's ever had

His music taste consists of anything but country and classical music and always fights Epel and Sebek if one of them offers to take control of the playlist

He's very good at spotting liars and after the Playful Land event he was beating himself up a lot over not being able to see that Ernesto was playing them

Sometimes Ace just shows up at Ramshackle and it doesn't matter what time he does (it could be 4am or 3pm it doesn't matter), Yuu always lets him in and they always watch reality TV

Ace is secretly a really good artist but hasn't shown anyone his drawings

[vitaminseetarot]

Back-to-Back PAC Part 2: What is Beginning For You? 🥚🌴🌊

Hey y'all it's time for round 2 of my back-to-back reading! I have to admit I was a little upset that the widespread glitch in tumblr's tags last night messed the mini event up a bit; I was disappointed that my reading wasn't visible in the search until earlier this evening. But it's not gonna stop me from submitting the 2nd half anyway! So if you haven't seen part 1 yet I highly encourage you to check it out as it's my last reading of 2024.

(Yes, I've decided to go with spring colors for these piles!)

Pick any one of the three images above to find out what's beginning for you:

Pile 1: Morganite Nest Pile 2: Aventurine Palm Pile 3: Larimar Sea

Pile 1: Morganite Nest

Knight of Pentacles, King of Pentacles, Page of Swords, 7 of Swords; Non-Attachment, Co-Create, DNA - Karma, Acceptance: all is as it should be

How's it going, pile 1? Your next chapter is going to be a slow and steady one and I get that, in some respects, this will be like a breath of fresh air. In other times, it may test your patience. But there's a sense of serenity that's emerging from you as a result of past experience. You're realizing that some things manifest more brilliantly when they're given their time to form and flourish. I think of all knights, the Knight of Pentacles respects the necessity of sitting back and letting actions speak for themselves before pushing towards the next act. So I see an equal play here of you taking action on something and then detaching from the outcome until you're able to make your next move. This doesn't always mean things have to move slowly, in fact when done in confidence this could become a regular ritual enough to build momentum.

It's like playing a turn based game for the first time; we see somebody play the same game quickly and wonder how it all began. It all began with learning the ropes, the basic moves one by one, until it became ingrained into gamemaster's body as a habit. This beginning is all about embracing the angels of habit forming while making peace with the devils of difficult patterns that must be reconfigured. Habits, either way you spin them, are powerful. In this next phase of life, you're able to balance the two minds, the one focused on abstract goals and the one focused on earthly desires. I'm getting this understanding that both parts need to be heard to be in harmony with each other.

Finally, you're learning a lot in this new beginning as the Page of Swords, but the biggest lesson this year will be in recognizing that you can bring your greatest goals to fruition as the King of Pentacles. He represents your "how" in this reading, meaning that you already possess the strength to build yourself up and it's up to you to use it in a balanced way. This reading, for the most part, seems to be about work-life or school-life balance, though there is also a message here for ambitious creators too. I see you being able to complete many things this year coupled with the sense that you're working along with the universe rather than against it. You're able to discern your capacities from what the world can bring you, what's in your hands versus what's out. And that knowledge is strong, pile 1! You'll have the stamina and the patience to see things through while staying grounded. Reach for the stars and, after you touch them, be sure the clouds catch you and bring you back to the earth once again.

Pile 2: Aventurine Palm

XX Judgement, 9 of Swords, The Prism, Page of Cups; Confidence, Neverending Story, Love - Compassion, Nurture: grow a great life

Hey, pile 2. I wanted to mention that even before I started your reading, a "self-love" card fell out of one of my oracle card decks as I was clearing my desk to prepare your reading. I didn't think much of it until I drew your cards and then knew what it was all about! Pile 2, your next beginning is going to involve so much more personal care for your own well being and happiness. I'm feeling with the Judgement card like this is gonna come almost as a revelation to you. You're going to be given a message that will rock you to your core in regards to old beliefs. This may come as a story someone tells you, or through a work of fiction. It could be something you witness secondhand that causes you to rethink some ideas.

Your beginning is going to come as a wake up call to look after yourself more. Not just in regards to self-care, but in terms of how you perceive yourself as well. How you believe in yourself, and how much trust you're able to put into your own self-belief. The 9 of Swords makes total sense with this as this person's depicted to be falling. Your old self-limiting beliefs that kept you in a loop of confusion and worry are falling away in this next chapter. Being there for yourself is just going to make "sense", I don't know how else to put it. It's like how I'm required to inspect my car every year, but I'm not required to have a yearly physical for my body. It makes sense to look after the car, so much so that it's legally obliged, but I have to be the one to decide if I am worth the same "inspection" for my own health (assuming it's all affordable ahem). The car is being taken care of so it can work right on the road, but can I function? Here I go, comparing myself to a machine, while saying that I'm "fine".

Strong, justifiable anger I'm channeling here. This is the argument I hear in my head right now. "Why do we treat objects better than people?" This is what's changing for you, dear pile 2. It's like caring for yourself won't be seen as just necessary for simply "functioning", but as an act of empowerment for your own life separate of society's. You're right, people should be treated better than material things. Your outrage for others' sake is a reflection of your needs. This blank card with the gem is called Prism, and simply represents everything, all that is. And a loving open palm rests beneath it. This is you seeing your own inner light and worthiness and recognizing gentleness as a great priority. The next chapter in your life calls for radical compassion that spills outward and it starts from you filling your own cup so much that it overflows.

Pile 3: Larimar Sea

7 of Wands, 6 of Cups, X Wheel of Fortune, Queen of Swords (Rx); Festivity, Orphaned, Dragonfly - Emergence, Timing: wait for the right moment

Hello, pile 3. I see a bold new beginning for you filled with vitality. You'll be taking charge life by the horns to go where you've been deeply demanding. No room for auto-pilot based decisions anymore; you will be at the helm of your ship to steer it towards your desire. There is an almost aggressive pollyanna vibe to this reading, insistent on joy. I think you've been striving for this kind of joy for a while, but letting things be as they always were doesn't tend to bring novel results. You're taking more of an active stance on your dreams and that's admirable, pile 3.

I'm kind of getting Rapunzel from Tangled here in how she struggled both inside and out to break free and seek what she knew would fulfill her. Others called her immature but still became inspired to do great things because of that naive hope she held. You are filling your plate with what you want and casting out the naysayers who try to drag you down. You're saying no to those who yell "stop having fun around here!". It is a huge and liberating but also scary feeling to own up to what you want. Like with Rapunzel, there's a mixture of cheering and crying to be had. Your childhood stories are reaching out to you; they want you to reintegrate their lessons for you to take with you moving forward. It's easy to discount them as cheesy, but oftentimes it's those old messages that impact us the deepest. Honoring your inner child is helping you restore your boundaries and reclaim the tower that once held you back as your own.

Your next beginning involves a beautiful glow up due to the immense amount of respect you give to yourself, so much so that you'll be unable to put up with less. Things are turning to your favor as you adapt to life's conditions without losing your emotional core. Some of you will discover a more competitive side to your nature, which may come as a surprise. Perhaps this side was suppressed in childhood but is renewing itself to be understood again. This new beginning will be more able to support you, should you choose to take a bold path to get into something competitive, like playing sports or signing up for an online poetry contest. For others, this is more about pursuing the things you didn't think you had the audacity to do. As long as you take things in stride and don't overthink it, embracing this fierceness will help you burst out of the cocoon like a newborn dragonfly when the time is right. No longer hiding beneath the rocks, the wheels are turning and allowing you to fly forth from the waters.

This reading has not been evaluated by the FDA to diagnose, prevent, treat, or cure any disease or infection. Please ask your physician before going online.

2025, @VitaminseeTarot ™

[mochineesan]

This happened, believe me. Also a small opening of a post I have saved.

――――――――――――🪷――――――――――――

(they didn't know what Ben-Hwa were)

Parker: Oh! Do you like games too? Are you a toy or game of some kind?

Chance: I've never seen a toy like you.

Ben-Hwa:

Ben-Hwa, laughing: Yes, I am a toy. And yes, i like games too. Although I don't think anything you guys have played before

Parker: You can teach us! Since you're our guest, we could start with a game you know.

Ben-Hwa: (They are so innocent and oblivious) well, i like Strip Poker

Chance and Parker: Strip Poker?

Ben-Hwa: yeah, is like regular poker but more... Hot

Parker: Sounds interesting! *gives them a deck of poker cards*

Ben-Hwa, While shuffling the cards: The rules are almost the same. We can play the betting version. But I like my version better.

Chance, Interested: And how does it work?

Ben-Hwa: In the gambling version, instead of betting money, you bet your clothes. Each bet is worth one more item of clothing, and you have to take them off while losing. *Smiles*

Parker and Chance:

Ben-Hwa: In my version, it's more like the game Go Fishing, I think. Each card drawn equals a little more nudity. It's slower, but I love it that way. *Stop shuffling*

Ben-Hwa: Which one do you prefer?

Parker and Chance:

*After that, Parker and Chance couldn't look at Ben-Hwa in the eyes and turned red just remembering them. They learned what a sex toy was, too. And that Ben were too good at gambling.*

――――――――――――🪷――――――――――――

Chance: So, what would you like to choose as your avatar? We have tons of options!

Ben-Hwa: Too many options? Like, Demons?

Chance: Yeah! Actually-

Ben-Hwa, Smiling: I want to be a succubus

Chance, blushing: W-well, I mean... I guess it's okay

*After playing for a while*

Chance: B-Ben, I don't think- well, the characters aren't supposed to interact with the Dungeon Master and-

Ben-Hwa: Ow, but I really wanted to see if I could get the shirt off the adorable Dungeon Master *wink*

Chance:

Chance: You know- we better play another day- I have- yeah..

――――――――――――🪷――――――――――――

I'm not necessarily shipping anyone, I just like to think Ben-Hwa flirts with everyone because they like to make them nervous. And it was easy to pick the first two nerds I thought of. But you can also see it as a ship. (Oh, also sorry if this feels a little OOC, I haven't played the game but I've seen many, many gameplays so I hope that's enough)

[queenlua]

hey lua what decks do phoenix aceattorney and miles aceattorney play in magic

PHOENIX WRIGHT

once upon a time, a friend bullied me into going to a Pro Tour Qualifier, which was probably the largest Magic tournament i’d ever been to at that time, right?

i was happy to be bullied, to be clear, but the problem was… i hadn’t played standard-format Magic competitively in about 2-3 years.  so my knowledge of the current metagame, what deck archetypes were popular, and what the current cards even were, was staggeringly limited.

“it will be fine,” said my friend.  “here, take this spare deck i built.  it’s super-straightforward and easy,” he lied.

he said this to me approx. 8 seconds before the first round began, so uhhhhh, i sure was playing a game of magical cards without ever having even looked at the damn deck before!

so, lo, literally in the course of playing the deck, i was learning how this shit was supposed to work.  “oh!” i’d exclaim with delight, halfway through my turn.  “THAT’S how those two cards are supposed to interact.  oh that’s super clever.  what a neat combo.”  and then i’d proceed to shiftily look at my opponent over my cards, riffle those cards a lil bit, and then say “pass” with as much of an enigmatic vibe as i could muster.

meanwhile, my opponent was Actually Prepared, and they were Trying To Win, and they were pissed.  they threatened to call Slow Play on me because i was taking so fucking long reading all the cards.  as in, he literally called a judge over, who stood there watching me the whole time, in order to determine if i was being Criminally Bad At Magic versus just A Regular Amount Of Bad At Magic, and i was sweating bullets the whole time because i didn’t know this deck or their deck or any of those cards and AHHHH why is the judge staring at me!!!

….which only served to make it EXTRA-humiliating for this poor fuck when i proceeded to eviscerate them 2-0.  hahahah get dunked onnnnnnnn nerd!!!

and then i also proceeded to eviscerate my next opponent???

sheer dumb luck.  i cannot overstate how ill-prepared i was for this tournament.  i absolutely did not deserve these wins.

meanwhile the friend who gave me the deck was having a much worse time with their deck, and they were like “what the fuck. you weren’t supposed to win. how are you winning with that shit, my deck’s so much better than yours”

anyway.  i think that’s the kind of scenario Phoenix would get into if he were an MtG player.  dude Gets Himself Into Situations And Then Uses Cleverness + Bullshit + Luck To Get Out Again.

(AA4-era Phoenix seems like he’s doing the same thing… but, in reality, he’s actually been meticulously crafting his deck in secret for the past six months.  he’s not even aiming to win the tournament, he’s just exploiting a known weakness in the opponent-matching system that lets him know with certainty who he’s going to get matched up against (spoiler: first round is Kristoph), and he’s hyper-optimizing his deck to beat Literally Only Those People.  meanwhile, Apollo, who built a tryhard hyper-optimized variant of Red Deck Wins, is lowkey annoyed that Phoenix's seemingly-random pile keeps vaulting him just one table above him in the standings, because Apollo knows his deck is better. he knows it!!!! just let him go 1v1 and prove it aaaaughhhh!!!)

((also, in case you want Actual Concrete Cards And Colors And Stuff: in general i think Phoenix prefers limited play (draft, sealed, "anything where you open booster packs on the spot & throw a deck together") to constructed play, because he doesn't like being tied down to any one game plan. when he does play constructed, i think he's less attached to a specific colors and more attached to specific mechanics. in particular: he's not a combo player exactly, but he likes mechanics that feel like bullshit. dude saw Madness for the first time & his eyes lit up & he was in LOVE, "you mean i'm discarding the card but then i can cast it for free??? hell YES." he absolutely ran a poison counter deck during New Phyrexia. ah fuck i just realized he was probably a huge stan for noted awful expansion Battle for Zendikar, i think i gotta cancel him now, sorry))

((and i think Phoenix also has a touch of Timmy in him! like, i went to a huge state tournament once with a bunch of really skilled players, and there was this one dude in our car who had a really solid deck, clearly adhered to a lot of the trends in the meta at the time... but his win condition was a Shivan Dragon. which wasn't a bad card at the time, it was a reasonable win condition, but it was... slightly suboptimal? not at all the obvious pick? sort of random? and multiple people asked him "why is that your win condition" & he shrugged and said "i like dragons." so the dragon stayed & that dude ended up getting second place in the whole tournament so FUCK optimal play, bring a dragon. i think Phoenix would sneak in a dragon now and again. just 'cause))

MILES EDGEWORTH

this one is trickier!!!

young!Miles is just going to play Whatever The Meta Deems To Be The Best Deck, right. the von Karma perfection thing and all. it's all very boring & micro-optimized to be the Best Deck Of Its Kind & he pours over the results of the big name tournaments week after week & does some math or whatever to hyper-optimize his own build of the Obviously Correct Deck. there is no soul in any of this, purely Executing On A Formula.

...but then he experiences Character Growth & has his big gay crisis & now he has to pick up the game again. he opens the latest tournament results... clicks around some win % stats for various cards in a desultory kinda way, and... his heart's just not in it, right?

enter 2-4 era Miles. 2-4 era Miles is playing some utterly unhinged Five Color Good Stuff thing. there's a lot of Planar Chaos cards in there, because that whole set was about Weird Shit & cards doing Stuff You're Familiar With (But In The Utterly Wrong Color!!!) & all that is resonating with Miles more than he'd care to admit. he cannot possibly talk about his unnecessary feelings but he can make a weird noise rock album about them. and by noise rock album i mean this fucking Magic deck.

and he's playing this deck with a 100% straight face, as though this is the exact same behavior that won him the Junior Super Series five years in a row & not a desperate cry for help from a madman. everyone else is like Miles... are you playing fucking singletons... in a fucking standard deck... you know your deck will be more consistent with four-ofs right... and then he gives a cool fish-eyed stare & taps out to cast some arcane bullshit legendary creature & gives a single rap of his knuckles against the table to indicate that he's passing the turn.

and it works, is the thing! all those years of training to be the Spikiest Spike Ever have paid off; this Five Color Good Stuff thing relies on some pretty clever insights to make the mana base work, and parts of what he's doing eventually get adopted by the larger metagame to become an Actual Serious Deck. but, like. it's still a monstrosity. any skilled players watching are still definitely wondering Are You Okay, Dude.

after 2-4, i think Miles settles back into playing something more normal. he still cares about winning, but he's going to do it with a touch of class. he wants a game that involves dialogue, some actual back-and-forth, because just trying to combo off is lame coward behavior.

aw yeah baby we're talking counterspells!!!

he's a blue player at heart & he's happiest when he's updating the autopsy report shutting down whatever his opponent's plan is. he'll splash other colors as the occasion calls for it, but he'd be happy running mono-blue the rest of his life. like, i ran a pretty fun Legacy deck back in the day which consisted of:

every kind of counterspell i could get my hands on,

propaganda because FUCK creatures,

thieving magpies for the card draw,

and a few silver wyverns to, y'know, actually win the game

...and i think Miles would appreciate that deck. just play counterspells until the opponent runs out of steam & then cruise your way to victory with a couple birds. simple. elegant. classic. doesn't involve any of this modern Planeswalker bullshit (Miles regards most developments that happened to MtG post-Time Spiral block or so as affronts to game design).

(i do think Miles has a secret fondness for sagas as a card type, however. they remind him of all that Character Growth, but in an abstract/subconscious/nonthreatening way. too bad most of them are a bit of poor match for the kinds of decks he likes to play)

FINALLY: i think Miles hates playing Commander with every fiber of his being & Phoenix loves it & this is a pretty serious point of contention in their relationship. poor dudes

[dr-spectre]

This is legitimately one of the worst videos about the Switch 2 I have ever seen in my life. This video literally made me go "WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?" every 5 seconds. There's a difference between fairly critiquing something, and then there's... THIS.

Misinformation galore, bullying others for how they spend their money, claiming that every single Switch 2 cartridge is a digital copy that you cannot trade to your friends when it's not like that. THE GAME KEY CARDS CAN BE TRADED IN LIKE REGULAR PHYSICAL GAMES AND CAN BE GIFTED TO FRIENDS!!!! Sure, i still don't like game key cards, but still AT LEAST I CAN HAND THEM TO MY FRIENDS, AND THEY WON'T VANISH IF MY ACCOUNT GETS DELETED!!! ALSO! THERE ARE STILL PHYSICAL GAMES ON SWITCH 2!!!! THERES JUST TWO KINDS OF CARTRIDGES NOW!!! Mario Kart World is on the cartridge, DK Bananza is on the cartridge, Cyberpunk 2077 with the dlc is on the cartridge. No updates, no downloads, just plop it in and play. It's that fucking simple. The issue is that a lot of third parties are using the game key cards because its significantly cheaper and that is a problem that needs to be addressed.

He also said that you need to pay NSO TO USE A GAMECUBE CONTROLLER WHICH IS SO FUCKING BATSHIT INSANE TO ME!! LIKE. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!?!?!?! ITS JUST A ONE TIME PURCHASE! YOU DONT NEED TO PAY NSO TO USE A CONTROLLER!!!! WHAT ARE YOU ON?!?! Sure you need an NSO subscription to actually be able to buy the controller, that does suck i agree, BUT THE CONTROLLER ISNT LOCKED TO THE INTERNET!!! EXCUSE ME?!?!?!

He claims that the Switch 2 is using decade old hardware despite it being more powerful than a Steam Deck and it's only 1080p, which is half false, the handheld display is 1080p but when docked it can output to 4k. Saying that a handheld display that runs at 1080p, 120hz with hdr is outdated technology and that "my ps3 can run 1080p" is fucking psychotic. News flash dickhead, the PS3 barely could manage 720p for games. I own a PS3, most games look fucking disgusting and nasty today because most of them ran at a resolution lower than 720p. The Switch 2 is a handheld console and the screen's specs are actually on par with other gaming pc handhelds. (Sure the LCD kinda sucks but im talking about the raw specs here.) He said too that Cyberpunk runs at 720p on Switch 2 which is false. The game targets 1080p and has a dynamic resolution so that the game can maintain a stable frame rate, this is a common thing within these powerful handheld consoles you fucking idiot. Sure the game can go down to as low as 520p, but it'll probably be for only a single fucking second when so much shit is happening on screen.

Also, he said that the PS3 has 500gb of storage while the Switch 2 has 256gb. Um... you fucking moron, the PS3 uses a common storage format of a HDD so it's able to go that high and still be affordable, and even then the console only launched with either 20, 40 or 60gb of storage and only got 500gb IN ITS FINAL YEAR OF EXISTENCE!!!! The Switch 2's storage is SIGNIFICANTLY faster than a fucking spinning hard drive from the 2000s you absolute moronic sub human.

The Steam Deck LCD model comes with 256gb of storage, the other gaming handheld consoles on the market that do have higher storage capabilities also cost significantly more, and if the Switch 2 was more expensive to have more storage then you would complain about that too wouldn't you?

He also said that the Switch 1 games ported over to Switch 2 are more expensive, which is half true. Yes, the Switch 2 version of Mario Party Jamboree is more expensive than the Switch 1 version. But that is because it comes with DLC!!! AND BY THE WAY, THE SWITCH 1 VERSION CAN BE UPGRADED!!! YOU CAN BUY A PRE OWNED COPY OF THE GAME AND THEN UPGRADE IT!!! YOU DONT NEED TO PAY FULL PRICE!!! Plus he fails to mention the free upgrades like Splatoon 3 and Pokemon SV. There are so many Switch 1 games that are better on Switch 2 for free simply because it's running on a stronger console. The Switch 2 is backwards compatible with the Switch 1 and most games will run perfectly fine or run better, but he fails to mention that.

The only thing I agree with him is the price of Mario Kart World. As someone who has played the game, yeah, it's not worth the price. I would rather pay the price i paid for Mario Kart World for DK Bananza instead. And the whole "you can't do a class action lawsuit against us" thing in the terms or service, yeah that should be fucking illegal and not allowed at all.

Also, he claims that Nintendo doesn't care about making fun games anymore which... is a crazy thing to say when we are gonna get Donkey Kong Bananza, Kirby Air Riders, Metroid Prime 4, Splatoon Raiders, Rhythm Heaven Groove and Tomodachi Life Living the Dream.... and of course the eventual 3D Mario, the onslaught of Zelda games both top down and fully 3d, the barrage of Kirby games both mainline and spin-offs, Splatoon 4, next Animal Crossing, new IPs, i could really go on bro.

Also also, he talks about how if you mod your console, Nintendo will brick it, which is half true and has nuance to it, which is something this guy clearly doesn't understand.

Yes, if Nintendo does detect that you are using mods or anything not authorised, ONLINE!!!! They will ban your console. However, you can just put your Switch 2 offline and you can use the eventual homebrew and emulators, just like how it works with the Switch 1. Every single console manufacturer does this too. If they detect you are using mods and cheating online, they will ban you, this has been a thing since the Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii, you stupid, stupid boy.

Anyways, I'm done. I needed to fucking rant.

[jasontoddscrowbars]

Part 20 of Go Fish? 🃏1️⃣

(A wittle skit for making it to 20.)

The Kents house. The only time the Wayne’s truly try to be on their best behavior. Martha is what is equivalent to a goddess. She makes good pie.

If you’re bad. You don’t get pie.

They sit outside on the back porch, a few games set before them. They have to choose carefully. Any of these games could be detrimental to dessert time. Go fish leads to cheating. Old maid to alliances. War took on knew terms with superheroes.A new pack of cards were on the old picnic table.

Uno.

Jason: it’s a trap.

He would know. His husband was always testing him with them and Jason had been yet to be successful.

Kon, leaning back with a cocky sneer: probably.

The Kent’s know the Robins true sides. Their flakey fake behavior just to con Martha for a slice of pie and to look like saints compared to her grandsons.

They’d had enough.

Dick, somber: uno

The box is opened and cards dealt by a third party, Alfred, the only person both sides could agree on to remain neutral.

They do well. The intensity of the game is instant. No laughter is shared. This is like a game of poker. Faces are stone. Cards are kept down. No one really likes playing but when Martha says to go play outside you don’t go against her word.

Soon everyone is down to their last few cards.

Tim has analyzed everything.

He isn’t worried about Dick. Dick has been getting upset about reds, blues and greens. He must have yellows, most have already been played. He never uses the numbers on the cards. Too complicated. He has the most cards anyways.

Jason is no threat. He doesn’t take games that had no money being bet on them seriously. He would throw the game for Tim to win anyways. He’ll do it to get the booty later.

Damian is indifferent. He is competitive but he also doesn’t give a shit about card games. He has a better value for his skills but if you give him a reason to think that value is being used his interest may be piqued. Plus, Tim glanced at his cards. They were all switches. This would become valuable in due time.

The Kent’s didn’t matter. They were witnesses so his win couldn’t be brushed under the rug.

Kon played down a yellow. Dick perked up. Jon and placed a yellow four. Damian his yellow card. Tim hummed.

Oh, whatever shall he do…

He hovered his fingers atop the cards. Back and forth. Back and forth. Forth and back. Danced over the middle one that he pushed up tauntingly slow. They all knew then. Never play uno against a mad man.

He picked it up from the top now and tossed it down to the pile.

A wild card. Worst. A wild card that you can write your own rule on.

Jason, furrowing his brows: pick up… twenty?! Tim! You fucking prick! I’m your husband!

Tim just cheekily grinned. Leaned on his elbow to watch in full glory what is his beautiful man sulking.

Tim: oh, but it says you do get to play one down. Usually you have to skip a turn.

Jason: what color?

Tim: oh, yellow still

Jason: I’m going to fucking destroy your ass tonight.

Jason began to pick them up while grumbling under his breath. With them in his pile he’s clearly disappointed. He had one yellow card. He threw it down. Reverse play.

Tim hummed as he placed his card on the table. Just a regular wild card. Dick pulls his hair in distress. The signs of some sort of fixing of the cards here is coming to the light. To the others. Dick is still oblivious.

Dick: what the?

Tim: don’t worry Dick. It’s still yellow.

Dick, pausing: oh! … hey!

Damian has caught onto this plan. Tim has let him seen his deck. He doesn’t bother to hide his smug little grin as he placed down his switch card.

Jason: fuck!

Tim places another card down. His final wild.

Tim: uno-

Dick, slumping: oh.

Tim: and color is red.

Dick: double oh.

Jon, nervous: what’s happening here?

Kon, impressed and just as scared: the downfall of a man. We were never a factor here but a tool.

Jason: what happened to we will always work together? To make everyone else’s lives a living hell? It’s not supposed to be mine!

Dick: what plan?

Tim, ignoring him so well he didn’t hear him: you’re my husband. That’s half of your duties. Read the card.

Jason, pouting his lip: select one and… tell Tim who your favorite Robin- aw shit.

Tim patiently waited. The others did. Jason timidly picked up his card. He saw it was red. The color Tim had just called. So the cards had been fixed. He knew then Alfred was in on this too.

He hysterically tossed his cards down as he rose in his defense. How did Tim even find out?! It was a stupid question. Tim knows everything- most of it by Damian. Last time Jason gets high in a jacuzzi with a bitch.

Jason: he’s my big brother! I always looked up to him as THE ROBIN!

Tim: so did I. To you.

Jason, lip quivering, plopping back down to his seat: dammit.

Tim tosses his final card to the pile.

Dick holds his yellow cards tight so his knuckles are white. His eyes are wet. It’s a bittersweet win to be his brothers favorite Robin. A sour loss that it’d been yellow most of the game and he’d been so close-

He whipped his cards down.

Dick: you asshole! You knew I had yellow!

Damian: dumbass.

Martha: I hear swearing! No pie tonight!

—-

Jason and Tim quietly settled down to bed. Jason wasn’t sure what to do tonight. If he should head straight to the dog house and join Bruce or not. He hoped not. Bruce cuddles.

Thankfully Tim fits tightly into him as he crawls in. Jason looks down at him. Really looks down. He kisses the top of his head.

Jason: you know… Dick was my favorite Robin.

Tim: I know. That was the point.

Jason: was. I didn’t marry him though.

He felt Tim’s heat instantly radiate against him. His little arms wrapped tighter pulling Jason in.

Jason: so? I’m your favorite Robin?

Tim:… no. It’s Damian.

Jason paused but as he saw the flush over Tim’s ears he knew better.

Jason: sure it is.

Tim:

Jason: right?

Tim:

Jason: right. I know I am.

Tim: if you don’t roll over I will go join Clark in his bed.

Jason huffed but rolled over letting Tim big spoon him.

Favorite Robin, huh?

Clark: I’ll cuddle the Baby Bird!

As Tim flashed up, Jason spun his arm around while turning with glowing demon eyes, tackling Tim down to the bed.

Bonus:

Clark: who is your favorite Robin?

Bruce: don’t have one.

Clark, nodding as he eats the kids pie: huh. Well mines Damian. Because he is the only sane one.

Bruce: he isn’t. Really. Trust me.

Clark chuckled: I know. But relative to you guys he is.

Clark laid back in the grass along side Bruce. They watched the stars. Saw a meteorite pass.

Clark: it’s Tim.

Bruce inhales deeply.

Bruce: yeah. It’s Tim.

[screamqueenmacher]

Yearning - Dean Winchester x Reader

Also posted on ao3 :)

Unbelievable. Unreal. Maybe even ethereal. Indescribable.

That was Dean Winchester. Indescribable. 

Well, actually, you had a million and one ways to describe him, from his piercing, perfect green eyes, to his charming freckles, and his unwavering bravery. But there were just so many adjectives in the human language that you could apply to him, including annoying and brutish, that it was easier just to call him indescribable. 

You hadn't known the hunter for very long, maybe a couple of years at this point. Maybe that was long for hunters, and maybe even for regular people, but for you it didn't feel like much. You didn't text, or have each other on social media. You'd only met him because he and his brother, Sam, had saved you from some freak called a Leviathan. You weren't cut out for the life of a hunter, but how could you go back to living like you had been? You were smart, but you didn't have the body needed for such intense and strenuous activity. So, you could read and learn, and if Sam or Dean ever needed help, they could call you and you would research anything they needed. 

You'd heard they found a permanent residence, just in passing when Sam had called you one night. You hadn't expected an invitation to visit a few weeks later. Not move, just visit. You didn't need to move. You had a boring job and empty house to come home to, after all. Maybe you should get a pet. 

Sam wanted help with the library and the mass amount of artifacts laying around. Dean wasn't a lot of help, unless it involved playing with said artifacts. He and Sam had already gotten into multiple arguments, including one that ended with two bedroom doors slamming shut when Dean broke a lamp. That one left you alone, confused for a moment, in the library surrounded by a half-assed catalog system that you'd been working on. You'd wondered if they were finally living like teenagers because this was the first permanent home they'd really had. Maybe you'd ask that exact question later when one of them would eventually emerge. 

“We aren't acting like teenagers. He is.” Sam had rolled his eyes at your question when he was, unsurprisingly, the first to return. 

“Sure. Whatever helps you sleep at night.” You teased, smirking as he huffed at you in response. 

It went on like that for a while, until it was time to eat, and Dean had come back out to join you both. He'd offered to go out and grab something from a local diner, and you were no fool. Of course you'd accept a free meal.

It was while the gorgeous nuisance was gone that it happened. You'd picked up a deck of cards from a shelf, one card falling out and fluttering to the floor. You'd assumed it was just a deck that the old inhabitants used to play games, until a shock like a bolt of lightning hit you as you picked up the stray card. Crying out, you dropped everything, the card and pack hitting the floor. Sam rushed to your side, looking you over with confusion. 

“Don't touch that!” You hurriedly warned him, pointing to the items on the ground. You moved to pick them up again, readying yourself for another nasty shock. Luckily, it didn't come. 

“What happened? Are you sure you should be holding that?”

“No. I don't know. I picked up this card that fell and it felt like I got shocked.” Frowning, you finally looked at the single card. Ace of Hearts. That felt…bad. “I'll put it back in the deck, but I feel like we need to research this thing. There's no way those are normal cards.”

“Right. Let me grab my laptop and I'll get on it.” Barely leaving, his long legs carried him back quickly. Taking a seat at the table, you described the artwork on the box and what had been on the card. 

“It's just like…I dunno it looks like old style tattoo art. There's flowers and hearts, and a woman wearing a very revealing dress.” You frowned, trying to remember the card as well. “Oh. The card had a little symbol in the heart. It looked like the symbol for Venus.”

“You just know what the symbol for Venus looks like by memory?”

“I was really into astrology as a teenager, sue me.” You huffed, shrugging. 

“Okay, well, I'll look into it. Do you feel alright?” He was staring at you, as if he could spot any physical changes.

“I feel fine. It shocked me, literally, but nothing else weird has happened.” That, apparently, wasn't what the giant wanted to hear because he was frowning now as he typed away.

You didn't have to wait for very long before he was suddenly sitting up straighter. You noticed he did that when he found something. But, he was still frowning, eyebrows drawn. It was actually starting to make you worried. 

“Okay, well, I can't find anything on the deck itself, but get this…that's not the only card of its kind. There have been multiple cases where people have used that symbol on an ace of hearts card before. Sometimes it's to help someone and sometimes it's to hurt.”

“Help or hurt, how?” You fiddled with the catalog, eyes not leaving him.

“Well, it says here that whoever touches the card, that would be you-” Finally, his eyes left the screen to look at you for a moment. He looked…confused more than concerned. “Has to admit to their deepest desire. Whatever their heart holds as the object of that desire will be, quote, unquote, affected until that time.”

“My deepest desire? I don't have that.” Now he looked at you, expression unamused. “Sam, I don't-”

“What about Dean?”

“What about Dean? I had a crush on him when you guys first saved me. If you recall, I thought you were pretty cute, too. Glad I got that out of my system.” You scoffed, ignoring the way he rolled his eyes at you. 

“Very funny. The card knows something you desire, so you better think hard about it.”

Think hard about it. You didn't have to think that hard. Maybe you did have a crush on Dean, and maybe it didn't fizzle out like you claimed it had. How could it? He was God's gift to mankind, or womankind. He was gorgeous, and charming, and perfect in ways he could comprehend. This was going to be an absolute disaster. How would Dean be affected? 

Speak of the devil, well, not the devil, but the devil to your heart, Dean himself was back with the food. Joining you and Sam, he seemed perfectly fine. 

“Why are you both looking at me like that?” Shit. You hoped your flushed cheeks weren't obvious to either of them, instead deciding to tidy up the papers around you.

“We should eat in the kitchen. In case.” Sam's suggestion was smart, and it got Dean out of the room. “I knew it.”

“You didn't know shit, Winchester.” You hissed, cheeks aflame. Both of you hurried to join his brother in the kitchen, not wanting to draw more attention to what could become a problem. 

You ate in silence, eyes occasionally flicking to Dean. He seemed fine. Looked fine. He wasn't in pain or melting or…something else weird.

“I tell ya what…this burger is damn good.” Him speaking almost made you physically startle, it had been so quiet amongst the three of you. “I felt half starved on the way here.”

“Yeah, I was really getting hungry, too. Been busy.” Nodding his head, he didn't seem like he knew anything was up with you or his brother. Good. That was a good sign.  -----------------

You'd gone back to the library, Sam and Dean joining you. You clearly needed to figure out how to break this curse or whatever it was, but Dean didn't need to know there was an issue. Sam had been trying to bring it up, but you'd found a way to interrupt him with something else multiple times. 

“He needs to know something is going on.” He whispered harshly, his head ducked by yours. 

“He doesn't need to know anything. He's fine.”

“Him being fine doesn't mean you aren't cursed.” Fair point. 

“Yeah, which means we need to get me uncursed.”

“He could help-”

“He can't help-”

“What the hell are you two whispering about?” Dean's voice startled you both, causing your heads to knock together. Both of you straightened, hands rubbing collision spots, and you saw the way Dean couldn't contain the laugh he let out. “C'mon. You two are hiding something from me.”

“She's cursed.” Eyes wide and mouth agape, you stared at Sam as he blurted your secret. He cringed immediately after, looking at you apologetically. 

“What?! And you're just now mentioning it?!” Dean stood up, coming closer. You held up your hands in defense. 

“It's not that bad. We don't even really know what it is yet. I'm fine.” You hoped, anyway. You still hadn't learned what would happen if you didn't admit that pesky desire. “Sam's been doing research.”

“I need a drink.” The older Winchester came to a stop in front of you, looked you over, and turned to grab the whiskey he'd brought in earlier in the day. You released a sigh as he downed the shot.

“I don't think you'll die from-”

“You don't think?” 

“Well, I can't really tell yet! There's not a lot of lore here, but I'm almost positive you won't die.” Sam continued typing as you stared at him. 

“What even happened?” Dean's voice was gruff as he pulled your attention to him.

“It was one of the artifacts. I touched something I shouldn't have and got zapped.” You still felt ridiculous about it.

“What's the curse?”

“Something about gambling.” The lie flew from you before you could stop it. You ignored Sam's grunt of disapproval. “My luck is affected, or something. It was a deck of cards.”

“That doesn't seem too bad, but remember that rabbit's foot?” He looked at his younger brother, eyebrows raised. You'd heard stories from that incident. Sounded like a nightmare. 

“Ugh, don't remind me.” The giant shook his head. He looked at you for a moment before standing. “I'm going to do more research from my room. Y/N, maybe you should tell Dean more about the curse.”

“Oh, I sure would if I could, Sam. I only know as much as you tell me.” You squinted at him, glaring dangerously. You stood as well, stretching dramatically. “Besides, it's pretty late. I doubt we can uncurse me tonight, anyway.”

“You're extremely calm about this.” Dean scoffed, watching you a little too closely for your comfort. His intense gaze made you fidget. “I need to do some stuff, anyway. Since you probably won't die.”

“What stuff do you need to do?” Sam scoffed, earning a glare from the older Winchester. 

“Just…stuff. I need to do stuff. Shut up.” He grumbled, and the three of you went your separate ways. ---------------------------

The next morning was uneventful. You still felt fine, completely normal. You showered and got dressed, heading to the kitchen, where you could smell something delicious. Walking in, Dean was currently flipping a pancake, a plate of bacon already sat at the table with Sam. 

“Wow. Smells good.” You grinned, excitedly taking a seat where an empty plate was waiting for you. “What's the special occasion?”

“Just needed some pancakes. Bacon's just a plus.” Dean shrugged, putting the last pancake on top of the mountain of pancakes he had on a big plate. Bringing them over, he sat them in the middle of the table before taking a seat next to you.

“Thanks for making enough to share.” You teased, not hesitating to load your plate. You also used the butter and syrup that had been placed on the table as well, as did both brothers. 

The pancakes were amazing, because of course they were. Of course Dean Winchester could make a simple pancake taste astounding. Dick. You were distracted from your pancake eating when he got up from next to you, rummaging through the pantry. 

“What are you doing?” Sam was watching him as well.

“Need something else…” He grumbled, still searching. He hummed in approval, pulling out a bag of chocolate chips. He sprinkled them on top of his stack, digging in without saying anything else.  ----------------------

After breakfast, Dean had left you and Sam, claiming that he needed to do something with Baby. He didn't seem too concerned about your curse now, but that was okay. You didn't need him learning anything about what was actually happening, anyway. 

“Do you think he's acting weird?” Sam questioned, pulling you out of the article you'd been reading. 

“Weird how?”

“I don't know. He keeps saying he needs things and needs to do ‘stuff’.” He used air quotes as he said it. 

“I think you're looking too far into it.” You shook your head. There's no way that meant anything. 

“I just think-” He cut himself off as Dean was heard approaching. When his brother came in, he sat down near you, not saying anything. “You good, man?”

“Yeah. Needed to help you guys out, right? Figure out this curse.” He acted like it was so obvious. You exchanged glances with Sam. 

“I'm not sure there's much you can help with.” You interjected, before Sam could actually accept his offer to help. It earned you an eye roll from the younger of the two. 

“Hey, I can research too, you know.” Dean frowned at you, puffing up slightly. 

“No, I'm not saying you don't yearn to learn like Sam and I.” You tried to joke, but the way he shifted in his seat made you pause. He had a look of…you couldn't place it. It almost looked like something suddenly dawned on him, but he didn't say anything. “I just think Sam has it covered. I'm about to go back to cataloging, anyway.”

“Right.” He huffed, standing up again. First, he moved slightly closer to you. Then, he took a deep breath and left the room.

“See? He's acting weird. The curse is-”

“Sam, I can't-”

“You need to. You may be fine, but it's affecting Dean.” He gave you a pointed look. “I get it's embarrassing, but-”

“Embarrassing? Yeah, it's fucking embarrassing.” You sneered, ignoring his exasperated huff.

“You have to get over it. What if he ends up getting hurt?” You didn't know how that would happen, but you would feel horrible if he got hurt because of you.

“Fine. I'm going to pack my bags so I can make a quick escape after I embarrass myself.”

“You're being dramatic. He may like you, you know.”

“Nice try, Sam. I already agreed to admit it.” You sighed, getting up from the library table to go to your borrowed room. ----------------------

You'd packed your bag, bringing it with you so you could make another quick exit after your confession. You knew well enough that Dean didn't have an interest in you like that, and that was okay. You just hated that you had to make a fool of yourself like this. Things would be awkward now.

You stopped outside of Dean's door, fist raised to knock as the door began opening anyway. You simply looked at each other for a moment, getting lost in the beauty of his green gaze, until he noticed your bag. He frowned. 

“Where're you going?” You looked down at your bag, then back to him, then down again. 

“I need to tell you something about the curse, but I have to go after.”

“Like hell you're going anywhere before we fix you.” You saw the determination in his eye, both of you reaching for your bag. Your hands touched, and it was like another zap of electricity shot through you. 

You pulled your hand back, as if you'd been burned, but Dean advanced on you. Soon, your back hit the wall opposite of his door, and his hands were cradling your face. There wasn't another zap, but there wasn't much time to focus on anything else because now he was kissing you. 

Dean Winchester was kissing you.

It didn't last long, but you'd remember it forever. When he broke away, he didn't go far, his forehead resting against yours. His eyes were closed, but yours were busy memorizing every detail of his perfect face. You'd probably never see it again after he found out the curse made him do that.

“Sorry, I just…I needed to do that.” He finally opened his eyes, barely Moving his face back from yours. 

“I know, I'm sorry. That's what I needed to tell you. That's the curse's fault…my fault.” You took a deep breath, deciding to finish your thought before he could interrupt you. “The card I touched put a curse on me, saying I had to admit my deepest desire or else it would be affected. I…I really like you, and that's why you've been so…weird.”

It was silent. He was still close, but one of his hands left your skin to instead run down his face. He wasn't saying anything, and that was making you nervous. 

“Um, anyway, now I've admitted it. So, I'm gonna go, and you should be back to normal.” You slid out from between him and the wall, but his hand caught your wrist as you reached for your bag. All you could do was stare at him in surprise. 

“Earlier, when you made that joke about yearning to learn or whatever, it made me realize that's what I was doing. I was fucking yearning for something, and I couldn't figure out what it was. I just felt this need ever since I was grabbing dinner last night. That's when you touched the card, right?” You swallowed hard, nodding dumbly. “It wasn't until we touched that I felt like I finally found what I needed. Once you admitted your desire, or whatever, that intense feeling went away.”

“Dean, I'm so sorry-”

“That's not what I mean. The compelling feeling is gone, but I still need you. Still want you. I felt that way before the curse.” Now you were gawking, you knew it. 

“What?”

“I like you, too. I didn't think you were all that interested in me. You have so much more in common with Sam-”

“You're insane.” He scoffed, rolling his eyes.

“Well, it made sense! You're always texting with him, or calling him, never me. Then, you were talking about your curse with him and leaving me out-”

“Yeah, because the curse was about you.”

“I mean, I know that now.” He shook his head, but then smirked a little. “You really like me, huh?”

“Shut up, Winchester.” You blushed deeply, pouting at him. That earned a grin from him, and you couldn't help but smile a little at that as well. He was so gorgeous when he smiled. And when he frowned. Ugh, he was just gorgeous. 

“Are you thinking about me right now?”

“I'll hit you.” The cocky fuck.

“Nah, you think I'm too pretty.”

“You willing to risk that?” He laughed, shaking his head. 

“Alright, alright.” He grabbed your bag, then grabbed your hand. “Come on, you're not leaving yet. We have to make up for some lost time.”

[knowledge-from-the-abyss]

Divination

What is divination? 

Divination usually (but does not always) involves using tools as a way to communicate with deities, guides, spirits etc (any being that resides on the astral plane). Here are some common divination methods people use. 

Pendulums (sometimes used alongside spirit boards)

Tarot cards

Oracle cards

Cartomancy 

Shufflemancy (using music to do divination) 

Osteomancy (bone throwing) 

Dice 

Coins

There are many many different forms of divination that you can research and utilize, however these are some of the common forms of divination that I see people using. I’ll also be covering some information about channeling and automatic writing later on in this post. 

Questions about Tarot, Oracle, Cartomancy (divination using any type of cards)

Can I buy my own decks/divination tools? 

Yes, you can absolutely buy your own decks or other divination tools. I know there is a lot of misinformation about this out there, some communities say that you aren’t allowed to buy your own decks (especially with tarot) but this is not true, you can and honestly should buy your own tools. You can always accept gifts as well, however in my experience with some of my friends getting me decks, I ended up getting rid of them because I didn’t vibe with their energies. When I buy my own decks, it's a lot easier for me to figure out if I’m going to like the energy of that deck and if we’ll get along. This goes for any divination tool as well! 

A huge reason this question comes up a lot when it comes to divination is because hundreds of years ago, people were judged and scrutinized for practicing witchcraft (and divination is considered witchcraft). Divination and other forms of witchcraft had to be done in secret, so going out and buying a tarot deck was not something someone could openly do. Nowadays, of course, most of the world does not have these same views. 

How do I shuffle my cards? How do I pick cards? 

There are many different ways to shuffle your cards; this can also depend on how big or small your cards are. I definitely recommend looking up various ways to shuffle online (most of the tips online will show you different methods to shuffle a regular playing deck). 

In regards to picking cards for a reading, there are also various ways to do this too. Some people will let the cards fall out and whatever cards fall out are meant for the reading. Some people shuffle until their intuition tells them to stop, and then they pull cards until their intuition tells them to stop (this is a method I use sometimes). Some people fan their cards out and pick the cards they are drawn to select. For me personally, I generally do the first method, but I only select cards that fall out with the card face up. 

Do I need to use reversals? What is the use of reversals?

You do not have to use reversals if you do not want to, however they do come in handy. Especially when it comes to tarot, not all the upright versions of the cards are positive, for example the Four of Cups Upright actually has a more negative meaning than the reversal. My perspective is coming from someone who has always used reversals, however I understand especially for someone just starting out, it can be very hard to use both upright and reversals. 

Can I still do tarot even if I can’t remember all the card meanings?

YES! I have been practicing tarot for over 15 years now, I’m a professional tarot reader, and I STILL don’t have all the card meanings memorized. I always use either this website or guidebooks that come with the decks to interpret, alongside my intuition and occasionally channeling as well to do my readings. You should not feel pressured or intimidated just because you don’t remember all the card meanings. I’ve honestly found (and others agree) that not always having the cards memorized and having to look up the meaning can help greatly with the interpretation; a lot of times reading what the guidebook says will give me intuition hits and allow my readings to be much more detailed. 

Do I need to use spreads? 

No, you do not need to use spreads if you don’t want to; I rarely ever use spreads in my practice, I just let the cards fall out and interpret it that way. 

How do I interpret multiple cards for one question? 

Generally, what I do when I am doing a reading is combine the meanings of each card together. I am actually going to use a real reading for myself to give an example of how to do this. 

Question: How can I make this a good week? 

Three of Cups Reversed- this card can often be about not being able to socialize or go out with friends. This shows that this week, there may be a lot going on in my life that will make me very busy; but that connecting back with my friends and family will be important. I know that I am a very social person, so having interactions with my friends and family will definitely help it to be a better week. 

Five of Pentacles Reversed- this card is actually one of the ones where the reversal is more positive than the upright version. This card shows that right now there may be some changes within my life this week. This may be a slow progression toward the changes I’ve been wanting, but I will see progress toward those changes. 

The Fool- this card is about new beginnings, there is always a sense of excitement that I get when I pull this card. This card shows that the changes the previous card talked about will be positive, new and exciting. 

Overall, this is generally the way I interpret the cards. The message here tells me that this week is going to be a very busy week for me; I need to focus on my friends and family, the people I care about, and make sure that I make time during this business to connect with them. This reading also shows that in general, this week will already be a good week for me. I'll see progress being made on some of the changes and goals I’ve been trying to implement, and overall this should be a fairly exciting week for me in general. 

Can I use tarot for yes/no questions? How? 

Yes, tarot can be used for yes/no questions, there are a few ways to do this. Most of these will involve the use of reversals. An easy method to do this with is to take the card's meaning, determine if it's more ‘positive’ or ‘negative’ and interpret that way. So you’d ask a question, draw a card, and if the card is more positive, that means yes, if the card is more negative, that means no. I also see people use upright vs reversals for this; assigning all upright cards as ‘yes’ answers and all reversed cards as ‘no’ answers. I’ve also seen people do something similar to this with three cards. They will shuffle, draw three cards, and interpret any uprights as ‘yes’ and reversals as ‘no’. If they get two or three upright cards, that means yes, and vice versa. My personal favorite method for doing yes/no questions with tarot is to assign certain cards with ‘yes’ and ‘no’. For me, The Magician is my ‘yes’ card and The Fool is my ‘no’ card. I take my deck, shuffle it, and start drawing cards. Whichever card comes up first, that's my answer! I am sure there are more ways to do yes/no questions that I haven’t covered here, however these are the ones that I either use myself or have seen others using. 

How do I cleanse my decks/divination tools? 

Going back to my post on cleansing, there are various ways to cleanse a deck or other tools. Again, referring back to the post, especially with anything that is made of crystals or metal, make sure that they are safe to be put in salt or water if that is the method you chose. Smoke and sound cleansing are also very good options. 

What is the Rider-Waite? Does it have to be my first deck? 

The Rider-Waite is a very popular tarot deck that is widely used. There are many different versions of this deck as well. This does not have to be your first deck, you can pick whichever deck you want to use as your first deck!

Do I need to learn about all the symbolism, astrology, etc surrounding tarot? 

While the symbolism, astrology and correspondences that tarot often have are important and can add more depth to your readings, this is definitely not a requirement. I am not very knowledgeable on astrology at all, and while I know some of the symbolism represented within tarot, again it is not something I am heavily knowledgeable on. When I read tarot, I use the symbology from the card art itself, my intuition and of course the card interpretations to help me interpret the message. 

General Divination Questions

Do I need divination tools for each individual deity/entity/spirit I work with? 

The short answer to this is no, you definitely do not need to buy each individual that you work with separate divination tools. You can absolutely do this if you want, but I know for me, with how many deities I work with, it would be crazy to try to get each and everyone one of them individual divination tools. 

Do AI/digital divination apps work? 

This question can be a bit complicated, and I do have my own opinions on it. At the end of the day, if this is what works for YOU, that's great, and you can definitely utilize it! Its definitely a method that can be useful if you are in the broom closet. For me personally though, I’ve always found that any forms of digital divination I try tend to be pretty inaccurate. Anything digital or programmed with AI is going to work off some type of algorithm, it may not be 100% authentic. 

How do I know who is answering when I’m using divination? 

This depends a lot on the individual practitioner; some people practice divination outside of any religious/spiritual lens. This post is generally more targeted toward people who are practicing divination within the scope of occult/witchcraft practices, so that’s what I’ll be focusing on. 

You can ask the universe/Source to answer any questions you have, your general spirit team/spirit guides, or an individual deity, entity or spirit. 

I also want to point out with this question that certain deities/entities/spirits may have a preference on divination tools; I’ve had encounters where the deity I’m trying to get a message from will refuse to use certain tools I have and will only give a message using specific methods. It's important to verify that the deity is ok using the method of communication you’ve chosen. Of course, if you have very limited options, the deity will absolutely accommodate you even if they have to use a tool they do not prefer. 

Other Forms of Divination

How do I use dice/coins? 

This (for dice at least) can depend on what type of dice you have. I know with regular numbered dice, I mainly use them for yes/no questions. I take one of my dice (I see other people use multiple dice for this method as well) and I assign even numbers to be ‘yes’ and odd numbers to be ‘no’. Then I roll three times. If I get two or three evens and one odd, that means yes and vice versa. With using multiple dice, you may only need to roll once as well, although I’ve also seen people roll multiple times as well. Some people also assign meanings to each individual number of dice; for instance, 1 means hard yes, 2 means yes, 3 means maybe, 4 means rephrase, 5 means no, and 6 means hard no.

For coin divination, the methods are similar. Generally for coin divination, you will not really be able to get ‘maybe’ answers, so keep that in mind. Most times, when people are using coins, they will use heads as ‘yes’ and tails as ‘no’ (you can do the opposite if you feel drawn to). They use one or more coins, and take the majority as the answer. 

How do I use a pendulum? 

Generally, I recommend bracing your arm against something (like a desk, or your knee even) to make sure that you are not accidentally moving while trying to ask questions. From there, you can either ask the pendulum to show you what means yes, no and maybe, or tell the pendulum how you want it to swing to indicate yes, no and maybe. From there, you would start asking questions and allow the pendulum to swing freely to get the answers! 

You can also assign a certain movement to a deity; asking them to show you that they are there by moving the pendulum in a different way than the regular yes/no/maybe. 

You can also make your own pendulum as well, even just using a necklace or anything with a weight on the end can be used as a pendulum, just make sure to cleanse it first! 

What is channeling? 

Channeling generally refers to the ability to allow deities, entities or spirits to enter your body and take some level of control in order to communicate. Channeling is an advanced practice, I don’t recommend trying to start channeling until you are very comfortable with doing the basics (cleansing, protections, banishing, vetting) and you have a deity, entity or spirit you are comfortable practicing with. Channeling takes a lot of trust and the willingness to give up control of your mind and body to someone else. There are different levels of channeling, sometimes the entity will only take over partially in order to communicate. Other times, they will be fully present and will essentially push the person to the ‘backseat’ of their body while the entity has full control. 

What is automatic writing? 

Automatic writing is a type of channeling although it is less of an advanced practice than actual channeling. With automatic writing, you are essentially entering a trance state and allowing either your subconscious or the deities, entities and spirits around you to write for you and give you messages. While it may not be as intense as channeling, it can still be difficult to do and difficult to get into the proper mindset to do. 

Is the keyboard method a valid form of divination? 

The answer to this may be a little controversial; I think the answer to this can be ‘sometimes’. This is a form of automatic writing which involves technology. However, as with automatic writing, you may need to be in a bit of a trance state for this method to really work. Using other divination tools alongside this method (to double check that you are getting an actual message and not just gibberish) is also something I would recommend. 

There are other forms of communicating with deities, entities and spirits that have not been covered in this post, such as communicating with clairsenses or through meditation. I will be covering these in a later post. 

I would again like to credit my friend @astralscraft for helping me with this post!

If you have additional questions that were not answered in this post, feel free to message or inbox me!

Here is the main website I use for tarot interpretation! Link

[cheapsweets]

Playing Exquisite Biome (and drawing the results)

So, I had a lot of fun with the BestiaryPosting challenge from @maniculum (thank you again for running that!), and since it ended I was hoping to keep up some kind of regular drawing… That didn’t happen for a number of completely valid reasons so I figured I’d give myself a bit of a push.

With that in mind, I’m going to set myself a round of Exquisite Biome to complete – Exquisite Biome is a solo or collaborative game by Caro Asercion of creating an ecosystem and populating it with the creatures that inhabit it. It descends from a lineage of journaling games such as Alone Among the Stars, or Voyage, and I only found out about it thanks to the tireless work of @haveyouplayedthisttrpg (so, thank you! 😊 )

Exquisite Biome uses a normal deck of cards to generate first, the environment, then one of three creatures in turn. The first round generates the first creature, and so on. The fourth round is where you put all the creatures together and see how they coexist and interact.

I’m giving myself a fortnight for each of the rounds, and rather than writing or journaling, I’m going to be drawing – once each round is finished I’m going to post the next set of prompts, and so on until I’ve finished the game. Although I’m doing this primarily for myself, if anyone does want to take a go (within the two weeks, or outside it) send me a message or @ me and I’ll try and collate them all together (whether that’s drawing, writing/journaling, or anything else!

So, first, we draw two cards to establish the environment;

8 of Hearts means that the Environment in which our creatures live is a Glacier or Fjord, and the current season is Warm and Wet.

Interesting combination to start out with – this probably indicates summer (with a lot of precipitation) in an arctic or sub-arctic environment (though it could equally be a glacier high in the mountains, or a fjord in a previously glaciated region). Obviously if we decide to go with a fjord, that might mean aquatic or semi-aquatic animals too! This is a lot more freedom than I’m used to!

10 of Diamonds means that we have an environmental detail of Low Altitude (okay, scratch what I was saying earlier about a glacier high in the mountains!), and the Time of Day we are looking at is Midday. So whatever creatures we are looking at are probably diurnal.

So that’s the framing, now we need to generate our creatures!

We find out about our creatures by laying a spread of three cards. You can do this separately for each creature, but normally to speed things up, you will lay out your three cards, then change the order of the cards to generate the subsequent creatures. That’s what I’ll be doing here.

So, taking a look at our first creature, we have (a lot of red cards!);

For our General Description, we have the King of Hearts; our creature is a Mammal, and is an Apex Predator! Snazzy!

For our Distinctive Feature, we have the Two of Hearts; it has Broad Claws or Talons…

For Habits and Personalities, we have the Jack of Diamonds; the creatures Live in Small Groups, and exhibit Sexual Dimorphism

We also have the option to draw an additional card for a scene prompt, but I’m probably going to skip this (if anyone is interested, I drew the Jack of Hearts, which indicates Pursuit or Defence.

So, I’ll be posting up my finished piece at some point over the next two weeks, and I’ve scheduled the next prompt to post around this time in two weeks!

[sihtricfedaraaahvicius]

Game Night

Note: just another silly little fic that turned out longer than planned. Also; I use the terms geek and nerd here in a way that some may find rude, but it's written from readers perspective, and not my own, just fyi. 

Warnings: 18+, smut/fluff.

pairing: Modern!Sihtric x you (f)

summary: a game night turned steamy. 

wordcount: 3,1k

Masterlist

Osferth was without a doubt the biggest nerd you knew, but also one of your best friends regardless of how much of a geek he was. He always told you about the latest card game he had scored or that sick new board game that just got on the market. You didn't care much for it but always let him ramble on. And now, after years of begging, he had finally persuaded you to come to one of his game nights, which he held weekly in his basement. You knew he had several friends who participated in the games and shared Osferth's enthusiasm, but you had never met any of them and only heard of some by name. You figured them to be just as passionate as Osferth, and probably less good looking than your best friend too, because he may be a huge nerd, but he was a handsome one and even you couldn't deny that. His dating game was quite good and you knew he saw multiple ladies at once sometimes, which was a big turn off for you and withheld you from even entertaining the thought of dating him. Thus you were more like brother and sister.

The main reason why you had agreed to join one of the game nights was so Osferth would finally stop nagging about it, and you were curious what was so interesting about those games anyway and what actually happens during those famous nights. You were also curious about his friends, and fully expected them to be the stereotypical nerdy dudes who still didn't know deodorant is a thing they could use, and you thought they would probably make for good gossip material with your girlfriends. 

But you couldn't have been more wrong. 

You were greeted by three handsome men, who were seated on separate couches around the large table in Osferth's dimly lit basement. You were introduced to Finan first, an Irishman with dark hair and a good beard, who gave you a flirty wink upon meeting. Up next was a guy named Uhtred, who's accent you couldn't quite place, but with his long locks tied back and the sides shaved he was pleasant to the eye, and he flashed a friendly smile. Lastly your eyes landed on Sihtric, who was immediately intrigued by your presence, which didn't go unnoticed by Osferth, and the pretty dark-haired boy with the bold haircut perked up as he eyed you up and down with a curious smile. Just as you wanted to make a positive remark about his half shaved cut, you were interrupted when an older man rushed down the stairs onto the basement, panting while he apologised for being later than usual. You learned that the man who had joined the party was named Pyrlig, and he announced that, 'The brothers are coming.'

Shortly after Pyrlig's announcement you heard the sound of heavy boots stomping down the stairs along with a howling laughter, and that's how you were introduced to the brothers Erik and Sigefrid, who were clearly the life of the party, and with them the group was complete for the night. Everyone had taken their regular seat while you still stood awkwardly as you took everything in; the massive boardgame upon the table, the deck of cards next to it and the multiple dice along with enough booze and snacks to last a whole week. You also took notice of the lack of women and, being the only lady, you felt a little nervous. Osferth came up to you and told you to just pick a seat and join the table, promising the game wasn't hard to understand, but you protested at the suggestion of playing.

'But I don't know this game… I'd rather just watch,' you chuckled nervously, 'I can sit back there,' you pointed towards a couch in the corner.

'Don't be silly,' Osferth smiled, 'join us, you can just tag along with one of the guys.'

You shrugged lightly and reluctantly agreed, then asked who you should tag along with as you looked at the few empty spaces left, contemplating your options. The only couch that had no space left was that one the brothers sat on, which was a relief because the one named Sigefrid was pretty loud… and drunk. Osferth hadn't forgotten about Sihtric's interest upon seeing you, and it was hard to forget as the handsome stranger kept eyeing you up, so Osferth nonchalantly cocked his head towards his friend. A visible disappointment appeared on the face of each man in the room when you made your way over to Sihtric, apart from Osferth and Sihtric himself. Osferth had never been romantically interested in you, so he didn't care where you sat and, naturally, Sihtric flashed a cocky smile toward the others as you sat down next to him. Everyone made peace with the decision merely a split second later, and their regular chatter and laughter filled the room again while you got comfortable.

Sihtric leaned in immediately and held out his hand, 'I didn't quite catch your name, darling,' he lied with a warm and low voice.

You felt your cheeks heat up and repeated your name as you took the hand of your gaming partner for the night.

'Beautiful name,' Sihtric smiled and kissed the back of your hand, while his mismatched eyes remained locked with yours, 'for a beautiful lady.'

You giggled softly and waved off the compliment, but the damage had already been done. Sihtric's eyes lingered on you after he had let go of your hand. He placed his arm on the backrest of the couch, around your shoulders without touching, and he then sat back, relaxed while manspreading. You swallowed hard and checked him out from the corner of your eyes, as he casually drunk beer from a bottle while Osferth tried to get everyone's attention so the game could start.

Your eyes were pleased with the sight of the man on your left, who was dressed in all black; black boots, black skinny jeans with a black leather belt, and half buttoned up black blouse on top. His dark facial hair matched his dark eyeliner, and the few scars on his pretty face didn't bother you. You found it hard to believe that this guy, who was quite intimidating with his good looks and visible tattoos, was as much of a dork as your friend was. 

Everyone listened when Osferth spoke to the group, except you, because you were too busy distinguishing what Sihtric smelled like. Your conclusion was that he smelled like cedarwood and amber, accompanied by a hint of mint and the faint smell of cigarettes. And then, as if to nudge you out of your thoughts, Sihtric bumped his knee lightly against yours, which made you look up at him. He winked with a sly smile after having earned your attention, and you knew you were in for an interesting night.

About two hours had passed since the game got kicked off, and you still had no idea what was going on at the table. You had witnessed grown men argue, trying to cheat, curse at each other, and you were sure some of them kicked each other under the table every now and then too. It was an eventful sight and it looked like the game was still far from over. You didn't mind it though, because the pretty boy next to you had scooted closer not long after the game had started, to show you the cards he was to keep hidden from the others. According to Sihtric he was in a good position, for he held important parts of land and had an army closing in on the other gamers. And despite the fact you had no real idea of what his cards meant, you were impressed anyway for some inexplicable reason.

Sihtric seemed smart and patient during the game, despite the rash decisions he can make in real life, as he had told you, and he leaned in closer every now and then to discuss what his next move on the board should be. You loved the fact that he tried to include you, and that despite the fact your advice was useless or simply non-strategic, he never stopped discussing the options with you. You also enjoyed how he had smoothly lowered his arm off the backrest, and eventually rested nonchalantly around your neck, while you had placed your hand on his thigh under the wooden table, out of sight for everyone else.

As the hours passed by and the game progressed steadily, the rivals of your game partner became more and more drunk, until a petty argument broke out and everyone was accused of cheating. Osferth desperately tried to calm the competing men, while Sihtric just threw his cards on the table and dedicated his full attention to you, for there was no saving that game anymore. Sihtric wasn't drunk, perhaps a little tipsy, but the others were so far gone they couldn't even stand on their feet anymore. And no one even noticed how you and Sihtric had eventually moved to the lone couch in the darkened corner.

Sihtric had pulled your legs over his as you sat back, and he leaned in close, one hand on your thigh while his other held your chin lightly and his mismatched eyes looked you all over.

'So… how did a girl like you end up in a place like this?' he smiled with hooded eyes, completely smitten and captivated by you.

'Because of Osferth,' you replied, returning the rather dazed look as you were just as head over heels as he was, 'he's been telling me about his game nights for years, so I finally came over to make him stop asking me to come.'

Sihtric hummed softly with a smile, his hand moving moderately up your thigh as he nuzzled your nose, 'well… I'm glad you're here.'

'So am I,' you smiled with warm cheeks, your hands trailing mindlessly over his muscular chest, feeling the warmth of his body as your fingers grazed his exposed skin.

'You liked the game then?'

'I didn't really care about the game.'

'Then why are you happy you're here?' Sihtric asked playfully, already knowing the answer but wanting to hear it spill from your kissable lips.

'I think you know,' you chuckled and moved your fingers through his dark, soft curls.

'Do I know?' he taunted and leaned in, his lips faintly touching yours.

'You know,' you whispered, not telling him what he wanted to hear just yet.

'Hm… I know I wanna take you home,' he smiled and squeezed your thigh, 'and I also know I want you to tell me where you are most sensitive.'

You grinned and played with the pendant he wore around his neck, 'And what if I won't tell you?'

'Then you can show me.'

'Show you?' you feigned confusion, 'how?'

'By taking my hand and guiding it.'

'And then?' a cheeky smile appeared on your face.

'And then,' his breath tickled your lips as he chuckled, 'then I'll make you feel really good, darling,' he husked, 'would you like that?'

'Yeah,' you breathed, almost desperately, and you trailed your fingers down his chest to undo another button of his blouse, aching to see more of his scarred torso.

'Yeah?' Sihtric murmured and dragged his lips down your neck, where he left you short, mischievous kisses and wet kitty licks in between.

'Fuck,' you exhaled sharply with a smile, your hands on his chest underneath his blouse, feeling the rapid beating of his heart while you felt his lips curl into a smile as they were pressed onto your neck.

'Fuck?' he repeated with a devilish tone, 'you wanna fuck?'

You hummed approvingly as he leaned back to look in your eyes. He took your chin, his thumb circling your parted lips while he bit down on his lower lip before he brought face closer to yours again.

'Yeah?' he whispered, smiling, 'you want me to fuck you, darling?'

'Please,' you almost whimpered as you struggled to downplay your desperate need.

'What was that?' he clearly jested and shoved his hand between your thighs.

'Please,' you giggled and mindlessly grinded against his hand, 'please… I want you to fuck me.'

Sihtric smiled, and he took your hand as he got up, leading you discretely up the stairs while the others were still arguing over the game. Upstairs, in the hallway, Sihtric turned to you and placed one hand on your waist, pulling you closer, and the other on the back of your head as he finally kissed you after having endured hours of unbearable tension. He pushed you up against the wall and kissed you deeply, his tongue down your throat while you felt his trapped arousal pressing through his tightened jeans. You rubbed your palm over his hardened cock and he moaned into your mouth while he grabbed a fistful of your locks, and he yanked your head slightly back to make you look up at him after he broke the kiss.

'Upstairs,' he uttered, his enamoured look never leaving his face.

You knew Osferth's place all too well, and clearly Sihtric did too, for you both knew of the spare room on the second floor and you were quick to pull him with you up the stairs. You began to unbutton the rest of his blouse while he kissed you, and you both nearly stumbled as you clumsily climbed the steps while being all over each other.

'We should be quick,' you mumbled in between kisses as you reached the bedroom, 'before anyone will notice we left.'

'Trust me,' Sihtric husked and pulled you in the room, 'they won't notice, so I'll be taking my time.'

He kicked the door shut and buried his face in your neck, while his hands held your waist as he pushed you backwards to bed. Your hands were in his hair, your head thrown back while you enjoyed the touch of his lips on your sensitive skin.

'What's your favourite position?' he murmured in your ear as you slid his blouse off his shoulders.

'Doggy,' you grinned, 'but…' you paused and took his face, 'you're too beautiful. I want to see you while you fuck me.'

Sihtric chuckled, and it was evident that he enjoyed seeing you as well, so he cocked his head towards the desk with a mirror above it, and he smirked. You kissed him as he unbuttoned your jeans, and he spun you around to face the mirror once you reached the desk. You giggled with anticipation when Sihtric pulled your jeans and panties down, just low enough to have quick access, and he did the same with his own jeans, then he took off your shirt.

'Anything to worry about?' he asked and pulled out his cock as he stood behind you.

'All clean,' you smiled, 'and protected. What about you, handsome?'

'All clean,' he reassured with a wink and lined up with your soaked folds, wasting no more time and pushing himself inside you with ease.

You gasped and grabbed onto the desk as you felt him twitch inside you with each slow stroke, hitting all the right spots, keeping a steady and calm pace while filling you up entirely. You felt his big and warm hand on your waist, while he slid his other up into your hair, and he grabbed a fistful to pull your head back and make you look up into the mirror, locking his dazed eyes with yours while you were both smiling lustfully. You quickly started to curse under your breath as you watched him take you, to which his parted lips curled into a smug smile, and he leaned in closer.

'Does that feel good, darling?' he murmured in your ear, along with his raspy breathing while the desk rattled with every deep thrust.

'Mhm, so good,' you hummed.

'Yeah?' Sihtric chuckled, 'so do you.'

Then, he suddenly picked up his pace, and he fucked you with fast and short thrusts until you couldn't think straight anymore and your tongue hung out of your mouth. You struggled to keep your eyes open while Sihtric dumbed you down, and he yanked your head slightly backwards again when he noticed your struggle.

'Don't look away from me,' he growled sweetly, 'I'll stop if you won't look at me,' he threatened and moved his hand from your hip down to your core.

He stimulated you with with his fingers while he continued to fuck you, making you a trembling and moaning mess until you both came and then started to laugh, out of breath, at the impulsive absurdity that had just occurred in your best friend's spare bedroom. You gasped lightly when you felt the pretty boy pull out, after making sure you had taken his entire load and wouldn't waste a drop, and he gave you back your shirt before he pulled his jeans up again. When you were both decently dressed again he carefully took your face in his hands and kissed you admiringly and sweetly. You wrapped your arms around his neck as he leaned his forehead against yours, and you sighed softly.

'It's late, but I don't think I want to leave you just yet.'

'Good,' Sihtric whispered and nuzzled your nose, 'because I wasn't going to let you leave yet.'

You smiled and he captured you in another kiss, which was rudely disturbed when suddenly the bedroom door flung open and a drunken Irishman stared at you both as you were all tangled up, leaning back against a closet. You and Sihtric looked at Finan with wide eyes, knowing you got caught and he had the ability to make it a whole happening in front of his friends.

'Uhh,' Finan sounded and then burped loudly before he turned and closed the door again, 'nope, I don't see them anywhere either,' he shouted and stumbled down the stairs again.

You both sighed and laughed with relief, then kissed again before Sihtric took cupped your cheeks.

'Are all game nights like this?' you asked.

'If you mean getting drunk and arguing, then yes,' Sihtric chuckled, 'but this… what we did, that is new,' he smiled and pecked your lips, 'are you coming next week too?'

'I don't know,' you shrugged playfully, 'will you make me?'

'Yeah,' Sihtric said with a cocky smile, 'I'll make you come again, darling.'

taglist: @foxyanon @alexagirlie @sihtricsafin @neonhairspray @gemini-mama @lexwolfhale @sigtryggrswifey @skyofficialxx @djarinsgirl27 @m-a-s-h-k-a @verenahx @mrsarnasdelicious @diiickbrainn @little-diable @maii777 @urmomsgirlfriend1 @dixie-elocin @elle4404 @bubblyabs @ylvie50 @succnfuccubus @hb8301 @willowbrookesblog @apolloanddaphnis @jennifer0305 @carnationworld @justanother-sihtricgirlie @stark-head @il0vebeingdelulu @thenameswinter99 @deathbluestar113

If you want to be added to/removed from the taglist, message me 🖤

[modoreadsttrpgs]

Game Reactions: Cycles of the Eye (Citizen Sleeper Solo TTRPG)

Link: https://www.lostincult.co.uk/shop/p/citizendeluxe

Summary

In short - I like the game. I already love Citizen Sleeper, and I think that does a lot of the heavy lifting here. The prompting is extremely open-ended, and I think I would’ve struggled to come up with ideas if I hadn’t played the video game. If you’re a fan though, it can capture the vibes nicely.

The Full Cycle

Cycles of the Eye is a solo, tarot-based game based on the video game Citizen Sleeper. I have actually played through a full run of this, which I finished early this year. Normally I’ll post about games I’ve only just read, but I figured it would be fun to revisit this game, especially as I’m not sure how many people bought it, with the way it was released as part of a deluxe kit.

I was a huge fan of the game, and jumped at the chance to spend a frankly embarrassing amount of money on the deluxe package from Lost in Cult that included a design book, the TTRPG, a tarot deck, dice, and some other goodies. You can see it all layed out above. Below is the box lined up with some other games on my shelves. It was expensive, I want to share photos of how cool it looks!

For those familiar with the video game, Cycles of the Eye casts you as a sleeper arriving on Erlin’s Eye, the station from the first game. It repeats the premise of the game, and includes a cast of characters from the base game and the excellent DLC. 

If you’re not familiar, this is a sci-fi setting with themes of gig work, exploitation, and community. You play as an escaped sleeper, a mechanical body with the implanted consciousness of a real human, and a built-in obsolescence that means you’re reliant on a specific substance to stay alive. The purpose being to keep you under the control of the corporation that ‘owns’ your body.

Cycles of the Eye itself is a journaling, prompt-driven game. It uses a tarot deck to create three decks of cards. Each one becomes a ‘thread’, literally a story thread. At any given time you will have three ongoing storylines that you can choose to spend resources on, completing tasks, which will allow you to reveal the next card in the deck, using that to prompt story development based on the suit and number. Major arcana represent key characters who affect your story in specific ways, and may or may not become a regular part of your life on the station. You can see below how the play space looks mid-game.

There’s quite a lot going on - the tray I’m using here is one I bought while I was playing this game, because I realised I needed a dedicated space for the game that I could put away and get out again without packing the cards away. Though to be honest, I’m currently playing Koriko and it has an extremely similar setup, so maybe this is just standard for a tarot-based solo game. I hadn’t played one before Cycles so I’m not sure. It did feel pretty fussy to play though, especially early on as I’m grasping the various piles of cards and flicking through a rulebook and a separate lookup reference book.

When you resolve a thread, you’re encouraged to journal about how that storyline closes. You’ll then need to set up a new thread - determining what the drive (objective) is, and interpret each new challenge it throws up within that storyline. There are prompts within this process, but it’s very open-ended. Each suit is associated with a specific skillset (interface, intuit, endure, engineer), and there is a page per suit with a handful of prompts and questions to help come up with drives and rewards. It’s not a lot of information though, and you’re left with a very wide possibility space. I relied on my experience with the video game, without which I’m fairly certain I would’ve had a difficult time generating satisfying stories.

To begin with I also found it strange that there are no pass/fail mechanics, maybe I’m still shaking off that D&D baggage. As I progressed though, I found myself comfortably complicating things and building a nuanced story regardless, without the game having to push back on me or force me to do it. 

On the physical object, the books themselves are nice, small and an unusual landscape orientation, but easy enough to use and well layed out. The dice are great, feeling like the video game has come to life. The tarot deck is extremely fancy, with a nice box, the awesome art on the major arcana, and a gorgeous foil effect on the red. It’s my first tarot deck, and aside from the suits not actually being named on the cards, I’m really excited to use these for other games, as I am doing with Koriko currently!

If you’re not already a fan of the video game, this is probably a tough sell, but also you probably aren’t too interested anyway. For anyone who is a fan, this is worth trying out. Despite some of my issues with it, I came out with a really meaningful and memorable story that fits the game’s themes perfectly, which is a win in my book.

[chaoticace2005]

Back with more shit

So, I've seen the "Husk fighting with throwing cards" post lately and I keep thinking about how I always assumed he just had Gambit (Marvel universe)'s powers. Gambit's powers are a bit... Unclear at times, but the general gist should be that he "mentally create, control, and manipulate pure kinetic energy to his desire." Which is usually used as him throwing something and that something fucking explodes.

He shows up in the X-Men films, gambling, and uses regular playing cards to explode basically Wolverine.

What I'm getting at is that I want Husk's weapons to be regular objects, and he chose playing cards and dice because he's gotta commit to the bit at this point and it's too late to go back. But in reality, any projectile would do. He could throw, with his hands, a bullet and it would explode someone's face.

-🐇

Honestly yes!!! This tracks so much! I don’t know too much about Gambit so I’m gonna @ @xxqueenofdragonsxx because they’re a nerd for this stuff.

But yeah from what I’ve seen and the way you described it this totally works! Him being able to put his power into any object but choosing to use them for the *aesthetic*. Also with the fact that we DO see him in the flashback seemingly using the same/similar pack of cards it holds up.

I know some decks of cards that have some kind of metallic fold, so maybe when he had to fight angels they got a thin layer of that in angelic steel, that way it can actually do the angels in.

Imagine playing with them normally and getting a paper cut, rip 😭

[inventors-fair]

Smooth Moves: Animated Adaptation Runners Up

Our runners up this week are @grornt, @melancholia-ennui, and @yd12k!

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@grornt — Festival Lantern//Festive Apparition

Is it a lantern brought to life by the festive atmosphere, or a spirit using a lantern to join in on the festivities? Who cares, it's fun! That's really the crux of things here. It's nothing earthshattering or groundbreaking, no, it's a fun little card that I'd be overjoyed to play. Plus, it does it job very well as an impassive utility artifact that, with a bit of coaxing, goes fully on the offensive. I love the condition on the transformation, too, as generally you're encouraged to discard lands instead to squeeze as much card advantage as possible out of it, unless you have something you specifically want in the graveyard. Plus, it also mean that there's an inherent safety catch in the ability if you'd rather keep it from being subject to creature removal as well. It's smart and it's fun and there's not a lot else I can ask for.

@melancholia-ennui — Nexus of the Roil

I'll freely admit that manlands were in fact my first thought when I came up with this contest, and while I'm extremely pleased that so many people went into so many other directions, it is still nice to see a few standout man lands in the bumper crop. I love the idea of a manland that acts as land creature support, because that immediately flips the script on the design paradigm. Manlands are, generally speaking, a bit of extra utility on top of the inherent usefulness of being a land. While that can be a strong draw over similar lands, I'd hardly say it's usually the focal point. The animation ability and its associated text are absolutely the focal point here however, with the land part consequently being a bit vestigial. But that's completely fine! It's a new and interesting direction that feels like a wonderful crystallization of the gameplay of both manlands overall and whatever other forms of land animation you can get your hands on! The focus on land types feels a teensy bit odd, but does work in the sense of putting the spotlight more on the lands you put in the deck. It does mean that Planar Nexus and especially Omo kind of supercharge it, but that feels less like a bug and more like a feature.

@yd12k — Simic Stockpile//Self-Sustaining Sludge

Only the Simic could come up with an idea like self-sustaining sludge and think it was a good one. And it is a good one for our purposes, even if it's not one for the people of Ravnica. Double-faced cards that flip-flop between their faces rather than just being a one-time trip have always fascinated me. And while this does a good job of cycling back on forth on its own, you're absolutely being encouraged to speed up the process, as it were. Three creatures to trigger graft/evolve per side is a fairly big ask, after all. But the card does generally live up to its self-sustaining name. Whether you leave it humming away in the background or bring it to the forefront and try to turbocharge it, it's very much content to do its own thing ad infinitum, and I think that's just cool design.

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And that is, once again, a wrap! As usual, I'll be available for the rest of today for additional commentary requests on the fair discord. That said, circumstances may conspire in a week or so to make this much less of a regular event, so heads-up about that. At any rate, see ya there! —@spooky-bard