#It's actually really good because it's been fuckin building up my stamina and abilities to get through shit LMAO

[swamplatibule]

Paramay Prompt Three! Para+Childhood

I HAVE BEEN WRITING THIS FOR FOUR MOTHERFUCKING DAYS NOW AND I HAVE NO REGRETS :DDDD

this has not been proofread it is 10 at night, I am exhausted, please accept my humble offerings

Damn, only prompt three and I’m already forced to reveal everyone’s tragic backstory oh well lol

Trigger warnings: Abuse, arson, su•c•de, death, homophobia, murder, gun mention

tw; death mention

Alright alright alright let’s fuckin goooo we’ll start off with Hollister, her childhood is no doubt the easiest to write since it’s basically been the same her whole life.

She never met her parents. She doesn’t know if they’re dead, or if they just decided they didn’t want a kid, or if something else happened, and she doesn‘t care. It’s not her problem. At least, she tells herself that, but she really isn’t 100% sure that it wasn’t somehow her fault. Poor baby.

She‘s completely grown up in the foster care system, bouncing from home to home. Hollister kept running away, getting caught, and being sent somewhere else. She’s also, guess what, a fucking genius with technology.

One time she tried running away and then erasing herself from the system. It didn’t work, but nobody realized that she’s tried to do it, so it’s fine, nothing went wrong.

A few weeks into her newest home, one of the other foster kids named Silas (who she’d been fast friends with) went missing days after developing a weird anti-gravitational power. And so she tried to find him. She stumbled across the Starwritten Society - when I say “stumbled across” I mean she followed a few very questionable leads on, like, conspiracy theory websites and shit and actually found something - and hacked into the archives, trying to find some sort of info.

Now, you can imagine the panic that caused in the Society. Complete lockdown. The Starwritten Society is top-secret, and nobody just hacks into the archives that easily. She didn’t actually find anything, one because she didn’t get time to look around before the security system actually started working and kicked her out, and two because Silas just wasn’t in the records anyway, meaning he’d disappeared some other way.

However, before she could go out looking for him, there were three agents knocking at the door, having tracked her location here. And you can imagine the looks on their faces when they saw that the person who had caused the mass panic that morning was none other than some kid with a computer that looked home-made.

Things happened, she asked to join because, y’know, fuck yeah secret society, paperwork was filed, and she got in. She’s currently the youngest trainee to join the Society in seventy-four years. Also, fun fact, they had to fill out the adoption papers and such, so she’s listed as the child of Director Iara Adams. Which isn’t that big of a deal, since literally every kid in need of adoption taken in by the Society is adopted under her name, and most have only interacted with her like once, but... it’s a cool world building detail I felt like I needed to add.

Anyways, ONWARD!!!

——————————————

tw; homophobia

Kennedy was born in a pretty influential family with very “traditional” values. They kinda suck, so we won’t get too into that shithole.

Each generation of that family has had like six kids, and every single time, one turns out to be lgbtq+ and gets ✨disowned✨because the parents are just kinda assholes. It’s just this never-ending cycle.

Suffice it to say, Kennedy - being a flaming bisexual and all that - got disowned when she was like twelve after one of her siblings outed her by accident. Her uncle took her in. Guess what? He had also been disowned! When he was fifteen!

And he also went on to become a very important person in the Starwritten Society, and when he discovered Kennedy’s complete genius with technology, he recommended her to become a trainee at 17 years old.

To be honest, Kennedy’s basically gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to characterization and fleshing-out. I have quite a few paras like that, sadly. I think I might make her a playlist sometime and let her be the main character for a while.

——————————————

tw: abuse, arson, su•c•de, murder, gun mention

Fox. Oh boy. Fox grew up in a very... tense household. His father started out pretty okay when he was a younger kid, but he slowly started getting more and more violent and controlling, to both Fox, his twin sister, and his mother.

Fox always had a very close relationship with his sister, Wren. You know that siblings meme? The “You are my sister, you are my brother, we are siblings and we care for each other,”? The were the living definition of that. They managed to keep a definite sense of humor and lightheartedness with each other, despite everything that had been going on.

They weren’t fine, but they had each other.

And then Wren went missing. There was a huge police search, but they didn’t find anything. Fox was fourteen at the time. That experience basically broke him, and he never saw Wren again.

A month later, he was coming home from school, got off the bus, and found the house in smoking ruins. His mother hadn’t been able to take his father’s abuse anymore, and she couldn’t see any way out. So she set the house on fire, killing both herself and her husband.

Fox, who was a mental wreck at this point, as almost anyone would be, was placed into the foster care system. He never stayed anywhere for longer than a week. His humor became a shield for him, an easy way to seem like he was fine when he wasn’t. After about a year, he ran away. And then joined the circus. Why, you ask? Because I said so; I grow these flowers and if you don’t like it then you can leave my garden

Fox was always a flexible kid. He’d been in gymnastics classes since he was five. And, as it would turn out, he was damn good on a trapeze. It wasn’t a very big circus, just some small family-run traveling one, but it gave him a place to stay and an environment that welcomed him, and that was good enough for him.

He was with the circus for about four years, up until he was eighteen, so technically this isn’t his childhood anymore, but I’m gonna keep going because I want to.

The Starwritten Society was following a lead on an underground lab somewhere around the place where Fox’s circus was performing. Kennedy was actually on the mission, although she doesn’t do many of those anymore after she got injured in the field and such and I’ll talk about that later. Anyway.

The team of agents who were on the search came across the circus, and figured it was as good of a place as any to try and find the person they were looking for, Eleanor Sylvidas. She was actually in the crowd watching, and there was a confrontation after the show. Fox went to check it out, being the one generally in charge of telling people to cool it whenever small fights broke out between customers, but he wasn’t quite sure what to do in a situation where both parties happen to have guns pointed at each other. Especially when Eleanor pointed her gun at his head and told the agents that if they didn’t back down, she’d shoot him.

That wasn’t exactly something that happened to him on a day-to-day basis.

Of course, a fight broke out. Actually, Fox made the first move, he literally tried to snatch this woman’s gun out of her hand. It didn’t work, but the shot she took at him definitely missed, and then there was a very chaotic fight scene and Eleanor ended up losing and got arrested. Course, they still had to find the lab so they could get the kids out of there. Fox was very helpful in that aspect, too.

Once the mission had been completed, he was offered a place as a trainee in the Society. Those who were there will say that the offer was accepted immediately, but he was actually a bit reluctant. He made the choice to go, however, and it proved to be one of the best decisions he’s made.

——————————————

tw; abuse, violence, gun mention

Wilson. Where do I start? He has trauma, definitely, although so does practically everyone who works with the Starwritten Society.

See, Wilson is actually one of the people who were rescued from labs as children, but there are two things that sets him apart from others.

1. He wasn’t kidnapped at birth or after he developed abilities. He was literally created in a lab, which has led to a lot of self-doubt due to being raised to believe he wasn’t “natural”.

2. The Society aims to rescue all powered children from labs as soon as possible, and since many of them are kidnapped at a young age, they try to get them out at least before they turn 10. Wilson wasn’t found until he was a bit older than 17.

He wasn’t even given a name while he was in the lab. He was just “Project Firebird”, with abilities including fire and heat manipulation, as well as immunity to those two things, plus flight and enhanced strength, speed, and stamina. Wilson was made for the sole purpose of being a weapon.

The person running the lab? An absolute fucker of a man named Alastor Killigan. Him? I cannot put into words how much I hate him. He just really fucking sucks, and not in a “loveable bastard“ way. I honestly wish I could physically teleport into my daydreams just to set this bitch on fire.

Anyway, he’s running this whole operation. He’s got guards, he’s got other scientists who he may or may not have blackmailed into helping him, he’s got people who work for him. And this isn’t the first time he’s done this. That’s right, Grey isn’t the first time he’s tried to weaponize a kid. He got caught by the Society last time, but escaped, and now he knows that he has to keep moving around constantly.

So the first 17 years of Grey’s life were just constant training and experiments and tests and moving around and being raised to believe that he was a literal monster and wasn’t worth anything if he wasn’t a weapon. Fucked up, right? But, see, the Society had no idea he existed. They found the lab kids through keeping tabs on recent kidnappings and disappearances. Grey wasn’t on any of those lists. The only people aware of Grey’s existence were Alastor and the people working for him.

In fact, the Society only found him by chance. They managed to track Alastor’s location and find him to arrest him, and they found Grey while they were doing that. There was a huge fight, but Alastor lost, and Grey got rescued. Things were looking up.

Because the Society legally adopts all the orphaned kids they take in, Grey needed a name. He also just needed a name in general. The lady filling out the papers told him he could just pick something, and he panicked. He wasn’t used to being allowed to make his own decisions. There was a plaque on the wall with a list of people who’d been top agents in the past, and he just read one of those.

Grey Wilson.

So, y’know, that‘s why it says he was a top agent in 1937. Just a heads up.

Have I talked about the Society’s different departments yet? No? Maybe I’ll do that later, but anyway - one of the divisions is basically therapy, because some of these kiddos have severe trauma and need help. Grey worked with a woman named Mags for a few years, and then started training for the High-Risk Rescue department. He was taking charge of his own future! Yayyyy!

Oh yeah and then Alastor escaped - again, and Mags went missing on the same day and it was presumed Alastor killed her on his way out, and Grey hasn’t seen either of them since. He’s been working in the Society for about 22 years now, trying to make sure that nobody goes through what he has. He decided early on that he didn’t want to use his abilities again, ever, and it’s become his personal secret, with very few people knowing.

#paramay #paraportal #my paras #my paracosm #paracosm: The Starwritten Society #Para: Hollister #Para: Fox #Para: Wilson #Para: Kennedy #tw homophobia #tw suicide #tw death mention #tw murder #tw arson #tw gun mention #tw abuse #Oh boy I just realized the picture of Tom Hiddleston from my first Paramay post is the header photo #for the whole tag now #well ain’t that fuckin embarrassing lol

[elliot-orion]

Introducing...

The Empath

“When you are angry, I get hives. When you are scared, I throw up. There is nothing you can feel that I won’t feel ten times over. So no, it’s never felt like a blessing. It just feels like hell.” 

I have no idea how to make a summary for a short story/novella/whatever this is going to wind up being, especially when i don’t actually know whether it’s going to extend past what i have planned (which will probably be about 15,000 words) or not. which makes this... difficult, but also i really need to talk about my babes so we are making this. So... uh... i guess under the cut i’ll just talk about the characters and weave in the plot i have planned, and if it winds up going past this small side project into novel territory, I’ll reintroduce it. Good plan. Someone take my blog away from me because i’m bad at this...

Charlie Diangelo: Charlie is 100% the reason i am making this post instead of just posting the story like i was intending to do, because holy SHIT i need to talk about him. Charlie is the Empath, who is probably the most powerful empath in the country, maybe the most powerful in the world even idk. But its really shitty, because the way his empathetic abilities work, is he gets different bodily reactions to emotions. So not only does he mentally get the “yep, they are feeling worried” thing, his fingers and feet start tingling and going numb, or if they are feeling disgusted, his jaw locks up. That sorta thing. He has to live in the middle of nowhere with only his partners really seeing him, because otherwise, he could very literally die from the effects of the emotions on his body. fun! Personality wise, he’s a big ol’ sweetheart and a complete bean, who just wants his partners to stop fuCKING GETTING HURT DAMN IT! He’s cottagecore to a fucking fault and genuinely enjoys the quiet, and is pretty happy living out there. (so of course the SA has to go fuck it up...) 

Hollis: One of Charlies 3 partners. They are the Hero, Stopwatch, and can stop time. duh. They are pretty good at it, have good range, stamina, whatever. They are probably 75% of the quads impulse control, and the only one keeping them all from killing themselves.  The other 25% goes to Charlie who is trying to keep Hollis from killing themself. Because don’t let their mature and responsible air fool you Hollis will 100% come home stabbed and bleeding to death, and say it’s nothing, they are ready to fight again. They just don’t know how to sit still when people are getting hurt and they could do something about it (even though “you were just STABBED you CAN’T do something so sit back doWN FOR FUCKS SAKE”) But for real, Hollis deserves more credit than they get for wrangling a chaotic neutral dumbass who needs to be on a leash i stfg, someone who doesn’t even wear earrings anymore because she is so DTF at all points in time, and a bisexual who everyone thinks is distinguished, but is very much a disaster. 

Nora Stone: She’s supposedly a Villain, the Succubus, which is really, really misleading, because 1, she’s gray-asexual and doesn’t even flirt when using her powers so like wtf, and only got the name because she really likes fancy clothes and 2 she’s not even a Villain, more of a thief, but because she called a bunch of politicians and told them to vote no on a really corrupt bill of the SA’s that didn’t wind up passing because of her, so the SA made her a Villain so they could punish her extra hard if she got captured. So there’s THAT. Her powers are just that she has a ‘special voice’ as Charlie calls it, and if she uses it, someone has to do what she says. She pretty much just uses it to get Gucci without paying though, and like, getting jobs for her parents because no one hires Super immigrants (”tHeY mUsT bE vIlLaInS sEnT tO dEsTrOy Us” bullshit). She’s protective of her partners and loves her family and community to death, and has used her voice to help people and for activism many times, because she can help save people with a phone call to a politician, so why WOULDN’T she? Nora was actually the first of the quad i made and the only one who hasn’t been changed a dozen times, which is a cool fun fact too. 

Oscar: Oscar has probably been changed the most, but i am very happy with where he is now. He’s the Villain, High Flier, and has pretty strong air powers. Like, pretty damn strong here, though not quite Elemental strong. And unlike Nora, he is... very much an actual Villain, and is also an International Villain, so that’s like a Big Deal. He likes just causing big ass wind storms with hurricane/tornado level wind speeds. Fun! Though tbh, he doesn’t cause destruction and whatnot to be MEAN or hurt people, he just likes chaos and having fun, and standing in the middle of a gigantic tornado with buildings flying around him is his idea of fun, so... *shrug.* He’s definitely almost given Hollis an aneurysm like 8 times, and makes all of them super stressed because he goes on trips and won’t come home for like 2 months, and postcards aren’t really enough when you know whole countries want to shoot your boyfriend, you feel? He’s super sweet with his partners though, and always comes home for holidays and birthdays and brings really thoughtful gifts from everywhere he goes for them. He’s just antsy and needs to keep moving, and probably only has two feet on the ground when he’s cuddling with his partners, every other time he is floating on wind.  But also, he’s not really Sparky, hyperactive, ADHD, like, he’s more just restless, wanderlust, must see everything this world has to offer, sorta thing, and gets really depressed if he stays in one place for too long. Though, yea, he’s totally got ADHD too, lol.  I love Oscar to death, ngl, out of the whole quad, he and charlie are my favs. (sorry nora and Hollis, i love you too)

That’s pretty much the characters, and in a short sentence, the plot is the SA fuckin ruins their breakfast and makes Charlie do something he really should not be doing but he’s going to do it anyways because it means he keeps his partners safe. So fun stuff!! This probably will be posted, most likely a dual posting here and on Wattpad. Hopefully doing that will kick my butt in gear and make me put up Hell in High Heels again. (sorry but ATDADT is not going back up, it sucks ass, not happening. Plus i might make it into a full novel. It’s up in the air) (actually would hell in high heels make a good novel to? .... i need to fucking STOP with the DHU already holy shit someone take my imagination from me...)

tag list! lmk if you want on or off! @albatris @ageekyreader @dreamcontagion@merigreenleaf @knightedwriter @norawritess @simplesamples I’m not doing the sparks fly tag list because idk if they actually want other stories in the DHU, but let me know if you two do want to be on the whole DHU tag list, same with everyone else!

#I'm so proud of myself for coming up with Charlie's powers btw like yea #it was completely accidental too i just came across it while writing #i love all of these dorks so much #i still dont know if i'll try to make this into a novel once i finish what i have planned #like if ill think of more stuff for after it #i kinda want to keep it shorter for whatever reason #it just feels like that's what its meant to be #and there isnt too much of a story with them #although i could probably easily think of something ngl #just... oscar and nora #enough said #but i do want to make ATDADT into a novel and might do that after this is done? #idk not sure maybe not #i also want to post wildfire bc i LOVE that #someone remind me later to post wildfire #ill stop now #the empath #dark heart universe #charlie #nora #also norawritess no i didnt name her after you i just realized i had a friend named nora when i tagged you lmao sorry #oscar #hollis #book cover #summary #i mean not but thats my tag #writelr #writeblr #writing #my writing

[killscreencinema]

Bloodborne (PlayStation 4)

Every now and then a game comes along with a reputation for being so difficult it can make you have an emotional breakdown.  Controllers are smashed, relationships or friendships are demolished, and all that is left of who you were is a puddle of tears on the carpet vaguely shaped like a person in the fetal position.  I’m talking about games that separate the grown-ups from the kids; the Post Shredded Wheat from the Post Mini-Wheat. Fuckin’ casuals need not apply, man!

Back in my, Ninja Gaiden was that game.  Which one?  Fucking all of them!  The NES games are still among the hardest in the NES library.  However, the 2004 XBox game was no slouch, delivering mercilessly hard gameplay.  I don’t often brag about games I’m good at, but anytime I bring up that game, I often mention that I beat it on Master Ninja, because any gamer worth his Salt and Sanctuary knows that is an impressive achievement.

Most would probably agree that the gaming bar set by Team Ninja has been passed to the game studio From Software, creators of the notoriously challenging Dark Souls series and of the game I’m talking about today - Bloodborne.

Released exclusively for the PS4 (much to chagrin of curious PC gamers) by From Software in 2015, the game starts with the player taking the role of a nameless Hunter, who wakes up in a the hospital of a Gothic town named Yharnam, which is besieged with a plague that is turning the townsfolk into monsters... or that is as much as I could gather.  The story is pretty esoteric, and is only elaborated on if the player so chooses to dive into the lore of Yharnam and “The Hunt” by reading the descriptions of the items you collect along the way... which I didn’t.  That isn’t to say the story and world of Bloodborne was uninteresting, far from it, as the world of this game oozes atmosphere like entrails oozing from a foe after you deliver a devastating Vicious Attack to their gut (or in the case of the giant warthogs, their buttholes, if you manage to successfully stealth attack them). 

While the story is there for anyone who is interested, From Software deliberately prioritized gameplay, which is frenetic and, yes, incredibly challenging.  If you’re a button masher, used to the hack-and-slash gameplay of Dynasty Warriors, I promise you will not last long in this game.  Timing when picking your window for attacking is key to survival in Bloodborne, yet at the same time the overly cautious will meet a quick death as well.  You have to strike a balance between prudence and boldness to get far in this game, especially in the more difficult optional areas, like the Chalice Dungeons.  As a matter of fact, my tips for Bloodborne are as follows:

1.) You will die.  You will die A LOT.  Get over it.  When you start the game, and are immediately and viciously killed by a werewolf, it becomes abundantly clear how easily you can die.  This can make you extremely nervous to engage enemies you come across, as any of them are capable of cutting you down in seconds.  Don’t get psyched out - jump in there and fight.  Every enemy has a pattern, every boss a weakness, but you can only find it by somewhat blowing caution to the wind and going for it.

2.) Underestimate none of the enemies!  So, like I said above, newcomers to the game will often start off being very nervous and cautious as they navigate the grimy, monster filled streets of Yharnam.  Eventually, after slaying a boss or two, you begin to build up more confidence in your hunting abilities.  So you boldly walk into a nest of giant rats, thinking, “Hey, I just killed a giant beast, these things will be NOTHING” and then before you know it YOU’RE BEING FUCKING TORN APART AND OH SHIT YOU’RE FUCKING DEAD!  WHAT HAPPENED!?!  Even the smallest, most unassuming creatures in this game will tear you a new asshole if you’re not careful, so always be vigilant!  

3.) Blood Echoes - easy come and easy go.  Throughout the game, whenever you kill an enemy, you absorb what are called Blood Echoes.  These are used to level up or purchase items/weapons/armor.  It’s basically the ingame currency.  However, when you die, you lose all the Blood Echoes you’ve accrued up to that point.  You can regain them by returning to the spot where you died and either simply picking them up or slaying an enemy who has absorbed them all (which is indicated by their glowing eyes).  If you should die before regaining the lost Blood Echoes, though, you lose them forever.  This can be extremely frustrating if you’ve collected a lot, but the game is very generous when it comes to providing you with an abundance of Blood Echoes, to the point where you almost never have to grind for them.  Often I’d belatedly realize I  have a fuck ton of Blood Echoes to spend.  Don’t get bent out of shape if you lose them.  Just try regularly travel back to the Hunter’s Dream (the hub world you return to at every save point or upon death) and spend spend spend. 

4.) Pick your weapons of choice and stick with them.  While the game gives you a variety of melee weapons and guns to choose from, I opted to stick with the first ones I picked up at the beginning of the game (the Saw Cleaver and Blunderbuss) and just upgraded the shit out of them.  I probably would have saved myself a headache or two with a couple boss battles if I were more versatile, but with games like this, or first person shooters, I often will stick with the weapons I like and fuck the rest. 

5.) Become a parry and vicious attack expert!  If you fire your gun at an enemy right as they attack you, they become “staggered”, opening them up for a critical hit, which is called a “vicious attack” in this game.  This strategy is particular useful against larger enemies or bosses (though most bosses are quick as hell, often making attempts to parry them suicidal).  Do NOT use this strategy if fighting a large group of enemies, as a dodge-roll-hit-and-run tactic is more effective in those instances.

6.) Upgrades vitality, stamina, and STRANTH.  When leveling up, it can be hard choosing what stats you should upgrade.  I found it most useful to level up “the big three” of vitality, stamina, and strength.  Leveling up “Skill” is good if you plan on using a wider variety of weapons.  By the time I beat the game, “Arcane” and “Bloodtinge” were still in single digits, so fuck those, they’re useless.

6.) Don’t drink and play Bloodborne.  This should be obvious, but as I learned one night, bourbon and Bloodborne make for poor bedfellows.  Like I said before, success in this game is all in timing and alcohol fucks with that big time.  Which brings me to...

7.) Hit a wall?  Don’t hate - masturbate!  No really!  I mean, that’s just good life advice there, but it is actually applicable to gaming frustrations.  Maybe it’s just me, but I notice in general that I tend to be generally more focused and productive after a healthy... er... “session”, perhaps because the spike of serotonin that accompanies orgasm relaxes one’s mood, reducing stress and anxiety.  Things kinda snap into focus.  Bloodborne can piss you off like no ther game, especially when you enter a boss battle multiple times, only to get instantly butchered like nothing.  Anger can be a useful ally sometimes in life but I find a more Zen approach to be more effective in Bloodborne.  So next time you get to a frustrating portion of a game, pause, go squeeze one out, return to the game, and I promise you’ll play like a fucking superstar.  Just... uh... just make sure to wash your hands before returning the game.   

Alright, I’ve talked enough, especially when my blog begins to tangent into side rants about my deviant lifestyle.  In summary, Bloodborne is an excellent game, that provides rich, challenging, yet FAIR, gameplay that will either hone your instincts into an unstoppable gaming tyrannosaur or send you crying back to parental arms of Nintendo. It’s definitely a must-play if you’re a PS4 owner!

#bloodborne #from software #ps4 #playstation #playstation 4 #sony #action #horror #dark souls #video games #review