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ghostofskywalker · 2 years

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Better Together

Anakin Skywalker/Fem!Reader

Words: 3,206

Summary: While on the way back to Coruscant for a short leave, the 501st has declared an all out prank war, and you team up with Anakin to win. Once the others figure out what you have done, they set out to force you to admit your feelings for your fellow Jedi, the only way they can think of: get you locked in a closet together.

Requested By: @captainsophiestarkwriting with the prompt “if we get caught i’m gonna blame it all on you”

Note: Sophie i absolutely loved this prompt!!! All my Anakin fics so far have been more movie focused, so getting to write some potential 501st shenanigans during the clone wars was so fun! it’s a little longer than i first intended and kind of got away from me a little (one of the few times i’ve changed a fic’s name since planning) and i really hope you enjoy it!!

Anakin Skywalker Masterlist • Main Masterlist

You could tell everyone was excited for the time off as the ship got closer and closer to Coruscant. It would still be five rotations until you disembarked from the Resolute and got to enjoy exactly one week of leave, but morale was high among the men, and you’d be lying if you said you weren’t looking forward to some time to yourself as well. You hadn’t even been with the 501st for that long, only having joined them for the last month of their most recent campaign, but war was taxing on everyone, no matter what they were doing.

Because you didn’t have a battalion of your own like Anakin and Obi-Wan did, your official title was “Auxiliary General,” and you often jumped between squads of troops, offering assistance on some of their more challenging offensives and missions. For the last month, you had been working with General Skywalker and the 501st, who had quickly become your favorite group of men to assist (though you would never admit that to any of the others). They were incredibly competent in the field, fiercely loyal to each other, and they were also the most fun to spend time with between skirmishes and battles, because there was always some kind of shenanigans going on.

You knew this time would be no different when you walked into the mess hall one day with Anakin and Ahsoka to see Fives and Hardcase grinning wickedly and waving the three of you over. The table they were sitting at was full of troopers, and they all had smiles on their faces as well, some laughing about something you couldn’t quite hear.

“What are you smirking at?” you asked as you stepped into earshot with your fellow Jedi. “If you’re up to something, I don’t want to know about it.”

“Who says we have to be up to something?” Fives asked nonchalantly, the smile not leaving his face.

“You look like you just found out the best news in the world,” Anakin pointed out. “And I’ve known you all long enough to know that means you’re up to something.”

“You wouldn’t be wrong,” Jesse cut in. “But I think this is something you’re all going to want in on.”

You raised your eyebrows at him. “And what’s that?”

“A prank war of course.”

“You do know we’re not actually on leave yet, right?” Ahsoka asked.

“Not technically,” Fives agreed. “But all we’re doing is heading to Coruscant, so unless a battle materializes around us I think we’re good.”

“So what do you say?” Hardcase asked, the other around him eagerly waiting for your answer as well. “Are you in or not?”

You and Anakin exchanged glances as Ahsoka accepted the challenge immediately. “We’re in, but there needs to be a few rules first,” Anakin said, and you could see Echo nodding in agreement at the table.

“Like what?”

“First of all, none of the pranks or jokes can be illegal,” you said. “On the ship you have a little more leeway as long you don’t impede the pilots and other crew doing their jobs, but I don’t want to have to bail any of you out during our week planetside because you got picked up by the Coruscant Guard.”

Thankfully, that was an easy enough condition to get everyone to agree to. “Anything else?” Fives asked, clearly eager to begin the prank war and unleash whatever he had been cooking up in his brain on his brothers and the rest of you.

You shot him a pointed look, and Echo piped up before you could speak again. “I think we should limit the pranks to only those who have agreed to participate,” he said. “And if your prank hits someone who wasn’t part of this, you’re out.”

“That’s a good idea,” Anakin said. “I don’t want anyone caught in the crossfires.”

“Yeah,” Jesse laughed. “Rex has enough stress to deal with.”

Everyone nodded in agreement once more as the other rules were laid out, all simple enough to remember but clear enough that there wasn’t any confusion. If you got pranked, you were out. No cheap shots at others by using their weaknesses or phobias against them, and no serious injuries (Kix was insistent about that one). Finally, the pranking would only officially begin as the chronometer announced a new standard day (not a moment before), and it would end either the last day of your Coruscant leave, or when there was one person left standing (no revenge pranking allowed).

When everything was said and done, there were nine people participating: Fives, Echo, Jesse, Hardcase, Kix, Tup, Anakin, Ahsoka, and yourself. After dinner everyone went their separate ways, and you could already feel the watchful stares on you as everyone started to become wary of what used to be friendly gestures. You were one of them, and you headed off to your quarters to start to devise a plan, half wondering whether or not you should have agreed to join them in the first place.

Once away from the watchful stares of the troops, it was easy to think of things that would irk them enough to be considered a prank but were harmless enough that you didn’t cause any injuries. Fives was the easiest to plan for, he was the most vain out of all the clones you met, so you planned to mess with his appearance in some way (maybe a bucket of water or paint over his head? Or some subtle embellishments to his armor?). Others were harder to think of something for, like Ahsoka, and you literally had no idea how you were going to prank Anakin. The two of you had been close friends since you were padawans, and most of the things you thought of were ranging on the rule to not prey on a person’s weakness (and besides, there was no sand on the ship you could use even if you wanted to).

You were so engrossed in your thoughts and plans that you barely heard the door open, and you didn’t register that anyone had stepped inside your quarters until you heard Anakin’s voice. “Hey.”

Quickly, you pulled your datapad close to your chest, trying to hide your notes just in case he had come to spy on you. “What is it?” you asked, your tone obviously suspicious. Normally, you wouldn’t have any problem with it (and your feelings for your fellow Jedi would have had you encouraging a late night rendezvous), but now you were on high alert, wondering if he was going to try to get you out of the prank war first.

Anakin closed the door behind him before speaking. “I wanted to see if you wanted to work together in this whole thing.”

As much as the two of you working together sounded like a good idea, and it wasn’t against the rules you all established, you were still suspicious. “Why?” you asked, not bothering to hide the wary look you gave him.

“Because I overheard Jesse and Hardcase talking, and they were teaming up to get Fives and Echo,” he said. “I figured that if they’re going to work together, we might as well too.”

It made sense, and you hadn’t even considered the notion that people might make alliances with each other when you had agreed to the rules in the first place, but you still didn’t want to agree right away. “Why me? Why not team up with Ahsoka?”

“Ahsoka and I bicker too much for any planning between us to work out,” Anakin said, and you had to see his point there. The two of them were bad enough on the battlefield, which meant something low stakes like this would only give way to their arguments more. “I just passed her in the halls and she narrowed her eyes at me before telling me I better not try anything, so I don’t think she’d be too keen on teaming up.” You laughed. “And besides, I like spending time with you.”

You tried not to pay attention to the way your heart fluttered at his words, keeping your face neutral as you nodded. “Well, if the others are teaming up, we’re likely going to be targeted sooner than we think,” you said. “But if we get caught I’m gonna blame it all on you.”

“I figured as much,” he said as he laughed brightly, and you wanted to treasure that sound forever. “What do you have in mind?”

***

Echo couldn’t help the laughter that bubbled out of him when Fives walked into the ship’s barracks two days later, covered head to toe in bright pink paint. “You look nice,” he said, laughing even more at the murderous look his brother shot him. “Who got you out?”

“I don’t know,” was the response, as Fives started to take off his armor, pink paint still dripping off it as he piled everything on the floor. “I think this is Y/N’s fault honestly. She was the one with the best access to the paint, which I didn’t even know we had on here.” One of your duties aboard the Resolute this time around had been cataloging inventory before and after any battles, making sure you didn’t run out of supplies food, or other things the ship may need to function (like mechanical parts).

Echo didn’t want to make an assumption yet, but you were a pretty logical candidate for this prank. “Have you spoken to Y/N lately? This isn’t exactly something that can be set up and left for a while.”

Fives shook his head. “No, the last person I spoke to was General Skywa…” he trailed off as he realized what had happened. “I bet they’re working together!”

But before Echo could say anything in response, the door to the barracks opened to reveal Jesse, Hardcase, and Kix. “Who’s working together?” Kix asked. “And why do you look like that?”

“General Skywalker and General L/N,” Fives responded. “They got me out.”

“You don’t know that they’re the ones who got you out,” Echo cut in.

“Well, are any of you responsible for this?”

Everyone in the room shook their heads. Hardcase, Tup, and Ahsoka had been eliminated from the prank war already at this point, so so the only people not present who could have been involved were you or Anakin, and Echo trusted his brothers when they said they didn’t have anything to do with this prank on Fives. “It makes sense that they’re working together,” Kix reasoned.

“Yeah, because they’re in love with each other!” Jesse laughed.

Everyone laughed and nodded in agreement at his words, it was clear as day that you both had feelings for each other that you never acted on. Suddenly, Fives’ face lit up like he had an idea. “What if we got them back?”

“We can’t,” Hardcase said. “There’s no revenge allowed.”

Echo started to catch on to what he brother was suggesting, and he nodded. “Maybe you can’t, but Jesse, Kix, and I are still in the prank war. And as long as they don’t know we’re having this meeting, shoving the two of them into a storage closet somewhere and forcing them to talk about their feelings doesn’t really seem like revenge.”

There was no arguing with his logic there, and everyone immediately started to figure out how they were going to get the two generals together. Maybe it wasn’t exactly a prank, but it was something that was long overdue in their opinion.

***

You were currently taking inventory of one of the closets in the medbay, your head almost spinning as you counted bacta pads and marked them down on your datapad. Kix had asked you if you would help him with the medbay’s inventory last week, as this was an important thing to make sure you had right. The GAR would be placing an order for more medical supplies to be given to the 501st before they go on leave again, so you wanted to make sure they got what they needed.

“Can you go finish the inventory in the other supply closet?” Kix asked, popping his head up from where he had been counting bottles of disinfectant. “It’s just at the end of this hallway.”

“Sure,” you said, sending him the numbers you already had on your datapad and leaving the room. You had no reason to suspect that there would be anything waiting to scare you in the closet when you got there, Kix had asked you to help him before this prank war had even been proposed, and frankly, he wasn’t the type of person to pull those kinds of pranks. And you were right, the storage closet was completely empty (other than the medical supplies you needed to count) when you stepped in, and you quickly fell into a routine of taking inventory.

By the time you were about halfway done, you heard a small commotion outside in the hall. You caught snippets of what sounded like Anakin’s voice, along with the voices of a few troopers.

“Guys, I said I was fine, you don’t need to-”

“Nonsense General, we should still get Kix to check you out.” That sounded like Echo, and you wondered if this was a prank, or if a prank had gone wrong.

But the voices continued to grow louder, even as you were sure they passed the entrance to the medbay. “Guys, what-” Anakin was asking, and you found yourself wondering with him what was going on.

At that moment, the door to the supply closet opened and Anakin was shoved inside. The unmistakable sound of a locking mechanism engaging filled the small space, and you gave him an inquisitive look. Instead of a response, he just held a finger to his lips to ask you to be quiet and started to call out to the people who had locked you inside. “Really funny locking me in an empty closet guys, top marks for planning on this one.”

No one responded, but you heard hushed whispers and footsteps retreating back down the hall. “Empty closet?” you thought you heard one trooper ask. “I thought…”

After staring at Anakin for what felt like forever, you finally spoke. “What’s going on?” you asked quietly. You and him were practically on top of each other, as this wasn’t exactly a walk in storage closet.

He shrugged before responding. “I’m guessing this is some kind of prank, but I have no clue what they’re trying to achieve if it’s not ‘make the general late to an important meeting so he can get reprimanded by Obi-Wan,’ because that’s all I can think of.”

You wondered if this prank was supposed to be targeting you, because you knew that at least Fives was aware of your feelings for your fellow Jedi, and he teased you about it sometimes. But surely this would count as using someone’s personal weaknesses against them, right? And he was already out of the prank war, you and Anakin had got him yesterday with a carefully placed bucket of paint in one of the hallways. As you opened your mouth to respond, you could hear footsteps once again echo through the halls outside.

Anakin’s hand reached out and grabbed yours, and there was a sly grin on his face. “Wanna help me get those idiots back for locking us in here?” You nodded, unsure of what he would do. The footsteps down the hall were growing louder by the second, so you knew people were likely coming your way.

Seconds before you heard the locking mechanism start to click once more, Anakin’s hands moved from holding your hand to resting on your waist, and he pulled you into a kiss.

For a second, you thought this was some kind of dream, and it took another moment for you to remember to kiss back. His lips were warm and soft, and you couldn’t help the way you melted into the kiss as he held you. For a fleeting moment, you didn’t care one bit that this was really just an act, you never wanted to forget this moment.

As the door to the supply closet opened, the sound of Kix’s voice let you know that you had been discovered. “Y/N, are you-” You and Anakin pulled apart from each other. “I was going to ask if you were done with the inventory yet, but I think my question has been answered.”

You could hear shouts of laughter from just outside the hall, and it clicked that this had to be a prank, but you just didn’t know who it would be for. Was the target you, who Fives wanted to admit your feelings, or Kix, who had to be the one to walk in on you and Anakin kissing? And if it was the latter, how did they get every piece to fall in place so perfectly?

Kix stepped back so that you and Anakin could him into the hallway, where Echo, Jesse, and Fives were standing. They had stopped laughing at this point, but the smiles on their faces were still ever present, and you knew they were somehow responsible for this. “What are you idiots so happy about?” you asked, eyebrows raised.

“Nothing.” The three of them said together, and before you could say anything else, they all had made excuses about needing to go do something and seemingly disappeared into thin air, only adding to your theory that they were behind it all.

Once Kix had disappeared back into the medbay, you turned to Anakin. You tried to keep your face neutral, because as far as you were aware, the only reason he kissed you was because he was trying to surprise whoever was opening the door to the supply closet. “This doesn’t have to change anything between us,” you said tentatively, not sure how to broach the topic. “I know this was all in the name of the prank war.”

“I don’t regret kissing you if that’s what you’re talking about.” His words took you by surprise, and you couldn’t help the way your jaw dropped just a little. “Unless you want to forget it, then-”

“No, I don’t!” you said quickly. “I just wasn’t sure if you wanted to acknowledge it.”

“I’ve wanted to do that for a while,” he said, and you briefly wondered once more whether or not you were dreaming.

“Me too,” your voice came out much softer this time, and you felt Anakin reach down and take your hand.

“Would you want to go out to dinner with me when we get to Coruscant?” he asked quietly, a hopeful look in his eye.

Not being able to help the smile that crossed your face, you leaned up to place a gentle kiss on his cheek. “Of course I would.”

As he wrapped you in a tight embrace, you couldn’t fight the knowing suspicion you had that a few of the clones were the ones to thank for this, but you didn’t want to give them the satisfaction of being able to tease you about it just yet. Right now, you were just happy to be in Anakin’s arms.

- the end -

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#sophie 🕊#anakin skywalker #anakin skywalker x reader #anakin skywalker x you #anakin skywalker x y/n #anakin skywalker fanfiction #star wars #star wars fanfiction #star wars x reader #clone wars fanfiction

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periwinckles · 1 year

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Please tell me you have a middle name - chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

“Happy birthday, Katniss.”

Madge’s voice is soft and neutral, trying not to draw Miss Smoak’s attention to us. It still startled me, because I wasn’t really expecting her to remember my birthday. We’re friends, but we’re not really that close, are we? She never acknowledged my birthday before, but I suppose an eighteenth birthday is more noteworthy than the rest.

“Thank you.” I answer back, keeping my eyes in our assignment.

The morning goes by in comfortable silence. I’m not really that interested in school, I much rather be outside. But given that we’re in our last months of school before heading for real adult life, most teachers are lenient with school work as long as we’re still in attendance. I still haven't figured out what I’ll do once I graduate. I need to have an official employment and “huntress” doesn't bode well with the Capitol. The morning provides itself to be a good occasion to try to sort out my options. The mines will be my last resort. I don’t really need a job, just a cover up, actually. Maybe Sae can register me as an employee.

When we sit down for lunch, Madge speaks up again.

“Do you have any plans for the afternoon?”

All students have Wednesday afternoons off, which means I usually have a habit of going to the woods. Not that I need to. We’re well stocked, with what I hunt in the mornings. But sometimes I like to go there just to watch everything else around me. Other times I take my knife and I make some arrows, while enjoying the sun. That’s probably what I will be doing today, but I can’t really admit it out loud to Madge. She knows about my illegal escaping and hunting, but who knows who might be listening?

“No plans.” I say, instead. “Why?”

She gives me a sheepish look as if she wants to ask me something but is afraid to do so. “My cousin Reese, he’s competing in the wrestling semifinals, this afternoon. He asked me to stay and watch… you know, to show him some support?”

I nod, in recognition, both of her cousin and the wrestling tournament. I may be a little oblivious to the school’s extracurricular activities, but the wrestling tournament is a big thing, kind of hard to miss.

“I don’t even know why he’s so adamant that I should be there. We all know he’s not winning. Anyway… do you by any chance… want to stay with me to watch the semifinals?”

I don’t pay that much attention to wrestling to know who has a better shot to go to the finals, but Reese Donner is a tall boy, he appears to be fit and from what I remember from previous years, quite fast too.

“That’s a bit harsh. He could very well advance to the finals.”

“No way!” She says, with a shake of her head. ”He’s facing Peeta today.``

I inhale sharply, and I hope it goes unnoticed.

“Peeta?”

“Peeta Mellark, from the bakery? He sits next to Reese in class.”

“Yeah, I… I think I know who it is.”

Who am I kidding? I know very well who Peeta Mellark is. The baker’s youngest son is the reason my family didn’t starve to death when my father died in a mine explosion. To this day my greatest shame is that I was never able to thank him for his kindness and bravery.

“Peeta won last year, and he’ll probably win this year too. But it might still be fun to watch even if the outcome is somewhat predictable…”

I guess keeping Madge company isn’t that difficult and at least I’ll be able to root for Peeta, even if in secrecy. As far as “thank yous” go, it’s a lousy one , I know. But it might give me some assurance and peace of mind.

“I know it’s your birthday…”

“How long do we have to stay?” I ask

Her face visibly lightens with a smile. “It starts at three. I’m not sure if Reese and Peeta are the first match or the second one, but either way we should be done by four.”

I suppose I could spare an afternoon. I let my eyes wander through the school cafeteria until I spot Prim, chatting with her friends. When I tell her I’m staying for the wrestling tournament, she is ecstatic. If I’m staying that means she’s staying too. Not that she needs my permission to do so; she’s fourteen years old, and it’s been a while since I had any say in her daily life. But it’s my birthday and I know she wouldn’t be staying unless I did too. I guess it is a good decision, me staying. I’ll be making two people happy.

When we get to the gym, the bleachers are already at full capacity. I don’t think we’ll be able to find an empty spot, but Reese Donner spots us from the first row.

“Madge! MADGE!”

He gets up and waves her forward, and I follow suit.

“You came!” He says with a bright smile and a one armed hug. He’s already in his wrestling attire and somewhat itchy with excitement. “Hi!” He says, turning to me. “Katniss, right?”

I nod in a tight lipped smile. I don’t think we ever exchanged words before today.

“Full house, huh?” Madge says as she looks around. “Sorry Reese, but I don't think my cousinly affection is enough to make me stand for two hours.”

“No need to stand, you can take my seat, I need to warm up, anyway.”

“What about Katniss?”

He turns to inspect us both and gives a shrug of approval.

“You’re both skinny, you’ll fit. Rye, scoot over.”

Peeta’s brother (Rye?) is sitting in the front row, next to Reese’s vacant seat. I remember him being a couple of years older than us and he used to be a wrestler as well. He moves a bit to his left leaving enough space for the both of us to sit, Madge next to him and me next to Madge. It’s a tight fit. We’re literally squeezed against each other, to the point where the girl sitting to my right gives me an annoyed look when she feels my shoulder pressed against hers.

“Is your girlfriend joining you?” Reese asks him.

“We broke up.” Rye says, shaking his head. “Enjoy it while you can Donner, dating is so much easier when you’re still underage.”

“So she got your shirt off, huh? Caught a glimpse of your chest? That’s precisely why I’m waiting for my soulmark to appear next month. Not worth the hassle, if you ask me.”

I try to look around, so it doesn't appear like I’m eavesdropping. Not that they are making too much effort to keep their conversation private. Reese shows no indication of wanting to warm up as he ends up sitting on the floor in front of Madge and Peeta’s brother. The three of them engage in conversation as I look around.

That’s when I spot Peeta, a few yards away from us, next to the wrestling mat. He’s warming up and, like Reese, he’s sporting a wrestling suit. It’s not a shocker that wrestling is usually dominated by the merchant class. Most merchants have more food than Seam folks, and one look at Peeta would be enough to understand why he’s a crowd favorite. He’s not as tall as Reese, or even his brother, but he’s broad shouldered and visibly strong. As I watch him stretching I notice the white bandage around his bare leg, just beneath his left knee.

“Is Peeta hurt?” I ask out loud before I can stop myself.

Read the rest on AO3

#everlark #the hunger games #peeta x katniss #everlark fanfiction #Please tell me you have a middle name

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twilightmalachite · 5 months

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2×2 - Grown-Up Situation 8

Author: Akira

Characters: Yuuta, Hinata, Shinobu, Nagisa

Translator: Mika Enstars

"You’re not a very physically strong person, Shinobu-kun, so don’t push yourself too hard, okay?"

[Read on my blog for the best viewing experience with Oi~ssu ♪]

Season: Winter

Location: Downtown

Hinata: —Oh, looks like our producers have arrived on set too!

Yuuta: Good morniii~ng, Anzu-san! Good luck today!

Shinobu: I’d be grateful for your help this time around, or rather, this time too, de gozaru…♪

Hinata: For the record, while the producer changes every time for 2×2, both YamadaP and AnzuP will be on site.

Nagisa: …Hm. It is an effective way to observe your opponent’s work up close, and perhaps also a means to monitor them to ensure there’s no cheating.

…That’s fair.

Yuuta: That’s true, but… Both producers have a lot of other work to do, so it must be quite a burden to show up on site for every 2×2.

Shinobu: Yeah… Anzu-dono had a bit of a cough last time we recorded, so I’m rather worried about her health, de gozaru.

Hinata: Doesn’t she always push herself too hard?

Huh? Actually, Anzu-san doesn’t seem to be feeling well, so she took a sick day off to be cautious…?

W-Will things be okay?

Hinata: Ah, I’m not worried about Anzu-san, but about the program… It’s mostly her own fault she’s not feeling well.

Shinobu: We didn’t say anything…

Yuuta: When you put it like that, it sounds like you instead actually don’t care about her at all, Aniki. ♪

Hinata: Uu, but that’s not what I meant. The producer in charge of the fifth episode of 2×2 is Anzu-san, isn’t she?

What do we do? If she can’t come on-site, how will she give us directions?

Nagisa: …It appears she will be giving direction through HoldHands for the time being.

…YamadaP has come on-site, although he is not in charge this time,s o I do not think he can be too intrusive.

Shinobu: If YamadaP ended up producing AnzuP’s episode, it wouldn’t make any sense, de gozaru.

That would make the match, or the producer showdown, nonviable.

Hinata: It’s not something she should do to the point of destroying her body. I feel it’s fine to end this with Anzu-san’s loss now that she’s called in sick.

Managing the health of your idols and yourself is part of the job.

By falling ill, Anzu-san’s already considered inferior to YamadaP as a producer.

Yuuta: We’ve never had to miss work due to falling ill! We are healthy children! ☆

Hinata: But it’s caused for some mental unwellness because of that…

Yuuta: Moving on. This 12 episode program is already in the middle of it’s run with the fifth episode, and it seems to be getting a lot of viewership ratings thanks to the two producers competing.

It might not be feasible to cancel it at this point. At least, to the company or agency, in other words ES.

Hinata: Grown-up stuff is tough.

Nagisa: …I agree. Anzu-san’s name will be credited as this episode’s producer, and it appears that the match will continue whilst keeping her health condition under wraps.

…We should probably try to avoid mentioning it as much as possible.

Shinobu: During filming, at least, de gozaru. Hmm, I am worried about Anzu-dono though…

Yuuta: We just have to do our job. I’m sure doing that much would let Anzu-san at least rest easy.

Hinata: That’s right. …So, what kind of thing are we doing for our “experience” this time?

Nagisa: …I believe we’ve all received instruction from Anzu-san through HoldHands.

…What we’re doing for our “experience” this time is, umm, “experiencing life on the streets”?

Shinobu: Whoa, sounds like another harsh one!

Hinata: You’re not a very physically strong person, Shinobu-kun, so don’t push yourself too hard, okay?

Yuuta: That’s my line, Aniki.

Hinata: The current Yuuta-kun isn’t considerate enough, so I’m saying it for you!

Shinobu: I-I don’t want the siblings to quarrel, de gozaru~? Let’s get along, get along…♪

Nagisa: …Fufu, it is somehow unnerving for various reasons.

…In short, it appears we will be living on the streets for about a week, five days to be exact.

Yuuta: So like a homele… I have a feeling I shouldn’t use that word. Umm, so like an unemployed person with no fixed address?

Nagisa: …That’s right. Like we’ve been thrown out onto the street in only our clothes and have to survive for five days.

Yuuta: So we’ll be surviving in the concrete jungle!

Hinata: Whaaat, this will be easy, then!

Shinobu: Wha, wha? I’m here thinking this will be the hardest so far, de gozaru!?

Even harder than the third episode where we lived in extreme poverty, living on only 500 yen a day!

We at least had an apartment to live in with furniture and a bed, de gozaru!

We won’t even have that this time, de gozaru! It’s like a hard-mode was given to living in extreme poverty due to popular demand?

Nagisa: …Is the producer in charge this time around, Anzu-san, a demon?

Yuuta: She can be brutal at times, but I think she’s rather gentle with this.

Hinata: Yup. We can use the experience of how to save money during the program’s third episode of living in extreme poverty, though not Ran-senpai.

Yuuta: Yup. We have experience.

Shinobu: Oh, right. Yuuta-kun and Hinata-kun—

Yuuta: Yeah. When we were kids, we ran away from home and lived on the streets for some time. We earned money through things like street performances.

That experience can be put to good use. If anything, isn’t that why Anzu-san chose this to be our experience this time?

Hinata: Yup. This won’t be a first for us, so she hoped it’d be no sweat for us—No she trusted us that it would be.

Anzu-san, who knows us very well, has prepared something that I believe is a perfect fit for us.

Though I do feel bad for Shinobu-kun who will have to tag along.

Shinobu: … …

[ ☆ ]

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#2×2 #2x2 #yuuta aoi #hinata aoi #shinobu sengoku #nagisa ran #event #translation

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duckbeater · 1 year

Text

Story Assignment / Did You Prevail?

Peter Handke’s memoir A Sorrow Beyond Dreams is notable for its brevity and also the brevity of its composition. In less than 90 pages he examines his mother’s suicide, sketches something of her backwoods youth in interwar Germany, sympathetically evokes her enervating middle years (child-rearing, poverty, spirit-killing monotony), then analyzes her life’s coda—a time of curiosity, social reinvention and zest. By elevating her consciousness, she apparently collapsed all that’d come before, made it ugly and non-negotiable. To quit the past required a whole bottle of sleeping pills.

Handke’s analyses is forensic, delicate and rational. You believe he loves his mother not from sentimental asides or fantasies of saving, but by his devotion to the truth, which, given his mother’s unhappiness and pettiness and lack of education, has a nearly universal meaningless. What did her death mean? Who could it possibly affect?

Anyway, he finished the book in two months, and included the odd occasional all-caps abstraction. When I’m walking around at night I sometimes think, “NEAT, CLEAN and JOLLY,” or “WEAK-KNEED,” or “GREAT FALL,” or “MEANWHILE HAD GONE OUT OF EXISTENCE,” and know I’m occupied once more with my little sorrow beyond dreams.

—

“Man,” I texted Mackie, “I’ve been awake since 3AM. It’s 5 now. Jerked off 2x. No sleep.” I hit send before deciding my intentions. I don’t think we know what to say to each other, but we’re always saying things to each other, and it’s never, “Was thinking about you, how great it’d be to be turn over and just talk to you in the dark.” I don’t know if he’d actually ever say that to me—seems wishful. Mackie is not very nice and he lives very far away.

—

Went to a party on Wednesday. I wore dark blues down to my briefs, and navy small shoes with no arches. I got off the train hobbling and talked myself up in the alleys on the way to the two-story condo where we’d celebrate night 4 of Hanukkah. I’d slept with the host, obviously, and one or two friends in attendance. I’m not really a part of this group, I’ve just—I guess I’ve penetrated it, as they say.

I had rehearsed convos in my head. I had slammed a blue-bottled beer before getting on the train and felt woozy but competent, just a little in pain. Everyone there seemed leagues more jovial and put together and interesting and adult than me, I felt, immediately on opening the door. I had forced an earring in a closed hole and my left ear was berry red and throbbing—a part of why I felt so juvenile. Grown men don’t just press past the barrier of healed skin. It made a small gratifying popping sound as it cleared the other side and felt hot-hot, and it’s a sensation I’ll repeat (it’s a sensation writing repeats).

For a while, to get out of the heat and press of my successful and attached gay cohort, I hung out with the only female in attendance, Bernice, a noted fag hag (I believe she condones this use), and stroked a paw of the small dog seeking refuge in a pillow-pile beside me on the over-plush couch. Because I felt lonely, I wanted to ask, “Bernice, why do you exclusively attend these kinds of events? Why do you exclusively attend events where you’re shunted to an oversized couch with a social incompetent? What’s the deal with you and gays?” Instead we talked about our jobs. This inadvertently dimensionalized Bernice for me.

“I’ve done so much bullshit work for the last decade,” she snorted, “and in 2022 I got hired as a special projects consultant for an absolutely broken renewable energies firm.” She explained the firm’s stultifying snags on ESG semantics, its optical insecurities, how it quavered on progressive politics, waffling on bygone talking points. “I was loaned out,” said Bernice. “Um, so my firm actually salaried me. I could say whatever I wanted in the vaunted halls of the executive suites and the buffet boxes of free sports tickets and the Connecticut mansion parties. And I called them cowards. I really busted their balls for weeks and weeks—on op-eds, white papers, social media posts, ‘the state security alignment’—I’m sorry, I mean the police—and also, who are those tadpoles in DC—”—“Lobbyists,” I breathed—“Lobbyists,” she breathed back, “I called them out on how based and cucked and knob-choked they all were on the teeny fucking penises of the DC lobbyists. I wanted them to feel so small and stupid and dry and bad, for what they were making, which was millions every day, millions on millions, while I—finally—afforded a Kia. I hate feeling poor. At our age? Don’t you?” “Yes. I hate it.” “Right. So I made them feel poor, a little bit.”

During this peroration I got trembly and blank, excited and critical. I let this leave me. I said, “Did you prevail?” and Bernice said, “The fuck no. But god damn! I made sixteen-kay in November. You ever make that much in a month?” “No, never, and I never,” I said. I told her how had I finally afforded a new car by taking a job at a bank. Bernice has also studied literature. (I don’t think she keeps a blog.) We cheersed saying, “Eat the rich,” [clink], “Eat the rich,” and that felt very correct. The dog licked my palm, perhaps mistaking our intent. “We’re not gonna eat you,” I said, and the dog chittered his teeth at me.

Later that night I made out with a guy name Andrew (such an indelible millennial name), and then never talked to him again though we’ve texted somewhat since.

Mackie asked what I was up to that night and I sent him a couple photo and video updates that were greeted by silence. The next AM he was sending obscure memes again. Out of jealousy, I told myself.

—

It’s odd—I didn’t really solve why Bernice exclusively hangs out with thirty-something gays who ignore her. (My last theory is that she enjoys recreational drugs: her gay friend group is really into those.) Past the obscure memes, I solicited Mackie for some explanation. He unimaginatively offered misogynistic trash, with the line, “Can’t pull but likes to watch.” Typing that up makes me feel very late and very closed-minded to the asexual community, although assuming Bernice is asexual feels as offensive as assuming she hangs out with queers for ketamine. Sometimes our friends, our networks, our densest and most particular milieus spring upon us by accident. And yet—she’s consulted for a living. She made $16K in November. She’s canny. Also clearly she hates straight rich white men. What gives?

I texted the host, thanking him for his hospitality; I texted Andrew, thanking him for his wonderful plump kisses; I texted other men who’d breeched my IG stronghold with accolades and complaints about my attention and comportment. A guy I’d “met” on Grindr and spoken to in the kitchen let me know I’d “rejected him” after he’d shared his album; that’d I stopped talking to him after seeing him naked. But—he was glad we’d met in real life, because he’d had the opportunity to confirm I did read books. He’d written: “When you talk, you use big words.” Embarrassed, I messaged him back saying, “I didn’t reject you. I’m just bad at Grindr. And yeah, I read books.” (Guys: the fact remains, I read books.)

I did reject him. His body repulsed me. He’d been overweight for years and undertaken marathon training, so all the skin on him was oozing and angry and stretched like taffy. Also I wasn’t that into his penis. Judging his fitness—his ripeness—his fuckability—based on something as arbitrary as cock-hardness and a sculpted torso—is the remit of the sexually unenlightened. I know! Not wanting to bang Stu because his body gave me the squick (and his body giving me the squick because of socially inherited standards of gay male beauty) drove me slightly batshit. I’d gone to Hanukkah Night 4 hoping for no part of that—hoping, indeed, for enlightenment. And still, I was confronted in the corner of the kitchen with a man who I had no intention of sleeping with, with him later asking me, “Why?” Also, I think that’s a party foul. If I’d been hideous on Grindr that’d be one thing, but I’d only been silent.

(I’d gone to Hanukkah Night 4, actually, fully with the intention of some very beautiful, intelligent man courting me, seducing me, sweetly asking if he might take me home. Mackie reminded me: “You went to a gay party hoping to get laid.” When I revisit our texts, I see that on Wednesday night, I did jokingly say, “Wearing blue briefs tonight in case I get laid.”)

—

Prevail in the sense of what.

I keep telling myself, if you just write in the style (or concern) of Grace Paley, you’ll manage your output better. You’ll actually write, rather than not write, which—bizarre to point out—a lot of egregiously more talented writers simply don’t do. They either don’t read Grace Paley or they don’t take her example seriously. Can’t drop the kids off at the sitter? Disappointing a union rep? Grocery store reverie? Class action lawsuit? Neighborhood defense? Teaching Zoomers dialogue? Furious about parking? Guys being complete pricks? What’s for breakfast? (“Our shrinking family requires more coffee, more eggs, more cheese, less butter, less meat, less orange juice, more grapefruit.”) Seasons shift their responsibilities [planting, watering, raking, shoveling] and finally the apartment, the car, the stoop, and [even] the park demand a graceless apology and accounting for. How do you come by these treasures?

Paley gives you freedom to remark on the banal frustrations and the relentless petty drama of existing while renting. So too of dating while maybe dating others (a grace for the gays), and of wanting to attend an alderman’s fundraiser but maybe sliding one or more of your dates there, too—a Jane Jacobs by way of Nora Ephron. Maybe I only read her young writing. Perhaps I only read her young concerns. (No: She was 63 when she published the breakfast items above.) But everything feels fresh and hilarious and condoned. “You will sorely fuck this up, surely, but the lesson of living in the city will stick.” (I wrote that last quote, not Grace Paley.)

—

Later, Mackie texted, “Stop being annoying and text me back.”

I sent him maybe the 81st photo of me in my underwear, haggard, glasses, brushing my teeth, and the caption, “All clear.”

#grace paley #peter handke

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stargazer-sims · 1 year

Text

Keigo: How’s the game going?

Senjirō: I’m winning for a change.

Keigo: Good job, love. Someone around here besides me ought to be able to kick Taiji’s butt at table tennis.

Taiji: I’m having an off day.

Keigo: Oh?

Taiji: Yeah. I blame Haru. He was freaking out because he lied to Ji-Soo about why Ji-Hyun was sick the other night, and he wouldn’t shut up about it. I just wanted to sleep, but he was going on about whether or not he should come clean or whatever.

Senjirō: So, it wasn’t something Ji-Hyun ate that made him sick?

Taiji: More like something he inhaled. Apparently, Haru let him try the bubble machine.

Keigo: What?

Senjirō: No wonder he was sick. Keigo, remember the first time we tried it?

Keigo: Don’t remind me. I accidentally swallowed the stuff, and I thought I was never gonna stop throwing up. My stomach hurt so bad the next day, Sarah had to take me to the doctor, remember?

Taiji: I remember Senjirō crying nonstop until Sarah brought you back.

Senjirō: I was scared. I didn't know if it was serious or not, and I felt like it was my fault. It was my idea to try it, after all.

Keigo: It was pretty bad, but it didn't last long, and at least we can say we all learned something from it.

Senjirō: Yes. Inhale, but don't swallow.

Taiji: Am I the only one who didn't have to be told not to swallow?

Keigo: Probably, but you're a degenerate, so...

Taiji: Shut up.

Senjirō: He's not wrong.

Taiji: You shut up too.

Senjirō *laughing*

Keigo: Do we need a new topic?

Taiji: Yes.

Senjirō: What do you suggest?

Keigo: How about how the tour team is shaping up? Like, what do we think of the hair and makeup guy that Sarah and Sheridan want to hire?

Taiji: What do you mean, 'want to hire'? I'm pretty sure they already offered him the job, or they're going to by the end of the day.

Senjirō: He seems friendly, and I liked all his portfolio photos. I know Haru certainly liked him.

Taiji: I'm pretty sure Haru was more interested in that guy who was in so many of the pictures. You know, the one who looks like a girl? Didn't the new guy say that's his brother or something?

Keigo: I think he said they're twins.

Taiji: They don't look alike.

Keigo: Fraternal twins.

Taiji: Oh. Anyway, I guess I like him well enough, and he obviously knows his way around a makeup palette. I might actually trust him to do mine, but we'll see.

Keigo: How about you, Senjirō?

Senjirō: I don’t care who does my hair and makeup, as long as they’re competent and nice. Sheridan wouldn’t hire anyone who doesn’t know what they’re doing, so I’m sure it’ll all be fine. Personally, I’m more concerned about the medical people who’re coming with us.

Taiji: You would be.

Keigo: Ryu said they’re supposed to be hiring a nurse, and we’re going to have the same physical therapist who came on our first tour.

Senjirō: Not a female nurse, I hope. That was so awkward last time.

Keigo: Ryu already told Sarah we’d prefer a guy. It's not just the comfort level. We don't want any, uh... situations.

Taiji: You mean, we don't want Haru hitting on a female one.

Senjirō: What makes either of you think he wouldn't hit on a male one? This is Haru we're talking about here. He might lean towards women, but you know how he is. He'll go for anybody he finds attractive.

Keigo: My guess is, Sarah will give him the talk before we leave for the tour.

Taiji: Like, 'hands off the staff, or else'?

Keigo: Something like that.

Senjirō: He really is our problem child, isn't he?

Taiji: Yeah, but we still love him.

Keigo: Let's hope all our new members of the tour staff feel the same way.

#ts4 #sims 4 #eagames #snowy escape #sugar valentine #Keigo Sasaki #Senjiro Okada #Taiji Kanematsu #fake boy band #wearesugarvalentine #stargazersims

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wordsandrobots · 2 years

Text

IBO reference notes on . . . a perfect villain

Spoilers for everything, especially season 2.

This is an Iok Kujan appreciation post. No, not like that. Obviously, Iok is a spectacular prat whose obliviousness, bull-headedness and all-round stupidity results in multiple catastrophes. It'd stretch a point to say he's responsible for everything bad in the series but for Tekkadan specifically, it would have improved things immeasurably if Hashmal had swatted Iok the moment it woke up.

However, as I noted in one of my previous posts, Iok is the best written character in the show and I don't mean that (entirely) as a joke. I genuinely think he is a masterclass in creating a hatable antagonist.

We should start with who Iok is within that story, or rather what. Iok is heir to one of the Seven Star families making up Gjallarhorn's ruling council. He is part of an aristocracy and specifically, an aristocracy responsible for colonial administration. Being English, my mind immediately goes to the British Empire, sending various chinless wonders out to make everyone's lives miserable. It seems this tradition is alive and well three centuries post-Calamity.

Most of the named Gjallarhorn characters are scions of the ruling families who hold positions of authority. McGillis Fareed and Gaelio Bauduin are inspectors. Carta Issue leads one fleet. Iok is a commander within another. To my mind, it's clear they've all been promoted based on bloodline, not merit. McGillis is perhaps the only one genuinely qualified for his position, and even he gets rocketed up to Brigadier General by dint of taking over as head of his family. Gaelio, meanwhile, though more than a pretty face, doesn't seem temperamentally suited to his job: he's bored and incurious without McGillis' prompting, and overly reliant on brute force in combat. His big strength is he learns to be better, eventually. But then there's Carta who . . .

Well, let's dig into this because Carta is most obviously similar to Iok. The head of a very powerful family, placed under the guardianship of another member of the Seven Stars, with a host of dedicated followers propping up some seriously questionable leadership choices, she ultimately meets an ignoble fate after causing our protagonists heartbreak. It's another of those parallels I talked about last time, and like those, the two arcs have different flavours. You see, we're given room to empathise and even sympathise with Carta. She genuinely is one of McGillis' oldest friends, by dint of urging him towards self-worth, something nobody else had ever done before. McGillis sacrificing her for his greater good has impact precisely because there are glimpses of decency and humanity behind Carta's pomposity and self-importance.

Oh, she absolutely is pompous and self-important. A martinet, clinging to rigid social and military rules without flexibility, she has no qualms over fighting and killing literal children. She's not a good person. But maybe she could have been. She has an actual sense of honour and holds to it stubbornly. She is capable of caring about others and once upon a time, told etiquette to go screw itself for the sake of befriending someone interesting. And I think it's crucial to note she's actually reasonably competent, in spite of her manner. She adapts to Tekkadan's tactics in orbit, promptly dealing with the nano-mirror chaff, and later blind-sides them with an orbital drop. Her main failing is that she doesn't treat combat as a fight for survival but a duel, to be fought accordingly. She simply isn't prepared for the more desperate and utilitarian tactics ranged against her.

The reason this is important is because Iok, by contrast, is profoundly incompetent. It is noted over and over again, by multiple characters in the show, that he doesn't know what he's doing. Carta sticks too rigidly to the rulebook; it's unclear if Iok has even read it. One gets the impression he glanced at it once, got bored within three pages, and blundered on regardless because no one has the authority to fire him.

Rightly or wrongly, one of the best ways to strip the audience's sympathy for a character is to make them incompetent. Not unskilled or dumb – there are plenty of ways to play those as endearing. But actual incompetence, encompassing a lack of awareness over being so, is another matter. Seeing someone fail repeatedly without acknowledgement or effort to improve creates the antitheses of that sweet feeling of watching someone excelling at their job. It's frustrating. It's annoying. It makes you glad to see the back of the character.

It can also be funny. Absent sympathy, it's easy to laugh at dingbats who keep messing up. Innumerable shows find humour in this very ancient joke. Iron-Blooded Orphans, however, plays Iok's incompetence deadly straight. The man is a disaster for friend and foe alike: his failures come with a butcher's bill and a body count. Mikazuki's growing paralysis, Naze, Amida and the Turbines, Iok's own soldiers – time and again we are shown the bloody fallout of Iok's blundering.

And time and again, we see him escape without meaningful consequence. Because in a story full of characters walking a razor thin line between success and failure, with their very survival at stake, Iok has the luxury of insulation from harm.

That's the key part. Because Iok is far from the only character to be naïve about how and why things work the way they do. He's definitely not the only one who needs basic fundamentals explained to him in simple terms (*cough* Orga *cough* Kudelia *cough* Shino *cough* – you get the point). But unlike the rest, he can get away with it. He was born into a family with power and connections, he's coddled by a system geared to the advantage of people like him, and he has the reflected glow of his father's legacy granting him supporters who hope he might grow up to be similarly great. This is not someone capable of blowing everything on an ill-advised quest for revenge. The most he suffers for that is being sent to his room. The man nearly causes a city to be wiped off the map and carries on regardless, unpunished.

Which would be bad enough in itself. Being a selfish, entitled prick usually is. But Iok's characterisation goes one step further, in that he is written to have the shape of redeeming qualities. He is brave and forthright. He is willing to lead from the front. He seeks to honour those under his command. In someone else, these could lend a semblance of nobility. But Iok? Iok's bravery merely means he doesn't heed warnings of danger. His attempts at leadership invariably backfire and make every situation worse. And rather than listening to his men's requests to get to safety, he invalidates their sacrifice by rushing back to the front to make himself feel better, forcing more comrades into harm's way. Over and over, we are shown how Iok's self-absorption warps every single positive trait he possesses.

Without this, he'd be a twit who keeps falling on his face. With it, his status as a total jackass is elevated to something so unutterably poisonous that being crushed to jam feels like the least he deserves. And all without ever coming into direct contact with the protagonists. Iok is the vapid embodiment of a callous system that places power in the hands of people who wield it without skill, for the pettiest of reasons, all the while truly believing they are the heroes. He doesn't need to actually shoot anybody; he enables destruction from afar, stoking the schemes of opportunists in an effort to soothe a dented ego. He heaps utter misery on Tekkadan and it is only via sheer fluke – and Iok's rush to do something important – that they get any chance to strike back.

I don't want to claim this is deft. But sometimes you don't need to be. Sometimes you need to craft a character so perfectly hatable that them getting away with things becomes actively painful, in order that their fate will be a moment of triumph, snatched amid tragedy.

In a series shot through with beautifully-rendered violence pitched a little too far towards horrific to enjoy without queasiness, Iok Kujan dying horribly brings nothing so much as a sigh of relief. At least in the end, amidst all the remaining injustices, Akihiro was able to deliver much overdue comeuppance to a man who would never have known it otherwise. And it wouldn't have worked nearly so well if Iok hadn't be pitched to be so perfectly repellent.

Other reference posts include:

IBO reference notes on … Gjallarhorn (Part 1)

IBO reference notes on … Gjallarhorn (Part 2)

IBO reference notes on … Gjallarhorn (corrigendum) [mainly covering my inability to recognise mythical wolves]

IBO reference notes on … three key Yamagi scenes

IBO reference notes on … three key Shino scenes

IBO reference notes on … three key Eugene scenes

IBO reference notes on … three key Ride scenes

IBO reference notes on … the tone of the setting

IBO reference notes on … character parallels and counterpoints

IBO reference notes on … Iron-Blooded Orphans: Gekko

IBO reference notes on … an act of unspeakable cruelty

IBO reference notes on … original(ish) characters [this one is mainly fanfic]

IBO reference notes on … Kudelia’s decisions

#Gundam Iron-blooded Orphans #gundam ibo #iok kujan #character writing #writing #antagonists #reference #relevant to #fanfic #but only tangentally #I should also have been tagging these #g tekketsu #or #tekketsu no orphans #shouldn't I?#I'll fix that

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thiswontbeforever · 1 year

Note

I hope you'll feel better very very soon!

Do you think our boys stand strong chances at Swedish QX Gaygala?

I think they should absolutely win the best duo again, especially after the Tonight show, but I'm not sure about other nominations. For the best drama they compete with <3🛑per, and for personal nominations... I don't like the fact they are both nominated. I have thoughts about who deserves it more but I don't see it coming, tbh. Your thoughts?

hi hi ty!!

and i genuinely have no idea! i am not swedish so i don’t think i have a great grasp on how the gala works and usually goes!

after this year, i wanna be like yeah they’ve got this and really optimistic but bc i don’t know how it works i cant really be sure. i don’t know if they were up against hs last time? and last time they were both up individually in the same category as well and neither won.

i definitely can see them winning best duo again and they should because no one is doing it like them. i really really hope they win best tv program again as well (that’s what they won last time too, right?) oops idk for sure iM NOT SWEDISH but listen i do love heartstopper but even with the things i disliked about YR S2 it’s still on another level and an incredible queer drama so they deserve it.

as for individual nominations, i’m begging, begging for omar to win. i LOVE them both, and people weren’t surprised this year when they lost bc of whoever else was nominated (?) so idk if it’s the same this time around but i need omar to win for the incredible work he’s done as simon. of course i would also be ecstatic if edvin won, he’s truly a phenomenal actor & his portrayal of wille is absolutely amazing. but edvin is always going to be praised more than omar, omar is always going to be pushed to the background consciously or unconsciously and i really really want him to be awarded and celebrated for how he brought simon to life bc he literally makes my jaw drop and my heart stop. his first acting job. he is a STAR. i’ve never loved a character like i love simon (and i also love wille) and was so excited by his story and how they portray being gay and queerness in YR and i’m just so proud of omar i need him to really be recognized and given the praise he deserves for his portrayal, for what it means to the fans and what he & simon mean to the LGBTQ+ community. (is it gonna actually happen tho,,,,i think we’re on the same wavelength there) (but like i said i’d still be very happy if edvin won they are BOTH deserving and it’s normal that they’re in the same category. i promise they’re both probably very happy about it and proud of each other and will be supporting each other no matter which of them wins if they do).

if i’ve gotten something really wrong about this i apologize but i’m pretty sure that’s like the basics & ideas behind the nominations??

#omar rudberg #young royals #edvin ryding

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malwarewolf404 · 2 years

Text

If there were eight of me it’d be all over for every other person in my life. Like if I had seven identical clones there is not a single thing I would need from anyone else.

Like Maslow’s heirarchy of needs? Let’s take it from the bottom.

Phsycological Needs: (food, water, sleep, warmth, sex)

*rolls a D8* “Okay, Mal #4 looks like you’re our lucky winner. Your job while we’re at work is to be the House Hunk. Your diet’s going to consist of Muscle Milk and rare steak. You’re going to use my gold’s gym membership to work out every day until you’re ripped and chunkier than my favorite bear bartender. After your workout, you’ll come home and cook for us after we get off work. You won the dice roll, so your job will also involve satisfying each of us every day. And obviously you’ll be in the middle of the Mal Pile each night for bed. Congrats!”

Safety Needs: (Personal and Financial security, Wellbeing)

This is probably the easiest category. There are eight of me. That means at least six incomes, even if one of us gets hurt. I could get cheap single-payer healthcare, and who the hell would know that clone #3 came into the ER instead of the original? (I guess tattoos might give it away, but those can be replicated.) Also if Joe Schmoe ex-boyfriend tries to threaten me or something he’s going to have to contend with a small army of 6’4 clones all wielding army-grade combat knives. It’s a perfect system. Plus I could even use the income of a couple clones to save or invest!

Social Needs: (Friendship, Intimacy, Family)

Point conceded, it might get a little lonely with just me, me, me, sexy house husband me, myself, me, hipster me, and I. But consider, eight of me means 7x the potential social interaction. I could just go out into a bar and meet eight new friends and then have them all rotate between another me. Boom, each of us has just made eight new friends in a couple hours. Family might be a bit more tricky, might have to take turns visiting my sisters and grandparents, but I could figure it out. Intimacy though? That’s not even a problem that needs solving with eight of me, that’s just making every hug I get a dog pile, the absolute best possible way to recieve a hug.

Esteem Needs: (Freedom, Recognition, Self-Confidence, Attention, Competence)

“Good morning #3, you look really handsome today! Hey #5, do you feel better now? I know work was really tough yesterday, but just show your boss how dependable you are today, alright? What’s that? You wanna trade jobs with #7? Okay, let’s do it! Thank god #6 came up with that cross-training idea last month so no-one’s pinned to one occupation! Except you, #8, nobody codes our game quite as well as you! I can’t believe how fast that came along, feels like yesterday we were doing the writer’s room for it, and now we met our kickstarter goal! What’s up #4? You’re sore from the gym again? Everybody, group massage on #4 before work! #2, can you get out the massage table? Thank you sweetheart I love you!” Tell me the negatives.

Self-Actualization: (Transcendence, Achieving full potential, Seeking happiness)

You know I was going to concede this point to Maslow, but you know what? There are EIGHT OF ME in this hypothetical. I think the only thing that could be considered more an achievement of one’s full potential was if there were like twenty of me! And as far as seeking happiness goes, I could have all seven clones each do a trial month of seven different antidepressants and anxiety meds and record which ones work the best! A process that can take years could be achieved within a month or two! The only problem with that would be finding eight different psychologists lol. The big hurdle is transcendence, and because it’s such a personal, phenomenological thing, it’d be hard to experience it specifically and bring all my clones with me in the same way I’ve described with most other things. Although, I could have each of them work on a unique treatise of my personal religious philosophies and ideas, and then I’d have seven books of my religion to read and try to have the same experiences with them. Or, have them form some kind of chanting circle and try to put me in an auditory-induced trance where I overcome the cycle of life and death? It’s an idea.

Point is if I had eight identical clones it would rock. Every night would be a self-cestual orgy endcapped by a “Where the Wild Things Are” style cuddle pile. Every day my collective income would be worth a week’s pay. And, I’d never need to depend on anyone for much ever again.

Now the only problem is finding a doctor capable of sequencing my genome and speeding up my aging enough to where my clones are my age in a relatively small amount of time. And also finding seven surrogates, or some kind of vat I could keep them in until they’re grown. And also putting eight identical boys with a predisposition to mental unwellness through fast-tracked grade school. Also kind of being my own dad seven times? Okay on second thought this is starting to sound like parenthood, and absolutely not worth the effort.

#Mal Clone Polycule Sweep!#why am I like this

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bllsbailey · 6 days

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Let Them Destroy Each Other

Contrary to popular conservative opinion, I don’t want this college chaos to end anytime soon. I want it to increase and metastasize and continue right up until these entitled, ugly, mutated communist jerks totally alienate every normal American. It’s already happening. The frat boys have turned. The normals are turning. At one of these colleges, you had the theater major graduation ceremony invaded by Palesimpians and the parents began chanting, “USA! USA!” Will this and the administrations’ feeble response help flush these institutions’ bloated reputations down the crapper? Yes, please! So, keep it up, communist dipwads. I’m loving this.

This is definitely one of those “Can you both lose?” situations. We have left-wing faculty and administrators at the keffiyeh-clad throats of communist students on blue campuses in mostly blue cities in blue states, and all I can say is I hope they both lose. They are certainly losing the respect of normal people. There was a time when these colleges were prestigious organizations whose diplomas meant something. They mean something now, too – a warning: “Caution – The bearer is a whiny snowflake with delusions of competence.”

I’m biased since I want to destroy so-called elite academia as currently constituted. It has become a narrow gate within our culture that the left’s gatekeepers are using by curating admissions to create the ruling class of the future. DEI is part of the agenda. “Diversity” means “People we think will make good communist cadre.” If you’re a straight white guy who identifies as a guy, you’re not getting into one of these colleges. You’re just not. A straight white dude has about as much chance as a straight Asian dude, which is to say, “Not much.” That’s not who the left wants as the ruling class of the future – too left-averse as a whole. And they have succeeded in managing campus demography. Look at the protesters. It’s a diverse collection of SSRI-ridden neurotic females and goofy femboys.

The colleges have stopped working for the majority of Americans. We’re not invited. And people are realizing that. The people excluded from elite academia are realizing that and they will stop respecting and supporting it. What do we care about Harvard and Yale? Our kids will never get in. The Ivies are going to find that they are running out of friends on the right side of the aisle, and it’s about time.

The students themselves are hardly bringing credit on their alma maters. I love the hilarious antics of these twits, from demanding that they are being genocided if they aren’t sent DoorDash to law students demanding A-grades because they are too traumatized by cops putting some of their chubby comrades into headlocks that they can’t take exams. Please, set your reputation on fire!

The administrations can’t handle it because the leftists running these institutions are themselves leftist jokes. We’ve seen the plagiarism scandals – imagine being so ridiculous you can’t even fake your own woke nonsense and have to cut-and-paste it. We’ve also seen the allegedly elite institutions handling these kids with kid gloves – unlike Texas and the red states where the cops take out the trash. The administrators are themselves cultural trust fund babies – they didn’t build these institutions and are not competent to manage them. They inherited them simply because they had the right credentials and not because they had any actual talent. Now they’re blowing it.

That’s terrific. Their feckless incompetence undermines the very reason the institutions wield power – residual respect from when academia graduated students who could do important jobs in society. If you went to Harvard, you were probably a pretty smart kid who could probably be taught to do whatever job the big law firm or Goldman Sachs or the government needed doing. But that’s not true now. A lot of these diversity admittees can’t cut it and have no skill set other than endlessly complaining about how they are oppressed. The fact a lot of them want to murder all the Jews is likewise troubling. These gibbering halfwits aren’t the leaders of the future. They’re morons. They’re stupid, and they’re boring, but most of them are very, very ugly, so on the plus side, they’re unlikely to reproduce.

Compare and contrast these pretentious Gaza geeks with the healthy, happy, and attractive young people opposing them, mostly at red-state colleges. Who the hell would want to be on the side of the damn communists? I want to be on the side with the guys with kegs. Further, these schools are going to overtake the Ivy League as they swoop up the talent the alleged elite school discriminates against. You’re not getting admitted into the College State because you’re some weird-identifying creep whose essay is full of tales of high school activism. You’re getting in because you’ve got pretty good grades and you can probably do the work, and employers know that you can probably function in the real world. But who the hell wants to hire one of these Harvard idiots? All you will get is internal strife, excuses for shoddy work, endless demands, and probably a lawsuit.

It will take them a while to totally destroy their reputations, but their reputations are going down. After all, at some point, law firms, Wall Street, and giant corporations have to succeed at what they do. They’ve got a bottom line to consider, and somebody who demands every Friday off for mental health just isn’t going to cut it. But that’s what these entitled twits will do. They will try to bring their college nonsense into the real world. So far, the real world has accommodated them somewhat – HR departments are full of these idiots – but at some point, the people who actually want to succeed at their enterprise are going to have to hire people who can make them successful.

Yes, allegedly elite schools, please destroy your value proposition. Also, be sure to further alienate conservatives, who will be sure to use their political power against you in return. There was one time when you could pretend to be above politics, and conservatives would keep funding you, but now a conservative pol is going to have to explain to his own people why he’s giving money to a bunch of people who hate us and want to kill all the Jews. And he’s not going to want to have to explain that. Say “Goodbye” to funding and “Hello” to a lot of onerous new regulations designed to protect Republican voters from leftist discrimination and abuse.

I make no secret that I want to destroy academia as currently constituted. It’s a suppurating abscess on the buttocks of American society. I am kind of sad that I’m not going to get to do it myself. Academia is already doing it to itself.

Well, I guess I’m good as long as it gets done.

Follow Kurt on Twitter @KurtSchlichter. Get the newest volume in the Kelly Turnbull People’s Republic series of conservative action novels set in America after a notional national divorce, the bestselling Amazon #1 Military Thriller, Overlord! And get his new novel about terrorism in America, The Attack!

Look, you need to keep up the fight by joining Townhall VIP right now. You get access to a bunch of great stuff, not the least of which is my extra Wednesday column, my weekly Stream of Kurtiousness videos every Friday, and the Unredacted podcast every Monday! Plus, some stuff from Larry O’Connor – and a bunch of other stuff.

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talenlee · 8 days

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MTG: Rotating The Roots In My Mind

A new set has come out, Standard has changed, and with it a whole host of new cards that may or may not matter for my beloved Insidious Roots deck.

What am I gunna do?

The notes for this article wound up over a thousand words. I just put them under the fold. It’s hard to work out what I’m gunna do. Here are my thoughts on it, regardless of how good or how meaningful it is as a thought process.

Here’s the lesson up front; three year long standard, with our current landscape has created a niche benefit for me, as a free-to-play Magic: The Gathering Arena player. Decks are changed, a little, with each new release, rather than being overhauled and overthrown by each change. When Insidious Roots rotates out, I will have to change the deck, but at exactly this point, it’s fine. My mono-red deck is fine, and when individual cards go, I can replace them with newer, similar cards in newer sets.

Here’s the deck, before making any (serious) changes from Outlaws of Thunder Junction. And this deck, and revising this deck, has overwhelmed me. Not because there’s no changes worth making – but because my demands are competing with one another. I want this deck to have as many creatures in it as possible. Ideally, the deck would have nothing but creatures, and the roots, but that’s silly and we know we’re not going to get that. I also wish I had 24 lands, but I’m already getting distracted.

This deck has not really changed with the release of Outlaws of Thunder Junction. It’s not because it can’t be changed. It’s not because changes are not desireable. I know I have wants. But The problem comes considering what to swap in and out and how it changes the composition of a deck that I know full well is not that good and how those changes relate to the deck as it currently is.

A thing I honestly wanted to do for this article and wound up being untenable was to create an example spreadsheet you could click through to see each card and how it related to what else in the deck and what needs it addressed. It’s because there are threads of how these cards interact that meshes together in a complicated set of tensions.

Here’s an example; right now, the thing I most keenly feel is wrong or bad with this deck is the power of Pile On. Pile On is a surveil removal spell, it’s got convoke so it can fire off when I’m tapped low, and it kills things mostly unequivocally. Also, crucially, I had it, because I had made a black-green alchemy deck when I got started. The surveil is good! I want sources of surveil wherever I can get them because they’re the way to actually dig through the deck trying to find the Insidious Roots. On the other hand, early on it doesn’t work to defend me, and it’s only useful if I have a board presence. There are other removal spells that could do the same job, slightly better… kinda. Bitter Ordeal could be used to chuck things into the yard, and is very effective at just killing things early in the game. But even then, what about Assassin's Trophy? That does almost all the same things and it hits artifacts and enchantments, battles and planeswalkers too, there’s a lot it can do.

And like, Assassin’s Trophy presents an alternative to Outland Liberator. That card is in the big collection of threads a loose end. Because it can sometimes enter the battlefield as a 3/3 instead of a 2/2, it’s possible that it fails to work with the Snarling Gorehound and means there’s one fewer surveil. What’s more, that’s not under your control very easily, which means sometimes, an opponent can make the Outland Liberator in my hand into a ‘better’ card I can’t use in all the ways I want because what’s most important to me is getting that surveil.

I’ve also used Annihilating Glare, but it being sorcery speed makes it less desireable. On the other hand it can eat a food token (if I’m using Restless Cottage) or an Incubator token (if I’m using Ichor Drinker).

This is all in the space of the question of ‘hey, is Pile On the best removal spell in this space?’

There are also unused opportunities. Check out Intrepid Paleontologist. That can let me reuse dinosaur cards. Know how many useful cards there are that are dinosaurs? Not many, but also, crucially, not none – there’s Thrashing Brontodon as a possible artifact or enchantment removal spell, and there’s also the landcyclers Nurturing Bristleback and Rampaging Spiketail. But I don’t need those unless I’m bulking the deck up and making it able to cast big, expensive spells later. Is giving up on the potential late game juice out of the paleontologist okay?

(Yes, it is okay, I have made that choice).

Then there are the cards that present interesting opportunities from Outlaws of Thunder Junction, if – and it’s a big if! – I can provide them their needs. Stubborn Burrowfiend can do a job of a Souls of the Lost… if I can saddle it consistently, and that means wanting something that probably works with the saddling? Forsaken Miner could jump out of the yard consistently for cheap, if I can commit a crime. Kaervek the Punisher, god damn, that could be a black engine if I was committing crimes regularly. Rise of the Varmints could be a budget version of the Souls of the Lost, and Desperate Bloodseeker Has an overlap with the Undead Butler, and… and…

None of these pieces fit in tightly. I don’t have a crime engine.

Of course, Unlicensed Hearse is a crime engine. It lets me exile cards from the yard. It can trigger crimes and even be a big threat, too. But that’s only useful if I’m making any of these other changes, and all of this is looking at a deck that’s already running fewer lands than I think I should be running!

I can tell you things I wish I had. I wish I had Fell Stinger but as like, a 1/3 for 2. I wish I had Honest Rutstein but with a power of 2 and maybe something else to go with it. I wish I had Deathbonnet Sprout but less slow. I kinda want Old Stickfingers, just as is. I want my Propagator Primordium from Alchemy!

I swear, this started as just one example.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#Games #Magic: The Gathering

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homerjacksons · 2 months

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God I just hate my job so much and I miss when I loved my job but it’s changed so much over the past year it’s not even the same job anymore.

Like I edit closed captions for a living.

And I knowwww this shit was inevitable. I KNOW this. I’ve been wondering when it would happen the whole 7 years I’ve been doing this job, and honestly the fact that I still have half a job is surprising.

But what used to happen is we’d acquire caption files for UK or US shows from their broadcaster and edit them to our broadcast standards. Which largely just meant re-syncing because US and Aus TV are in different framerates. There’s other stuff involved but that was the bulk of it.

And it was a nice, repetitive, relatively easy and enjoyable job. Didn’t pay amazingly but it was enough.

But then mostly competent AI came into the picture and our company developed its own captioning AI. Meanwhile, companies like Foxtel have majorly cut back their spending on captioning and are “doing them in-house” (meaning they’re not really editing anything and their caption quality is now near unwatchable on a lot of tv shows)

So with Foxtel pulling back 90% of their work from us (which was the bulk of what I did) and our company pushing their AI, most of the work I do is now editing the stuff the AI spits out.

And it is just painful. A lot of the stuff I do isn’t scripted TV anymore. It’s all reality shows and game shows and travel/tourism shows for Seven and Nine (seriously are they even captioning any of their scripted stuff anymore? I’m so confused) and the AI gets a lot of it right, sure, but it still also gets A LOT wrong.

These files require SO MUCH more work than my previous stuff. And this big switch has coincided with my chronic fatigue syndrome worsening so my attention span is shot to shit, I get so much brain fog it makes this type of work 10x harder AND there’s just not enough of it to go around with the amount of captioners we have employed (which lmao is why we’re paid per file we complete and don’t have set hours)

Basically I’m just tired. I am so, so tired. This type of work drains what little energy I have and I am so goddamn miserable but what else am I meant to do? I’m unsuited for most kinds of work due to my illness. Even working half days in any kind of environment with others is too draining. I can’t do anything that requires me to move about a lot or be on my feet or I’d be exhausted to the point of pain within an hour. Finding work I would actually be able to do is nearly impossible. Which is why I cling to this godawful job with a company I hate.

And I am so. Tired.

#just a rant about work #carry on

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gnostichymns · 3 months

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Snow has finally melted and birds are singing anew. Spring draws nearer every day, promising warmth and bountiful harvest and, most importantly, more work to be done than ever!

[MONDSTADT] The Knights of Favonius’ famous cavalry team has been missing in action for some time due to their expedition with Varka, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t horses to be tended to. Some drunkard accidentally stumbled their way into the stables, caused a whole commotion, and set the horses free. Lawrence and Swan were almost crushed beneath the speedy canter of polished, metallic horseshoes, and the fine debonair of their flowing manes and tails. Currently, they’re grazing on the outskirts of Springvale. Please guide these majestic horses back to their stables.

[LIYUE] Cheers to a fantastic Lantern Rite, adventurers! Liyue has been properly shaken (positively) by the fireworks, festivities, and overall unity that this event always brings. Of course, the days that come after are never fun, and the Qixing has requested our help in cleaning up the port. In particular, a lot of the firework mortars need to be collected and there is an excess of streamers, ash, and general garbage that was left of the streets in the merchant districts. Report to the Yuehai Pavilion for your assignment.

[INAZUMA] Watatsumi Island, known for its cascading waterfalls and gorgeous scenery, is a major tourist attraction in the coming months. However IAGSHA (Inazuman Adventurer’s Guild Safety and Health Administration) won’t allow tourists onto the island without fixing some very glaring safety problems. The Sangonomiya Shrine is heading the operation to install scaffolding for wooden bridges more than 10 above any lower levels, and that all the railings are above 42 inches in height without dipping below 39 inches. Offer assistance in any way you can.

[SUMERU] Paradis Dhyai, a small research location for the Akademiya, is known for its exquisite green houses and rare flora. However, a recent addition to one of the greenhouses, an Inazuman specialty flower, Dendrobium, has led to some unwanted visitors. Electro and Hydro fungus have begun to populate the greenhouse holding the new flowers. While fungus are generally easy to deal with, the potent mixture is making research on these flowers even more difficult. Please assist in removing the fungi.

[FONTAINE] What new, silly technological advance is Fontaine making today? Well, that’s up to you! The Fontaine Research Institute has apparently run out of ideas, or are just in the mood to hear some ridiculous inventions and patents. Live at the Opera, dive into The Marlin Myre, where five genius minds of Fontaine are given the freedom to invest in a portion of businesses, whether they’re just starting up or well established, and they need your ideas! Honestly, it’s not our money, but please do be mindful. Report to the Opera Epiclese to sign up and give those radical inventors your two mora.

The Fishing Association is a small grassroots organization made by people who love catching fish for people who love catching fish. Have you got mad angling skills? Real good with bait and tackle? Well, now's your chance to show it off to all of Teyvat, or at least the fishermen of Teyvat. We’re hosting our annual Slumdog Fishing Cup, where you can compete to show just how good you really are. Rules are simple. Whoever catches the biggest fish wins. Spearfishing, hand catching, fishing rods, whatever method suits you is allowed.

I sure hope you can hold your breath for a long time because we have several reports of skippers who aren’t good at their jobs. While there have been no casualties, these novice boat savvy men have sank several ships at major trading ports, and they need to be broken down. Otherwise, helmsmen who actually know how to do their job might risk actually injuring someone. Please report to your nearest guild for further directions.

[NEW] Everyone is always looking for that little magic in a bottle. That sweet little drink to take the edge off, help with your next presentation, give you some grit to hunt for longer periods, or even just to win that arm wrestling competition. Well, we need some alchemists who’ll work very diligently to brew some potions useful in everyday life. With our eyes on stocks and demand, we need you to help make some potions.

[NEW] As a little reward for all the hard work you adventurers have been doing, we’ve set some special scouts out to each nation for a treat. A scavenger hunt with a sweet treat at the end. Hints and riddles have been left inside of some plastic eggs, hidden around your nearest Guild location and surrounding landmarks. The first hint is free though! It’s posted at your local commission board, good luck!

[NEW] There have been recent reports of Delusions being sold in some kind of underground market. While we have no idea who supplies these shady businesses, we do have a few leads as to who might be putting these dangerous tools into unsavory peoples hands. They’re being used to commit crimes and pose an incredible risk to both the user and civilians. Report to your nearest Guild location and track these scoundrels down.

#gh commission board

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44gamez · 3 months

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Top 10 Best Steam Next Fest Demos You Need to Download

Steam Subsequent Fest is again with extra demos from all corners of gaming. From February Fifth-Twelfth gamers can obtain demos of essentially the most anticipated releases and take a look at them out. It could actually get a bit overwhelming with so many selections, and that’s why we’re going to point out you the highest 10 greatest Steam Subsequent Fest demos it is advisable obtain. Our listing is in no particular order and goals to seize video games throughout all totally different genres. Moreover, we’ll cowl what the demo entails, in addition to the overarching elements of the sport. Let’s get began with our first sport on the listing.

#1 — Pacific Drive

Picture: Ironwood Studios The primary sport on the listing is coincidentally, the primary sport I attempted out when viewing all the brand new demos. Pacific Drive, from developer Ironwood Studios, is an motion survival sport that was initially revealed on the Sony State of Play again in September of 2022. Since then, it has change into a sport to look out for, and we lastly get a style of what to anticipate. The sport locations you in an alternate world the place components of America have been altered by supernatural beings. You end up sucked into this unnerving but intriguing world, and it’s as much as you to assist these caught inside. Associated: 8 greatest survival video games in 2024 The demo reveals gamers the opening of the sport’s story, serving to you get a really feel for the gameplay elements of Pacific Drive. Your job is to drive round amassing sources, crafting new gear to not solely outfit your automobile however finally discover a method out. It’s an attention-grabbing premise story-wise, and I discovered the gameplay to be a bit like Outer Wilds. The place you don’t know what you’ll discover and but you will have an plain pull to discover and examine. Be certain that to maintain a watch out when Pacific Drive releases on PS5 and Steam on February twenty second, 2024.

#2 — Lightyear Frontier

Picture: FRAME BREAK Subsequent up on the listing is a multiplayer survival sport, Lightyear Frontier from developer FRAMEBREAK. A sport that appears such as you had been thrown onto a planet from No Man’s Sky with the Prawn Fits from Subnautica. Nonetheless, the mech you utilize in Lightyear Frontier is rather more versatile, permitting you to alter traversal strategies, and equip a myriad of instruments. It’s a really laidback and satisfying sport, the place you and as much as 3 different gamers can construct their residence, meet alien creatures, and have a tendency to quite a lot of totally different crops. Lightyear Frontier was initially introduced all the way in which again in 2021, and since then the builders have proven off updates all through the years. The demo lets gamers check out the various mechanics of the mech, and discover among the huge open world. Lightyear Frontier is slated to launch into early entry on Xbox consoles and Steam, March Nineteenth, 2024. And gamers shouldn’t have to attend lengthy for updates, as builders FRAME BREAK have already got a roadmap for the sport.

#3 — Dungeonborne

Picture: Mithril Interactive Coming to #3 on our listing, we now have the PvEvP fantasy extraction sport Dungeonborne from developer Mithril Interactive. Followers of comparable titles may acknowledge its similarities to Darkish and Darker, one other extraction sport with a fantasy/medieval setting. For those who’ve by no means performed Darkish and Darker, Dungeonborne is a sport all about treasure. You need to journey into the darkest dungeons, defeating skeletons, floating eyeballs, and different gamers. All of the whereas, you’ll acquire higher gear and treasure, earlier than discovering a portal and leaving the dungeon. Nonetheless, what makes Dungeonborne stand other than different titles, is because of the truth that there may be extra to the sport then the extraction gameplay. Gamers can compete in aggressive 3v3 area battles, the place you and your staff should battle to the loss of life. There are 7 courses gamers can take a look at out within the demo, however sadly none of your gear or progress will switch over to the total launch. Nonetheless, till the top of Subsequent Fest, gamers are free to discover the dungeon alone or with mates. And with so many mixtures of stats to construct round, mixed with the buying and selling system, you might spend some time looking for the perfect loadout. Dungeonborne at the moment doesn’t have a launch date, so remember to take a look at their Discord for the most recent updates and playtests.

#4 — Pepper Grinder

Picture: Ahr Ech Looking at a special type of sport, we’ve received Pepper Grinder from developer at Ahr Ech. You play as Pepper, and together with her trusty grinder, you need to reclaim the treasure that was stolen from you. Pepper Grinder is a single-player 2D platformer, paying homage to video games comparable to Rayman Legends and a little bit of Noita’s setting makes use of. Effectively, extra like if Noita was a bit extra tactical with its destructible setting. That’s as a result of, in Pepper Grinder, it's a must to make the most of the grinder to traverse via sections of the earth. This may imply diving beneath a rock or utilizing your grinder to bounce from earth pockets on the wall in an effort to climb greater. The demo takes you thru the start ranges of Mole Hills, seemingly the Pepper Grinder’s first world space. There’s a sticker guide you'll be able to customise with stickers you purchase within the store. Moreover, when you’ve accomplished the degrees within the demo, you'll be able to replay them in a Time Assault mode to earn much more rewards. Pepper Grinder is anticipated to be launched in 2024, however you'll be able to take a look at the official Discord for the most recent information and updates.

#5 — Stormgate

Picture: Frost Big Studios For these Starcraft followers on the market, you’ll wish to take a look at the demo for Stormgate from developer Frost Big Studios. Builders comprised of expertise from Starcraft 2 to Warcraft 3, Stormgate seems to be a real next-gen RTS sport. The demo on Steam Subsequent Fest permits gamers to check out two of the three formally confirmed factions within the sport. What’s extra, you'll be able to invite as much as 2 mates and check out the 3P Co-op vs. AI mode, together with aggressive 1v1 matches. Associated: High 12 most anticipated video games of 2024 Developed on Unreal Engine 5, Stormgate plans to have a narrative always being up to date with new missions and story content material for gamers to take pleasure in. And with voice performing from celeb Simu Liu, there are not any bills spared on the story. Each marketing campaign mission could be performed cooperatively, and you may even create your individual customized missions and video games inside the in-game editor. Builders plan to launch the sport free-to-play, nevertheless, a launch date hasn’t been confirmed. Till then take a look at their Discord to get notified when the most recent playtests happen.

#6 — Soulmask

Picture: CampFire Studio For these of you who tried out Palworld and might’t put it down, then you definitely’ll wish to check out the demo for Soulmask by developer CampFire Studio. An MMO-esque survival sport, Soulmask places you within the footwear of an individual escaping a ritual sacrifice. A sacrifice that you simply had been about to be the sufferer of. Upon escaping, you come into contact with a mysterious masks. A masks that binds itself to you, enhancing your skills and energy. It’s as much as you to uncover its secrets and techniques, however you’ll discover much more alongside the way in which. The demo enables you to play the sport for 40 hours, and through that point you’re just about free to do as you please. The primary bread and butter of the sport lies inside the masks you discover. This one, together with many others you'll find will unlock your true potential. All through your journey, you’ll discover tribesmen you could convey to your base. These tribesmen present a myriad of expertise, comparable to farming, crafting, and extra. With quite a lot of tribesmen to seek out, it’ll be as much as you to get the perfect individuals for the job. Moreover, every one offers a special playstyle, theoretically making every one viable in sure conditions. You may enterprise on this journey alone, or be part of a server with as much as 70 individuals. In line with the Steam web page, Soulmask will launch someday in 2024. Till then, take a look at their Discord server for information on the sport’s launch.

#7 — Ziggy’s Labyrinth

Picture: Lankyware Taking a pointy left flip with our snake, we’re having a look at Ziggy’s Labyrinth by developer Lankyware. Ziggy’s Labyrinth is a brand new perspective on the long-time traditional sport, Snake. In regular mode, your objective is to eat all of the apples earlier than exiting via a door. However this isn't the Snake sport of yesteryear. The sport’s essential enchantment is the extraordinary method ranges are designed. Not solely that, however among the apples you eat imbue you with powers. For instance, a purple apple will let you teleport the entrance of your snake wherever you place your mouse cursor and left-click. Ghostly apples, alternatively, flip you invisible for a brief period of time once you maintain right-click. The demo offers gamers an opportunity to check out 12 regular ranges in 1 a part of the demo, and 15 in one other. What’s extra, gamers may even attempt their hand at making their very own degree with the extent editor. You need to use these skills to gather apples all through ranges, all whereas ensuring you don’t run into your self. And for you aggressive gamers, there may be even an on-line area mode the place you need to attempt to outlast your opponent. Ziggy’s Labyrinth comes out March 2024, and you may take a look at their Discord for extra information and new content material coming to the sport.

#8 — CYGNI: All Weapons Blazing

Picture: KeelWorks Blasting out subsequent on the listing is a sport known as CYGNI: All Guns Blazing from developer KeelWorks. Initially slated for a 2023 launch, this bullet-hell/shoot-em-up received delayed to 2024 and is now featured within the Steam Subsequent Fest. You're taking management of a pilot, hoping to assist save the human race from whole annihilation by a biomechanical alien race. And for a day and age the place video games like Ikaruga are a factor of the previous, this sport was an exquisite shock for me. Within the demo, you’ll be capable to check out the sport’s first degree, geared up with one mini-boss and two boss battles. Gamers get an opportunity to check out the sport’s fight, the place you need to swap between defend and weapon programs on the fly. When you load into the sport, you’ll additionally understand simply how visually beautiful it seems. From stunning cutscenes to in-game explosions that look astounding, there’s no scarcity of gorgeous visuals. By defeating enemies, gamers will construct up power you'll be able to then use to execute huge damage-dealing assaults. With CYGNI’s delay nonetheless contemporary, the sport is solely acknowledged to be “coming quickly.” However within the meantime, you must take a look at their official Discord for extra information and data.

#9 — INDIKA

Picture: Odd Meter For these horror lovers on the market, you’ll completely wish to take a look at INDIKA from developer Odd Meter. Happening in an alternate Nineteenth-century Russia, you play as Indika, a nun. She has not too long ago joined a monastery to additional her non secular life, and we quickly discover she’s not your regular nun. She has a reference to the Satan and usually speaks to him about her life and sure endeavors. This shortly bubbles to the floor, and also you’re thrown right into a world of oddities and even a little bit of comedy. INDIKA is a third-person story journey sport, akin to video games like The Medium. The demo lets gamers check out the beginnings of the sport, showcasing the primary 5 areas you encounter. You’ll journey from the Street to the Village, exploring the Barn, earlier than traversing Beneath the Mill after which lastly ending contained in the Mill. INDIKA is slated to launch Q1 2024 for Xbox collection X/S, PS5, and PC. For more information on the sport, check out the official Discord for writer 11 bit studios. Associated: Finest-selling video games in 24 hours Listed

#10 — Star Trucker

Picture: Monster and Monster Final however not least is the spacefaring supply journey, Star Trucker from developer Monster and Monster. Star Trucker is an ideal mixture of a sport like Euro Truck Simulator, and supply missions from video games like Star Citizen and Elite Harmful. Your job is to haul cargo from one finish of the galaxy to a different. Gamers can improve their house truck, permitting for brand new components of house to be explored. Star Truckers is the final house supply expertise, full with a CB radio, managing your truck, and even sneaking some unlawful items across the police. The Steam Subsequent Fest demo offers you with a couple of deliveries you'll be able to take a look at out, in addition to an opportunity to see what it takes to restore and keep your truck. I personally have my eye on this one because it looks as if one of the best ways to finish a protracted day. Hyperjumping from station to station making my deliveries the perfect they are often whereas jamming to the radio. What extra may you want out of life? Star Trucker comes out someday in 2024, and gamers can take a look at their official website for extra space trucking information.

Every part it is advisable find out about Steam Subsequent Fest

Not solely does Steam Subsequent Fest function a plethora of demos for a complete week however there are even stay streams from the builders of the video games all through the pageant. By watching the stay stream on Read the full article

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