#been a great year for tf2 horror | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

floppyhatwitch · 4 months

Text

This is Part 2 of my 2023 new year's resolution recap. If you want to see part 1, click here.

And we're back! If you've read the first part, you're all caught up with the gist of everything, so I'll spare the extensive intro.

Long post coming up again, art under the cut :)

This is one of my favourites

I saw some tips on how to make a sketchbook more fun that included working with the fact the drawings are within a book and so I decided to make a portal between two characters.

How whimsical!

I reused the cutout bits to decorate the glossy front cover of the sketchbook too, which resulted in me having to glue it back on more times than I'd like to admit.

The return of my son <3

I think the key features to really nail down when drawing bonnie are the upper jaw and the eye socket. Obviously not the be all and end all, but they really add to his signature style. I mention this only because my bootleg bonnie plush is widely different for both those features, which I find funnier than it has any right to be.

This one was a joke about drink driving and getting pulled over, but it was probably the best anatomy lesson I had all year. I somehow managed to portray the likeness of my friend half decently while working with dramatic lighting. I mean, it's no like, groundbreaking work or anything, but it's one that I take great pride in.

I LOVE HATSUNE MIKU AND JERMA!!!!! RAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!

If I could do this one again (which I inevitably will because look at them) I would definitely make Jerma more like the creature he is and exaggerate his distinct features a little more.

Anyway the reason I put this up is because I accidentally titled it "Jerma and Hatsune Mike" because of autocorrect, which led to the creation of

HATSUNE MIKE!!!!

Miku's older and less famous sister. Although from what I've been told, her slices are the best in Queens, hands down.

Quick Australian politics tangent. We recently had a referendum that proposed adding an advisory group for First Nations peoples into the constitution. It was like the tiniest step forward towards actually repairing the generational trauma and long-term effects of colonialist genocide by simply asking Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people how they could be best assisted.

Despite being one of the easiest choices I've ever seen in my life, the referendum DIDN'T PASS. I was genuinely pissed when I found out so I tore up the bullshit misinformation flyers handed out by the opposition volunteers and made it into this. It's probably the most "teenager with too much angst and no actual action" thing ever, but it was how I felt at the time.

After that whole debacle I went through a phase where I used a lot of imagery of revolutions to try and process the feelings I was experiencing on the matter.

I thought the foreshortening and perspective on this one kinda popped off. The decision to place the viewer at the level of the executed was intentional. It's one of the only angles anyone would have seen a guillotine this close up in practice.

On Day 300 I saw the FNAF movie and wow was it different than what I expected. I drew my son looking on in horror as his character was assassinated in front of his eyes. Looking back, it might have been a little dramatic, but I'm just like that at the end of the day.

BONUS: If you wanna see my full review of the FNAF movie, you can read it here

I really wanted to get some expressive posing and particle effects going so I took inspiration from that "THINK FAST CHUCKLENUTS" meme and tried to imagine what it would look like if it was an overedited comic strip.

I lobe scou tf2 :))))

This was the day before my Media exam and holy hell was I nervous. If I'm remembering correctly, I was actually so anxiety-ridden that I was nauseous, which doesn't happen often. I channeled my borderline religious regard of the exams power into creating a monument to its supreme importance. That's me praying underneath it.

As you can tell, I was hoping so hard that I would do well on it, which makes the next one just even more satisfying.

I DID WELL ON IT!!!!!

I legitimately felt like omni man afterwards, so I did a study of that scene where he crushes red rush's head. It's a bit rough around the edges but that final panel still gets me. I should watch the new season.

Spidergwen Spidergwen Spidergwen Spidergwen Spidergwen

I'll know I'm a good artist the day that I make a couple pages as good as Miles does in atsv. Like that dude is talented as hell WHY CAN'T I DO THAT.

Speaking of the dude. Spider-Man, Spider-Man and his pal Spider-Man. Technically spectacular spider-man, but I kinda messed up the head shape a bit so it's not as obvious. Whoopsieeeee

I will always consider myself superior to fish because if I saw a mysterious hook in my environment I would simply disregard it. I will however, walk blindly into a situation that will inevitably lead to my downfall under the pretense that it will be beneficial for my future. No I don't see the irony in that, it's different I swear.

FUN ANGEL FACT! While it is technically correct to refer to these as "biblically accurate angels", they aren't the only forms of them. These are specifically referred to as Ophanim, and they're like wheels? I don't know, my knowledge kind of falls off after that point, the way they're described reminds me of those eldritch horrors that make people insane from their incomprehensibility.

Anyway I adore theological imagery but steer far away from the actual implications of any of it. To quote one of my favourite tumblr posts of all time, "narratively christianity is pretty cool i think it should have been a jrpg instead of a religion though" - Roisheep

This one came straight out of the brain tubes after I accidentally created an endless loop in my twine project and I got scared shitless that it was gonna brick my computer or something. In reality, it was the equivalent damage of refreshing a page a whole bunch of times, but I'm always jumpy when it comes to techy stuff.

One little detail I really like about this one is that the green light from the screen is actually reflected on the face and eyeballs! How fun!

This is how I'm gonna die, if it has to happen. To dissipate into a swarm of butterflies and have your cloak float down to the ground is to have lived a fulfilling life. They gotta have some pink ones though, I like those ones.

I saw a tiktokker who shades with a whole bunch of dots like some crazy kind of pointillism (if you know who I'm talking about PLEASE tell me, I can't find them) so I wanted to give it a crack.

It's nowhere near the same thing that they do, but I think it really sells the macabre and grotty nature of the cow skull and doesn't look half bad in the process. One day I'll do the cool stuff though.

WIZARD! TESTICULAR! TORSION!!!!!!!!!!

Still gotta learn how to render cloth folds.

This was me dramatically kicking the door down when I realised I had a new idea for a video game to make. This is definitely a more accurate depiction of how inspiration feels for me than anything else.

Madvillainy!

I knew from the moment I started studying metallic objects under light that I had to take a crack at the illest villain. Even just from recreating the album cover, I feel so much more knowledgeable in shading metal. You gotta get those hard transitions between highlights and shadows to sell the shine.

Almost there! This was a tribute to all the PHENOMENAL art I find on here. Like HOLY HELL everybody is so talented. Sometimes it can be demotivating, but then I remember that I could be phenomenal if I keep up with the practice. And that is the BEST feeling.

Seriously though, if you're an artist on tumblr and you're reading this, without exception you are unbelievably amazing at what you do. I haven't seen a single piece that didn't absolutely rock.

And that brings us to the last one!

I did a little caricature of all the different forms of art and expression I did throughout the year.

Clockwise from the green we have witch, punk, cyber, trans, goth, everyday, Rodney (character in my short film) and media versions of who I am. Isn't that cute?

Decided to go back and do a rundown of all my pieces and make a little recap within a recap.

But that's the lot! 2023 was a super fun year and I attribute a majority of that to this project. If you're reading this and you have something you want to do, this is your sign to just do it! Forget about new years resolutions, start today. Right now. Doesn't matter what it is, if you start now and do it every day, you'll get it done. 5 minutes, an hour, 30 seconds, whatever. This is the best choice I've ever made and that's why I'm doing it again!

A lot of the stuff I make is private or classified, but I'm gonna post all the publicly presentable stuff here, cause why not!

Anyway, that's all. Take care, stay hydrated, eat your greens, love you xx

0 notes

tf2-hellhole · 3 years

Text

TF2 Shattered AU

wow look another au nobody asked for

PREMISE —————

Reyes knew from the moment she started working for the Administrator that the woman was hiding a whole lot from her. The Administrator was incredibly secretive and defensive about anything Reyes asked her, and even her co-worker, Miss Pauling, seemed nervous when she asked about her role. She knew it was dangerous work. Illegal work. But for her friends’ and parents’ safety, she kept her mouth shut.

But one day, she was assigned to work with some files. Someway, somehow, Miss Pauling or one of the other assistants had misplaced a very, very important paper. It ended up in Reyes’ stack of work for the day.

When she found the paper, she was horrified by what was inside. The paper was was full of detailed information about the loved ones and families of every Mann Co. mercenary, as well as where they lived and how to capture them. Administrator was planning to take and use these people as bargaining chips against the mercenaries to make them do work that would endanger themselves and thousands of civilians.

The very first thing she did was bring the papers to the mercenaries and explain what it meant. Of course, everyone was horrified and knew they had to stop the Administrator. But in their horror and confusion, they forgot that the woman had eyes and ears everywhere.

A few days later, Scout frantically called everyone to the common room, saying that they were talking about them on TV. The reporter on the screen explained that the Mann Co. mercenaries had been proven to be responsible for a large string of brutal civilian murders and domestic terrorist attacks. So now, the American government had just began to track all of the mercenaries down.

For a moment, the room was only silent. Maybe the mercenaries had committed many crimes, but they had never done the horrible things the reporter described. And despite knowing that the team was made of the best of the best, they knew they were no match for the government.

All of a sudden, a voice came over the intercom. The Administrator’s. She explained that she had discovered what the mercenaries were planning. So, to get rid of the threat the mercenaries posed against her, she framed them for many crimes she and her employees had committed. And now, with the American government on her side, she could have each of the mercenaries killed and out of her hair forever. She warned them so they could have the chance to run and get some amusement out of watching them try to escape from her. You could put it that she was playing with her food.

After hours of debate, the mercenaries decided that the best choice was to go their separate ways and try to get away. And so, that night, the team packed their things and said their goodbyes. There was little time for tears and hugs.

Reyes cried for hours and hours once the base emptied. What was she going to do? Where was she going to go? She couldn’t leave, her parents needed her because they couldn’t speak English. She didn’t know what to do.

Soon, Miss Pauling appeared at the door. Reyes got up and approached her, desperately asking for help. The other woman only sighed, apologized, and pulled a gun.

What followed was a short shootout between the two, as Reyes always kept a gun on her too. She was lucky enough to escape quickly, driving home as fast as she could. She called her parents, quickly saying goodbye to them and telling them to go back to Mexico if they can, gathered her things, and fled.

She was able to buy a ticket and get to Europe, where she’s been hiding out for the last decade from the Administrator, praying to God that her friends and family are alright.

If I were to write the story, it would follow parts of the team reuniting and killing the Administrator.

CHARACTER STATUSES —————

Scout: Alive; Gravely injured after a confrontation with police in Boston, but is rescued by Korri. Due to his injuries, his legs are paralyzed and he is stuck in a wheelchair. His mother and brothers mysteriously disappear soon after.

Soldier: Dead; attempted to confront the Administrator himself. He put up a good fight, but ultimately, he was no match for the people she’d employed to protect her.

Pyro: Alive; they luckily escaped and is running around the New Mexican badlands somewhere like some kind of cryptic.

Demo: Dead; poisoned by one of the Administrator’s goons in a bar in Scotland.

Heavy: Unknown; he and his family disappeared very quickly after the team separated. It’s unknown if they were caught, killed, returned to Russia, or something else. (He is actually dead.)

Engineer: Alive; the Administrator knew that if Doctor Dell Conagher, owner of Conagher Tech and one of the US’ leading military inventors, went missing while employed at Mann Co, the government would be on her in an instant. She made him swear not to speak about what happened by threatening to destroy his life’s work and kill his parents.

Medic: Alive; he was successfully captured, but when they attempted to kill him, he was kept alive by his deal with Satan to keep him alive for another fifty years. He was soon rescued by Spy, but not before the Administrator had his eyes removed so he could no longer be any threat to her if he did escape.

Sniper: Alive; ironically, he was shot by an amateur sniper while hiding out in the outback. He survived due to their poor aim, but gained amnesia. The Admin has him brought back to her, and he is tricked into believing the mercs are a threat and used against them.

Spy: Alive; he escaped easily, but he is not the same. His son is dead. His family is dead. His love is dead. He has nothing left. He has this dead, hopeless look in his eyes; they tell you that even though Spy still walks and talks, The Spy is truly dead after losing everything he loved.

Reyes: Alive; she is currently hiding in Europe, as I said. At some point in those ten years, she was attacked by an assassin and was left with significant scarring on her left ribs down to her thighs and has a small limp.

Korri (owned by @gurt-the-great : Alive; is living in New York with her brother. She’s been mentally broken by losing her partner, her friends, and her arm (and therefore, her ability to draw).

The Ammos (owned by @sary-nator-art): All alive; captured by the Administrator because they knew too much about her and her work.

Scrap (owned by @analyticalinsomniac): Alive; she is now working as a assassin-for-hire.

Heikama (owned by LeFuzzbol): Alive; flees to Japan or possibly Thaiwan, Admin can’t find him due to him getting help from a few organizations. He is trying to recover from the mental trauma of it, plotting revenge, and working alongside a Yakuza family for a job until then.

#tf2 #team fortress 2 #tf2 au #tf2 shattered au

37 notes · View notes

paragonrobits · 3 years

Photo

A friend asked me to give a stab at a Tierlist Maker for Video Games Not Yet In the Video Game Hall of Fame Tier List Maker, so here's my list for it!

This is based primarily on what I considered to be overall value to gaming history as a whole, with games with greater influence or impact ranking higher than those that had less impact on those to follow, or on culture. All the entries are those that have been nominated to the Hall of Fame, but not actually inducted as of this post's writing. Games that I personally like are generally rated higher, though mostly because I'm more familiar with them and thus can judge their impact from a personal POV.

(Tier List explainations, below!)

SHOULD BE IN ALREADY

Final Fantasy: I mean seriously. How is this one not already in yet?? It is not, as my research suggests, the first true RPG; that likely goes to games like Ultima. It is certainly an incredibly influential one; FF is a name closely associated with JRPGs in general, and its diverse class system is one of the strongest things to do with it, as noted by challenges like beating the game with a party of Black Belts. FF is THE name of RPGs in general and I'm startled it hasn't made it in, though I suppose that's owing to more notable entries (Hard as that is to imagine). It doesn't hurt that the majority of my favorite FF titles are those most similar to this one, such as FF6 and FF9, in terms of approaching the general world setting and class systems. Most significantly is that this game popularized RPGs and made them accessible, in ways that previous games such as Dragon Warrior/Dragon Quest did not; the field of gaming would be VERY different without it; RPGs became VERY popular, to the extent of RPG elements being almost universal among other games in the modern day. (I am also pleased and amused to see 8-Bit Theater mentioned on the actual Wikipedia page. Now THAT'S notability!)

Sid Meir's Civilization: HEY NOW HALL OF FAME JUDGES, DON'T YOU BE MOCKING CIV, ALRIGHT. CIV IS FUCKING AWESOME. Okay, jokes aside, I'm genuinely astonished as the Civ series is considered the first true main game of the 4x series, and it shows; the entire genre centers around expansion, resource usage and diplomacying or conquering your enemies, and considering the impact of this game and its sheer popularity, to the extent of the meme of the game getting people to play for Just One More Turn, I'm a bit disappointed that it's not already in the hall of fame. I also note that I am personally more familiar with the spin off Alpha Centauri, a sci fi variant, which is still one of my all time favorite games.

Half-Life: Given this game's popularity, to the point of its release alone consigning the likes of Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines to cult classic status and its engine spawning a whole THING with GMod and the usage of physics mechanics in FPS games, one thing of note is its use of scripted sequences; at the time, an unknown in most games of the time. There may be something to be said for how the entire game is spent as Gordon Freeman, behind his eyes, possibly engendering a lack of separation between self and character that would be later emphasized in games like Bioshock. It's influence on games cannot be denied, with publications using it as a bookend between eras of gaming. One consistent element of what seems to make this game so distinctive is its approach to storytelling, without simply imitating film techniques which don't always work well with gameplay.

Candy Crush: This is an example of something I don't personally play myself, or even like very much, but I'd be remiss to dismiss it out of hand. There's no denial that phone games are one of, if not THE biggest market of games in the here in now; if now in scale, certainly in quantity. You might call it the TF2 Hat Economy theory; people aren't spending BIG bucks, but they are spending a LOT of little bucks all the time. It proves that highly accessible games that are generally free to play, with optional purchases, are a legitimate means of game business, and this certainly revolutionized how games were seen by the money-makers.

Super Smash Bros Melee: I loved this game as a kid, but truth be told i have a bit of a love-hate relationship; i REALLY dislike the competitive community that has fixated hard on this game, so any thoughts on it will have a slight element of pause beforehand. Even so, I can't forget the thrilled delight I felt watching the trailer for this game in supermarkets for the first time as a kid. at a time when getting any new games at all was a HUGE deal in my family. So, there is a lot of feeling behind this one! Ultimately, I have to concede that while i have complicated feelings about this game, its worth noting that the vast majority of things that made Smash iconic, and influenced the competitive scene AND the games inspired by Smash AND shaped the course of the series going forwards, largely owe themselves to Melee in particular. 64 was far more slow paced, while Melee began the trend towards much more fast paced action (and while I doubt it's SPECIFIC to melee as a whole, it may have been a trend for the genre from then). Melee is STILL widely played, especially on the competitive scene, and this sort of longevity always bears evidence of notability.

Goldeneye 007: I have to admit that despite being a kid in the 90s, despite someone who put most of their time into gaming, and despite being someone whose favorite system at the time was the Nintendo 64, I mostly missed out on the trend of history by honestly not being that much into this game. I have to say that I DID play it, however; I just never managed to get past the first level or so. I have strong memories of triyng and failing to sneak around a snowy lair of some description; it wouldn't be until the mid-2000s, playing Deus Ex Human Revolution, that I got the hang of stealth. All the same, personal indifference really doesn't matter much because HOLY SHIT THIS GAME HAS SOME STAYING POWER. IT HAS INFLUENCE, FRIENDORITOS. Perhaps chiefly, at the time it was made, consoles were not considered viable platforms for first person shooters; Goldeneye revised that notion, and created a whole revolution in multiplayer and shooter games. We would later see the ultimate consequence of this in games like Halo, which further revolutionized the whole genre. Ironically, the stealth attributes I was so bad at were part of what made the game so unique! It's one of those games that may not have aged well, by modern standards, but its import to gaming as a whole goes a long, long way.

Guitar Hero: I expect this one might be a bit hard to justify, but on its own, this game is INCREDIBLY innovative, though its not entirely the first of its kind, having mechanics based on earlier games. The very first entry has a respectable library of 30 songs, which is impressive considered at the time it was made, its not likely people expected it to get as far as it did; bear in mind that the massive libraries of later games were the result of years of this game series being a massive steamroller of a franchise! At the time, this one was an unknown. It has an interesting history as being a successor of sorts to an arcade exclusive, and inspiring a genre of imitators and spiritual successors on its own; of great note is the sheer impact this game had. With so many of those successors, the increased value of liscened soundtracks, and the way the game's concept became so influential, its astounding this one isn't already on the hall of fame. (It's also very fun, but fun alone doesn't make for memorability, sad to say.)

DESERVES IT AT SOME POINT

Myst - an iconic and incredibly atmospheric puzzle game, I'm genuinely surprised that I haven't heard talk about this one in some respect; it bears note as a rare game with absolutely no conflict whatsoever. I actually rank this one on par with the 7th Guest in terms of atmospheric games, though their tones could not be more different. So why do I think this game deserves it at some point? It was an incredibly immersive and beautiful game, lacking in genuine danger or threat, encouraging the player to explore and tackle the puzzles of the game. This sort of open-ended lack of peril makes it an interesting precursor towards certain flavors of sandbox games around now. It's worth noting that it was a tremendous achievement, given technical limitations of things such as the CD-Rom it was stored on, maintaining a consistent experience, as well as tying narrative reasons into those very constraints. It has been compared to an art film; if so, it certainly is the sort that invited imitators and proved to be a great technical achievement.

Portal: PORTAL! What can I honestly say that hasn't already been said by other people? The amazing integration of a physics engine into innovative puzzle solving, combined with a slow burn sort of minimalist plot reveal concerning the AI proving itself to be a kind of reverse HAL 9000? This game got a HUGE number of memes back in the day, and I expect anyone reading this can probably reference a few. The cake thing, certainly, and its relevance to matters of deception. There is much discussion over the game's utility in academic circles, which is certainly quite notable, and for my part, I'm interested by the point that at first the game gives you a lot of hints towards what you're supposed to do, gradually making it less obvious for the player you're on your own entirely, using your experience with the game to get past the puzzles from there, and its excellent game design. Ultimately though, I place this below Half Life in hall of fame urgency, because while I probably like this one more, it doesn't have the same impact on other games, per say. (That's a lot of awards for it, though. Wowza.)

Resident Evil: Is it fair to call this one the major survival horror game of its era? No, because it's apparently the FIRST, or at least the first to be called such. It's certainly up there with shaping the genre as a whole, both its immediate predecessors and modern games. The flavor of a survival horror can even be judged about whether its close to Resident Evil's style of defending yourself with limited resources vs controlled helplessness. It's also worth pointing out that I quite like the restricted, cramped setting of the mansion, rather than an expansive city; Biohazard was a real return to form, even if its something I mostly watched through funny lets plays because OH NO ITS TOO SCARY I CANT WATCH.

Asteroids: It's called the first major hit of the golden age of the arcade. I'm forced to say... yeah, it absolutely deserves it. The actual implementation and hardware of the game makes for interesting reading, and so its innovative nature ought to be noted: it lacked a soundchip at all, making use of handmade circuits wired to the board. It's reception was great, beating out Space Invaders and needing larger boxes just to hold all the money people spent on it. It also invented the notion of tracking initials on the top ten score, which has implications for arcade challenges.

Ms. Pac Man: This one consistently ranks HIGH in gaming records of its time, though there is admittedly some confusion to whether it or Donkey Kong was a better seller. Interestingly it appears to shape most of the gameplay mechanics people remember most for Pac-Man, such as the improved AI of the ghosts. It's more highly regarded than the original game, and on a personal note, I remember being a kid and seeing this arcade machine at ALL the laundry places my family usually wound up going to.

Frogger: It's placing on this list is not solely because CUTE FROG. The accessibility and wide appeal of the game bears a great deal of consideration, the flexibility of its formula, and just how many dang times it's been ported in one form or another. (And also, cute frog.) It also gets points for the creator being inspired for the game when he saw a frog trying to cross a road, hampered by the vehicles in the way, and he got out of his car and carried the frog across the street. The game is also evident of broad appeal, and some money-makers resisting it, goes back a long way; it was apparently dismissed as a kid's game by some, which just goes to show that some problems are older than quite a lot of gamers alive today.

Uncharted 2: this is one of those games where I cannot honestly say I have personal experience to draw from. Of the playstation's big games, I remember the Jak and Daxter series; I remember Kingdom Hearts, and I remember Ratchet and Clank, and I remember Infamous, but the Uncharted series remains

something of a 'I don't go here?' obscurity in my personal playbook. It does look memorable and charming from what I've seen, and one consistent element I've seen in comments about it is the cinematic nature of the game; it feels very much like a fun heist movie, based on what I have seen of it, and the notable thing is how the game FEELS cinematic.. in a literal way. As in, it combined elements of cinematography with game design, and that's no mean feat: what works for movies are unlikely to translate well to the interactive side, and it shows how that can be done for other games. The extensive praise does the game a LOT of credit!

WORTH NOMINATION AT LEAST

Angry Birds: As noted before, I'm not the biggest fan of most phone games, given that i prefer a more passive experience than most provide. As such, Angry Birds isn't something I've played as of this writing, but I have to appreciate the straightforward and simple gameplay; it reminds me a bit of the Burrito Bison game series, which I HAVE played, and I'm going to go out on a limb and assume it's because Angry Birds is probably the innovation that coined that particular style of gameplay. It's an example of what made phone games profitable and worth the time of developers to work at them; its easy for casual players to get into, and there's a fun sort of impact involved. Given the popularity of phone games, this one has a LOT of influence in getting that rolling, similar to candy crush, if not as much.

FIFA International Soccer: Simulation games are a tricky business; it can be really difficult to get them right, and this game provides an example of it being done in a way that a lot of people REALLY loved, set up an entire game series, and revived the 3DO system after a very bad year. Of note, apparently it was commented that it was more of a simulator than a console game, and this is rather funny considering how simulator is its own genre nowadays! Such do things change. It seems to have been a revolutionary game and simulation; setting the shape for modern sport games of its type, and tending more towards realism (accounting for acceptable breaks in reality) than was typical of the time. This one's position is thus picked for its impact as a whole; while it may not necessarily be a household name now, the series continues on, and is popular enough that even after 20 years, it's still been going.

Elite: I nominate this game in this position for being a startlingly early entry into what we would now consider open-ended games, even with an element of exploration and trading; if one stretches definitions a bit, a precursor towards gameplay of the like scene in 4X players who strive to avoid conflict, if possible. Its technical breakthroughs are some very interesting reading and make for good game history; a vast and complex game (not just by the standards of the era, either), and opening the door for persistent world games such as World of Warcraft.

Wii Sports: A significant game, and much as how other titles mentioned above were famed for gateway entries into gaming for an unfamiliar audience, or those that would want o play on a more casual basis. It seems notable to me for being most suited as a family game, or a more casual experience of multiplayer than usually associated with games like this; this has greatly influenced Nintendo's design philosophy, and one can see elements of this all the way through the Wii U onwards. It's essentially a fliparound from Mario Party; less competitiveness, but definitely meant as a group thing. Controversy is evident, because like with Mario Party, injuries did result from it.

Call of Duty: I place this one here because, while it DOES hold a very significant role in gaming history, with countless imitators, spiritual successors, being a game-changer in ways that its modern reputation might surprise you with, ultimately it is less so than other games such as Goldeneye, Halo or Half-Life. It's development in AI pathfinding and tactics is incredibly noteworthy from a mechanical perpsective, and the sheer level of awards it won is notable. In the end this game's popularity and continuing influence means that it shouldn't be overlooked.

Metroid: You can't spell 'Metroidvania' without this game! A relatively open ended exploration-based game with further options opening as new tools were found give it an interesting vibe, and the oppressive atmosphere distinctive to the game says great things about its sound and level designs. It wasn't the first open world game, or explorer, or even the first to open new aereas based on equipment, but it had ALL of these elements in a very memorable package. (Samus Aran as a female protagonist is something I'm a bit reluctant to give it credit for, as her identity was obfuscated for most of the game, and only revealed in a fanservicey way in a secret ending. All the same, credit where it is due, I suppose!) It's music seems to endure as a mood setter, too!

Pole Position: Perhaps not the FIRST racing game, but still considered one of the most important from the golden age of gaming, and the one to codify many of the firm rules of the game series. It's three dimensional gameplay is incredibly innovative for its time, and having played it and games like it in the past, I'm struck by how smooth the whole thing feels. No wonder it was popular! It is notable for having been designed specifically as a 3d Experience, meant to execute techniques like real drivers might attempt, which makes it a different sort of beast in that it tried to do more realistic actions; in some ways, a precursor to modern trends of realism in many games, for ill or best. Ultimately I think this one is worth a nomination because of its influence towards racing games (a popular and long lived genre, to say the least) as a whole.

OUTSIDE CHANCE

Nurburgring 1: On the one hand, I feel a bit guilty putting this one so low; it is recognized as likely being the earliest racing game in history, and given that I just finished noting Pole Position's influence, it feels a bit mean to rate this one as relatively insignificant all the same. However, in terms of notability, I never even heard of this one, and it was tricky finding information about it. Accordingly, that may say something about its influence, though this position DOES make it noteworthy as the first of its kind, albeit with Pole Position refining and introducing elements that shaped the genre.

Dance Dance Revolution: It feels a bit strange, putting this one fairly low. This thing was a MONSTER back in the day; entire arcades were built around the dancing control peripherals it required, rhythm based games or mechanics specifically invoked it by name, and it was an absolute cultural touchstone for years and years. So, why place it low? Partly, its because I can't just shove EVERYTHING into the 'deserves a nomination' folder; I do think it's fairly reasonable for this one to at some point get a nomination in the future, though ultimately there's games more noteworthy on the whole. It's specific rhythm qualities continue outside of its genre, and are quite influential to gaming as a whole, though unfortunately the series seems to have lost something in notability over time; popularity is a factor, but so is the impact on other games.

NBA 2K and NBA Jam: I put these two together because they touch on similar touchstones for me, and they really did popularize basketball games back in the day. Jam in particular seems to be invoking the Big Head mode that were a big thing in games at the time, at least going from the screenshot. They were very popular and highly beloved games back in the day, though I don't know if they have much influence on later games. I note that interestingly, they take opposite approaches; 2k focuses on AI and realistic experiences, while Jam was deliberately less realistic and more actiony in its over the top gameplay.

Nokia Snake: This one really impresses me for the sheer number of releases, in various forms, it's had! Interestingly, there seems to be little consensus on the name of this game; most just call it Snake or something on that theme. I went with Nokia Snake because... mostly, it sounds funny, and that's how its done on the list. This one is fairly low, but I Have to give it credit for having hundreds of releases!

Farmville: My mom liked Facebook games, a lot. And I am certain this one was one of her main ones! I rate it fairly low, and no doubt her spirit is yelling imprecations at me across the void of time, space, and abandoned socks; all the same, this one is ranked low because of the sheer number of displeasure aimed this one's way. (And to be fair, she complained about it. A LOT.) It is thus notable for unusually negative reasons; an example of exploitation, pressuring players to pester their friends to play it in an equivalent to electronic chain mail, and microtranscations.

Tron: I'm inclined to give any game that takes place in a computer land and uses programming or mechanical terminology a free pass! Interestingly, this has some association with the Snake game, as they have similar gameplay and Snake games are sometimes called Light Cylce games, after this one. It has an interesting history; the graphical system was chosen largely because it was believed it was more likely to be achieved before the deadline.

NO BUSINESS IN THE HALL OF FAME

Mattel Football: I do feel a little mean putting anything in this category; firstly because I don't want to make actual fans of something sad, and secondly because I believe you can probably find notability anywhere you look, if you are inclined. And here is the chief difficulty with this one: I could not find any real information in this one. It has no Wikipedia page, a google search only led to undescriptive links of SALES for the game, but not any information on the game itself. Notability is my main resource for sorting these entries, and honestly? If google has nothing on you, that's a pretty poor sign. Sorry, Mattel Football, but you look like a poor man's Game And Watch. You're no Portal, Myst or Pole Position.

#tier lists #tiermaker lists

7 notes · View notes

boned-spy · 4 years

Text

TF2 Secret Santa 2019!

Merry Christmas/Smissmas @trashiny-draws!!! I was your Secret Santa this year! I heard you really love Scout and specifically fanfics of Scout so I did my best to make sure you got exactly that this holiday!

You offered so many great prompts to pick from so I decided to mash some together for you! I hope you enjoy it and have a wonderful day of celebration!

Also, your Secret Santa was super enjoyable for me to write so don’t feel bad for wanting so much Scout content! You deserve it, man! Also, I apologize if my writing is bad. It’s been years since I last wrote these characters.

Prompts I mashed together: “Takes place right after End of the Line”, “Scout is a Dumbass™ and needs help while stuck in the snow”, “Scout completely forgot about Sniper- BIG UH OH TIME”, “Team bonding and being a loving murder-family”, “Dad!Spy”(Strongly hinted)

_ -_-_-_-_-_

“Yo, hardhat! You drifting off on me? I didn’t even get to the best part yet!” Scout tittered, still sitting on the edge of his seat, wide-awake.

“Boy, you’ve been goin’ on about yourself for hours; from how ya woke up to what you ate for lunch. We’ve had a pretty long day ourselves and wanna get some shut eye before we start cleaning up all the debris outside tomorrow.” Engineer sluggishly bit back, cranky from exhaustion but unable to put any real heat into it. His eyes were clearly burning as he pulled his goggles off his face to rest along his neck, pinching the bridge of his nose to dispel the ache bundled there. With a sigh, he tried a little more gently as he met the runner’s gaze again, “You reckon you can wrap your story up soon, son?”

Scout took a quick glance around the dining hall and only then just noticed how worn out everyone looked. Medic, Spy, and Heavy looked bored. Tired bored. Demo and Soldier had settled down with their hands holding their heads, stubbornly trying to beat the sleep threatening to take over them any minute. And then there was Pyro. Scout couldn’t tell if Pyro was sleeping or still awake since they had been resting their head on the table ever since everyone sat down to eat a few hours ago.

If he wasn’t careful, Scout was on the verge of completely losing the group’s attention. And Scout could NOT have that.

“Psh, fine! I’ll get to the juicy bits then. Now where was I…? Oh!” Scout suddenly leaned forward conspiratorially as he began talking with his hands, hoping to get everyone in the room more invested in his story by doing so. “So there I was, freezing my ass off in the lookout. It must have been, like, negative 400 degrees. Probably. I couldn’t feel my toes, my fingers, or my gorgeous face! But did that stop me from my incredibly important duty? Hell no! I patrolled the crap out of that crappy shack like my life depended on it! And it totally did! Cause, ya see, right after circling the perimeter or whatever for like, the two hundredth time, my incredible Scout-hearing picked up the screeching of that train before it even passed by! You know, the one that almost killed us and all those poor, defenseless cat orphans?”

The room deadpanned at the expectant pause.

“Anyways, that’s when I turned to Snipes like the badass I was and told him to get his van started for us to chase it down. The guy was basically lost without me! ‘Was super busy peeing in jars and cleaning his rifle or whatever--“

“And where exactly is Sniper to back up these claims? I’m fairly certain he would have already poked a hole or two in this unbelievably long-winded and far-fetched tale of yours.” Spy cut in dryly, his stony expression largely unchanged since first sitting down earlier that evening.

The whole room stilled at the question, as it was a very good question.

For the first time in hours, the room stirred as seven sets of eyes (and Demo’s single eye) sleepily searched around the room for the Australian. After a moment, however, brows soon furrowed and heads turned at greater angles as they inspected the hall more attentively. Typically it wasn’t odd for the marksman to be missing, as everyone knew how much he enjoyed his privacy, but the team was well aware they hadn’t seen Sniper since the incident that day. Or with Scout afterwards, for that matter.

At the quiet but unified revelation, all eyes leveled suddenly on the Bostonian who was now sitting with his back ramrod straight at the scrutinizing stares, never mind the dawning horror that manifested quite clearly on his face.

“Scout? Where is Sniper?” Medic repeated the question cautiously, slowly. The air felt uncomfortably stiff as mere seconds of silence threatened to deafen them all.

The last Scout had seen of Sniper was when his van crashed into that rundown building hanging off the edge of the cliff after he jumped onto the train to try and stop it. He hadn’t seen if Sniper’s van stopped dead in the building or if it ran clean off the edge. And if it did happen to be the latter…

“Oh, my God.” Scout stood abruptly, banging his knees off the table with a yelp. “Aow! Oh, my God! Oh, sh- I gotta go! I GOTTA GO!”

The runner was already out the door and sprinting for the RED Bread truck by the time someone managed to shout after him to wait and explain himself. Scout had barely registered who it was and didn’t care to as he reached the garage and practically leaped into the driver’s seat to fumble with the keys already sitting in the ignition. He started the vehicle as quickly as he got inside of it, slamming the stick into reverse before peeling out of the base with a loud scream of wheels.

“Oh crap, oh my crap. Snipes, man, you better be super alive out there.” Scout muttered in a panic to himself, foot pressing harder on the accelerator as an intrusive thought interrupted his focus regarding how long the hopefully still-alive Australian had been missing for out in the extreme cold. The runner dared to sneak a peek at the digital clock resting above the vehicle’s transmitter and paled.

Seven hours. If Sniper was alive, he’s been sitting in the cold for seven freakin’ hours.

“Oh, God, this guy’s freakin’ dead! If he wasn’t dead before, he’s super dead now! He complained about the cold the whole freakin’ time and now he’s a Snipe-cicle. The poor bastard barely had a chance!” Scout ranted and raved out his nervous energy, still unfalteringly speeding towards the lookout up the mountain despite the words coming out of his mouth. “I should have offered him my gum, man. Chewing keeps you warm like talking keeps you warm. Now he’s gum-less and frozen to death. Way to go, Scout, you killed a guy by not giving him some damn gum!”

The video transmitter suddenly started blaring from the dashboard, startling Scout enough to veer the van off the side of the road with a terrified scream before hurriedly readjusting right back onto it, foot never letting off the pedal the whole incident. Hardly able to catch his breath from the scare, Scout blinked down at the ringing device before punching the button to ignore it. Whoever it was could wait. It was taking all his concentration to not crash and a conversation was the last thing he needed right now.

The dangerous drive up the mountain towards the wreck site took less than thirty minutes thanks to Scout’s reckless regard for his own safety, the bread van’s engine practically screaming for mercy by the time he wrenched the vehicle to the side of the snow-covered railroad tracks before hopping out.

It was a thousand times colder than it had been earlier in the day, nightfall dropping already cold temperatures to an insanely low degree. Sure, Scout had been spouting about Sniper’s death the whole drive there, but it was only then he realized how very probable it actually was.

The revelation had the runner feeling sick to his stomach, but he still pressed on and attempted to ignore his own hang-ups for his teammate’s sake. Flicking on the flashlight he had hurriedly stowed in his jacket pocket before launching himself from the truck, Scout approached the now dilapidated building with a sizable van-shaped hole. Light snowfall calmly blanketed the ground as he trekked, so thick that the runner had to lift his knees higher from the ground to avoid dragging them through the frozen terrain. Even the air felt harder to breathe from how cold it was.

“Snipes?” Scout called out with uncertainty, shining his light around and wincing at every broken board and tire tread mark he spotted, “You, uh, huddled in a corner around here or frozen to death or…?”

Scout finally reached the end of the destruction at the other side of the building, his flashlight illuminating a hole complimenting the one he entered just moments ago. His heart dropped into his stomach, sure that Sniper really had driven off the mountain and to his death, until his light reflected off a cracked side-door mirror that blinded him.

“Ugh!” Scout squinted with an annoyed grunt, perking up immediately when he realized exactly what he was just blinded by. As fast as he ran on the battlefield, he mindlessly sprinted for the driver’s side with a huge grin of relief, feeling silly he ever doubted Sniper’s survival to begin with. “Yes! Oh, thank God! Sniper, man, I thought you were—“

The runner stopped himself short as he shined his flashlight into the van, the door already kicked open and stuck, frozen solid. Small icicles formed along the roof of the interior, a thin coat of frost encompassing the entirety of the dash, and Sniper…

Sniper was curled in his seat, feet pressed flat against the window, arms braced against the back of where he sat, skin pale and violently shivering. Scout took a step forward instinctively to try and offer help only to squeak in surprise as he caught himself before walking completely off the edge of a cliff. A cliff, he finally registered, that the whole van had been teetering on for at least seven hours now.

“Oh sweet Jesus.” Scout grimaced, placing both hands on top of his head as he took in the puzzle he had to now solve, by himself, in zero degree weather.

He could totally do this.

“Okay. So, time to use that big brain of mine...” Scout muttered partly to himself as Sniper continued staring at him, too ridden with frostbite to speak or move. The youngest had no doubt that if the marksman had control or feeling in his facial muscles, he’d be glaring daggers at him right now.

The van seemed completely frozen, tires included, so Scout was pretty sure it could take a nudge or two without nose-diving off the mountain. Still, Sniper was frozen to the van too, so the Bostonian would need to do more than nudge to get him out.

Okay.

Scout clapped his hands together with determination, his resolution so plain on his face, Sniper’s brow just barely managed to knot in deep concern.

“You gotta work with me here, brotha. Just relax and let the expert get to work.”

Sniper’s eyes widened in alarm as Scout strode closer and leaned his body out over the edge to reach for the huntsman, fingers outstretched with effort before clamping down like vices into the frosty, stiff sleeve of Sniper’s shirt. His weight made the van groan, the vehicle budging by millimeters as Scout placed more of his weight into the front of it in order to get a better grip.

“S-s-s-st—S-top!” Sniper chattered desperately through gritted teeth, seeing more than feeling his van lurching ever so slowly forward towards the void below as Scout strained to gather more of his clothing into his hands.

“I got you, man! Just…! Almost!” Scout grunted with the effort, white clouds from his panting filling the air around them as he finally managed to gather Sniper’s jacket into his other hand. “Gotcha!”

Just as Scout poised himself to jerk Sniper out of the icy prison that was his seat with all his might, Sniper’s van tottered violently forward, dragging Scout with it as he lost his footing from the edge.

Scout screamed from the top of his lungs as he felt himself get pulled off his feet, fingers clenching for dear life onto the still-stuck Sniper in the van as he dangled in mid-air helplessly.

Wait. Dangled? Shouldn’t Scout be at the bottom of the mountain by now, body horribly twisted in metal and covered in broken jars of jarate?

“Well, that was idiotic.” A nasally voice chided from where Scout had been standing just seconds before.

Unable to swivel his head around to see who it was, Scout squawked as he felt the entire van tilt backwards and somehow reverse back onto solid ground, his body half-buried by snow as it was dragged away from certain death like a lifeless doll.

“Danke shoen, Heavy.”

“Mm.”

With a groan, Scout pulled his head from the unforgivingly cold fluff his face had been buried in and blearily blinked up at his mysterious saviors.

“Guys?”

“Guys?” Spy mocked, replicating the runner’s voice perfectly as he glared down in disapproval at Scout shakily rising to his knees, moodily tossing his spent cigarette into the blackness below. “The next time you decide to run off and ignore our calls, I may conveniently forget I placed a tracker on you and leave you to whatever fate your stupidity leads you to.”

“Tracker?!” Scout started patting himself down frantically.

“You will not find it.” Spy informed casually, shaking his head before turning his attention to Medic and Heavy, who had already dragged Sniper out from his van and were carrying him into Engineer’s truck to get him warmed up.

“What in Sam Hill were you thinking, boy?” Engineer came over to bend down and pick Scout back up on his feet, brushing the snow off his shoulders a little too roughly as he scolded him. “Running away without telling a soul where you were going or why, just to end up out here and nearly killing yourself and string bean over there. Did you knock your head earlier today or what?”

“I get it! Jeez!” Scout snapped back defensively, arms flung up in exasperated defeat. “But Sniper’s been sittin’ out here for hours! I had to do something!”

“And you could have done that something more effectively if you simply explained to us what had happened.” Spy bit back, his agitation and concern simmering under a cool, stern façade.

“Alright, that’s enough bickerin’ now. I’m too damn tired to put in the effort and it’s too damn late to be doin’ it.” Engineer wiped a hand over his face before slapping it onto Scout’s shoulder to give a firm squeeze. “We worried about ya, is all. We thought we lost Sniper and you and, well… We already dealt with a lot today, and you runnin’ off didn’t help much.”

Spy refused to meet Scout’s eyes as he nonchalantly pulled out another cigarette, avoiding Engineer’s gaze as well when the laborer glanced over pointedly at him as he spoke. Scout shot the Texan a confused look before Engineer shook his head with a sigh.

“Just don’t do it again.” Engineer patted Scout roughly on the back before moving away to check on Sniper, who was still sitting in his truck and trying to recover. The windows of the pickup glowed red from Medic’s medigun, doing his best to help the Australian along in healing his frostbite. He’d be in perfect health and ready to head back to the base in no time, Scout knew. And thinking back on it all, considering how easy saving Sniper was when everyone was involved, maybe it would have made more sense to bring the gang out with him.

Maybe Scout had kind of overreacted and made the whole rescue mission way harder than it needed to be. Especially on Sniper.

Feeling like a moron now despite genuinely trying to do the right thing, Scout stood and watched with his arms crossed as the other mercenaries milled about around him, rubbing his arms in an attempt to warm himself after rolling around in the snow.

“You’ve got guts, son!” Soldier’s voice boomed suddenly from behind him, causing Scout to yelp when a large, calloused hand slapped his back a little too hard. “Your bravery deserves a medal of honor! No man left behind! That’s what I like to see in this unit! Stop by my quarters later and we’ll celebrate your efforts the proper American way by training! With me! Hehehehe!”

Scout coughed and tried for a convincing smile at the offer, a small part of him appreciating the little bit of praise he was getting that night. He waved half-heartedly after the patriotic man with an uneasy chuckle as he passed him by with a massive grin on his face. “Oh, sure, yeah. I’ll have to try and remember when we get back to, uh, totally do that.”

“Ach, donnae worry, lad. It’s the wee hours of morning. ‘Ain’t a chance he’ll remember on the car ride home. He’ll be bloody asleep by the time we get back.” Demoman nudged Scout’s arm from behind as they watched Soldier march back to the truck to also check on Sniper. The two stayed standing side-by-side and observed for a few moments as the majority of the team hovered around the marksman just to make sure he was okay. Scout found himself smirking a little to himself at the rare sight.

“Like a fooked up family, we are. Eh?” Demo chuckled, pulling Scout into a quick, friendly side-armed hug. The Bostonian allowed it, but made a bit of a face at the affectionate contact, still feeling out of sorts from the whole incident he couldn’t help feeling was partly his fault. The demolitions expert picked up on it easily, however, and released him with a sigh. “Don’t let this eat’ya up, laddie. Just like I said, right? We’re one bloody mess of a family. If yer gonnae do something stupid, ya might as well include us.”

Scout snorted genuinely at that, shrugging but with a small smile on his face. “Yeah, yeah. I got enough brothers at home. I don’t need a bunch of dads to match.” He replied jokingly to deflect the rather sappy sentiment.

“A family’s what’cha make of it.” Demo shot back easily enough, earning him a look of surprise from Scout at the sincere wisdom from out of nowhere as the explosives expert idly searched his own person for his flask. He muttered to himself in dismay when he turned up with nothing, eyeing Sniper’s van before giving a groan of resignation. “Ach, mother o’ mercy. Must’ave left the bloody thing back home. Guess I’ll be in the van taking a bleedin’ nap until we get back then.” Demo gave a two-finger salute as he turned to leave. “Nighty night, lad.”

“Yeah, night.” Scout called after his shoulder.

The Bostonian turned back towards the loose crowd still hanging around the truck and allowed himself a warm, heartfelt smile.

Man.

Scout really had to pee now.

_ -_-_-_-_-_

#tf2 secret santa 2019 #tf2 scout #tf2 spy #tf2 engineer #tf2 soldier #tf2 demoman #tf2 sniper #tf2 medic #tf2 heavy #tf2 pyro #tf2 #my writing #my fanfiction #tf2 fanfiction #smissmas #end of the line #dad!spy

17 notes · View notes

ambersrpblog · 5 years

Note

6. What is one muse you don’t see yourself ever stop rping as?

I’ve thought about this a lot over the years I’ve been rping (15+ years) and there have been so many characters and muses that have come and gone. People grow and change so of course there are always going to be muses that you grow out of or loose passion for and have to say goodbye to. Maybe you look back at an original character and decide that it’s time for them to change and grow like you have- so you remake them- and then there might be those that you’ve decided have served their purpose.

Honestly, at this point in time, I always end up going back to my TF2 characters even though I’m not really part of that fandom anymore- hell one of them (Gene) I’ve transferred over to an entirely original universe and story. Jack, at the moment, is one of those characters. He was an original character that I edited and tweaked for the Stranger Things universe (and other similar horror franchises) so I feel like I’ll probably always come back to him even if I might put him down in the future. Most of the OCs currently listed on this blog are characters that I’ll probably go back to at some point- even if they don’t yet have profiles.

Canon-wise I know I’ll always end up going back to Pate from Dark Souls- I love that little shit too much not to go back to him. Same for Loki and Bucky from the MCU- but at the moment I’ve been feeling a great pull for my original and fan characters.

#out of ink #downpaths #[ rping for me isn't just entertainment sometimes ]#[ sometimes it is therapeutic and it really means a lot to me ]#[ writing is something I'm extremely passionate about ]#[ I honestly just need to sit down and finally write that novel I've been thinking of for years ]#prompts & memes #questions & answers #answered

1 note · View note

afearsomeartisan · 2 years

Text

Moving on

While writing this, I’m on a plane from Iceland, heading to Boston. Fate is funny that way. It’s been a great two weeks of touring across the country; the land is extraordinarily beautiful and has some of the most striking natural features I’ve ever seen. But the trip has stirred up some nostalgia and unrest, like being prodded by a quiet ghost with a very sharp stick.

(Old thoughts about college/ dead fandom OCs under the cut, feel free to skip)

College was not an easy time for me. I was extremely unlucky in roommates, professors, and generally a lot of things that culminated in a pile of stress and hesitancy. Freshman year was a sleepless shitshow (racist and homophobic roommate making daily 2am calls to yell an account of her day to her parents, for starters). At the end I did get my degree (with honors!), but it was a rough 4 years that’s largely a blur now.

But what helped a lot in connecting me to others was fandom. I made my first friend through HalfLife on a disastrous school-sanctioned camping trip that ended with the cops arriving and the main counselor having a court date booked. HalfLife led to Valve, and soon we got into TF2. And from TF2 I ended up with a couple friends who would be my core group until senior year, for better or for worse.

3 somewhat crafty and nerdy introverts can be a whole fandom. We took our tf2 headcanons and ran with them. This blog (do any of you remember this?) started as the TF2 ask blog redfemscout. Daydreaming and building up lore helped keep us sane. In tf2 the characters are stuck in a cycle of life and death that was simultaneously intense and stressful but also seemingly meaningless and inane. They fight and die to steal intel that doesn’t change anything. It reflected our perceived situation in college perfectly. For us the cycle was real: we felt like school was lasting forever and meant both everything and nothing. We got really into the characters and our constructed story, as canon was vague and left a lot of room for us to run with it. We wrote stories, RPd, drew comics, and even cosplayed regularly.

Prior to this, I had only dipped my toes into fandom. My highschool friends and I were a wondrously inventive bunch, mostly creating worlds from scratch. We had shared characters, ships, and plots, and the construction of it all was a joyous and bonding collaboration.

The tf2 situation was different. It was based in fandom, but the key difference was that the characters were less separate entities but rather alternative personas. The lines blurred on where our fiction and reality began, and in the end that made things difficult. They were half self-Inserts and half wish fulfillment; what we saw ourselves as mixed with what we wished we could be. But in being a shared experience where everyone created in a different venue, we had to give up control over how our character (and thus ourselves) were portrayed by the other members. And that’s where I noticed things getting hairy.

People are dramatic. If you have a conflict, it’s easier for most to vent than confront it. And when you can claim negativity as drawing from some other source or “being true to canon”, you get deniability. Being in control of someone else’s character, especially when that character is a self-insert or persona, is a power that can be abused.

For my part, I tried to be fair. We had a fairly even split- characters plucked from the canon we expanded on to make them more fun for us, neutral characters more as props, and our persona/characters. We used them to explore themes we found interesting at the time- primarily romance and violence and horror. If you’ve been in fandom or have an OC, you know the drill. Medic picked the sniper as her object of affection, I/scout picked the pyro, and engie chose soldier. In hindsight I’m not sure she actually wanted that or if it was a product of medic’s writing, but she was always fairly passive about this kind of thing and didn’t seem to mind. For the RED team we stuck to canonical nationalities, and since pyro was undefined I had my freedom. 11 years later and I’m don’t remember why exactly, but I chose Icelandic.

You see why it’s on my mind now.

Us, ranging from 17-22 at the time. Very involved in our characters and constructed storylines, stressed about life. At the time it was fun for the most part. It dramatized daily life and silly incidents into something enjoyable and distracting. (Did you know BLU Scout was based on a real guy from a con? Yeah, ask me about that sometime.) We got to vent excess energy and creativity into it when work didn’t suck out our souls. Medic did most of the writing, even publishing a few fics on Ao3. I tried my hand at it, but only released about 4 pages of the 30ish pages of fic I wrote. That will be a post on its own- there are other loose ends to tie up there. My forte was drawing. I did a lot of comics and drawings of the team and their shenanigans, a lot of them painstakingly by hand, which took forever and filled out many a sketchbook. Engie… was just along for the ride.

It’s faster to get a story out by writing than by drawing. And after rereading all the fic I have access to still, medic was a better writer than me. But her writing always rubbed me the wrong way when it came to her portrayal of scout, who was supposed to be, in essence, me. Remember, these were wish-fulfillment self inserts with just a dusting of “canon” to make them fit. And I just didn’t get why she portrayed me as she did. Yappy, simpleminded, easily scared and intimidated… pretty much the opposite of my personality, and not exactly wish-fulfillment material. Medic got to be multilingual, competent, and intimidating. Engie became creative, charismatic, and prolific. As scout I got to be energetic, impulsive, and athletic: her personality was not something I wanted to change much, just her physicality. But my friend kept portraying her as an aggressively loud dingbat in fic, and the discrepancy got to me. Especially when I would draw attention to it and she would get defensive. I thought I was being insulted and didn’t understand what the purpose was, and why she wouldn’t even own up to it.

But now, in hindsight, I think I get it. It wasn’t so much her lashing out at me as it was projecting her wish fulfillment even further- not just to her character and her LI but to me as well. Later on I found out my friends were intimidated, and this was their way of nerfing my tf2 persona, and by extension, me. But at the time it irked me- I tried my best to portray medic and engie in my work as they portrayed themselves, which was good etiquette I learned in highschool from those healthy creative circles. These friends not doing the same was a wound that took a while to understand and scab over. Thinking back on it now there were ways I could have adjusted my own work to push my own ideas for scout back to the shared canon, but that still would have been treating the symptom, not the cause.

But back to the present. I just had a wonderful vacation in Iceland, a place these college friends always wanted to visit since we watched Eyjafietlajökull erupt in 2010. I made it. And in traveling with an Icelander and hearing actual stories I was revisited by old ideas of Pyro and all the things he should have been. It was like a vague spirit made solid once more but for the first time. The Internet research pales in comparison, and after driving through the north and across farmsteads and fjords it’s much clearer who this character was meant to be. A puzzle piece in my past just slotted into place, and it feels good. I’m of half a mind to revisit these old OCs for a few more stories, but I feel that they had their time and served their purpose. Best to let the healed skin lie once the scab is off.

While they’re on my mind I’ll make another post of some updated thoughts on them, as much for any lingering onlooker’s closure as my own. I always thought it was funny how the larger fandom died in unison with ours, but maybe one of you has some nostalgia as well and would like to know what the plans for them were, as well as what was going to happen in Shark in The Water.

This was a bit of a text wall, and I do feel odd making a personal post (on my own blog, egads) after an incident in 2014, but it’s been on my mind lately and it feels right to get it off my chest. If you made it this far, wow, and I hope you enjoyed this extremely aged tea. As always I’m open for questions, especially if you were around in the old TF2 days and want to know something about scout or pyro, or whomever else. I’ll answer if I can.

#personal #on the eve of my birthday I purge this old baggage #no reblogs please

0 notes

tranxendance · 6 years

Text

Some classic doom gameplay mods and mappacks

So you wanna play some doom? The scene has settled down a little after brutal doom (although game journos will still reference it constantly in what I call the Dark Souls effect) but a lot of really good ones have come up in recent years since I’ve been back into it.

What you need:

A source port. I use GZdoom as it seems to have high compatibility with just about everything. https://www.zdoom.org/downloads

The original doom .wad files, preferably doom2. While doom’s source code was released many years ago, things like the graphics and music are still copyrighted. There is a (thankless) project called Freedoom that should let you run just about everything on this list, if you don’t have an ancient floppy disk or a modern day copy of Doom from steam or something. https://freedoom.github.io/index.html

Also reccommended: Some heavy metal to listen to while you shoot, chop, and explode demons. May I reccommend Demonhunter?

TCs/weapon packs

High Noon Drifter - terminusest13′s most recent complete project. It’s like Deadlands, you’re a magical cowboy using both your eternal nature and some really bad-assed guns to set things right as you see fit. Lore aside, you get a whip and a really powerful revolver to start, the shotgun sounds like god himself clearing his throat, item and powerup replacements, combat slide, and the ultimate weapon is the skull of a demon that can either be used to throw fireballs or summon its owner to stomp around and destroy everything in her path. https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=57098

Suggested map packs to play with this: Ancient Aliens, SCYTHE 1 and 2, RYLAEH, others suggested by Terminus himself in the zdoom thread but I haven’t played all of them.

GMOTA - Go Medieval On Their Asses. A mod I played a bit of while I was thinking about how cool a castlevania mod would be for doom, but ended up being one of my favorites. Turns Doom into a beat em up with swords and combo moves. When you think, hey, wait a second, don’t a lot of maps have enemies perched on distant platforms or require you to shoot switches, don’t worry! Lord Blazko has a harpoon like Scorpion from mortal kombat, a gauntlet that can freeze enemies while he runs in close, and you can always throw your sword because even if it lands somewhere unretrievable you can return it to your hands in a few seconds of waiting. There’s also a Doomslayer character for a more traditional Doom experience of picking up guns and ammo. https://combine-kegan.itch.io/gmota

Suggested mappacks: SCYTHE again, Brotherhood of ruin, doom2.wad, 1024.wad

Demonsteele - Weeaboo angel with massively fucked up dentalwork slashes stuff up real good. Turns Doom into a character action game, complete with Devil May Cry High Time air combos and Table Hopper. You can get through the game just fine with nothing but Hae Lin’s sword, which fills a super meter on every hit on an enemy or every projectile parried - use the sheath to block more easily. Did I mention it converts all enemies into projectile firers so you can parry Former Humans’ bullets? You can then use this super meter to do different attacks from a samurai movie style run-by slash to a beam that bisects enemies in front of you, or power up your guns for more powerful shots. Once you find the BFG, you can also use this resource to activate a kamen-rider transformation sequence and pummel enemies with your fists and feet and even throw out a kamehameha that is strong enough to oneshot a cyberdemon - in fact, cybie is now a powered up version called the devil driver. If you’re a heavy metal fan and like character action games like I am, you’ll appreciate all the references throughout, as well. There’s a second character who is more hong kong action inspired and plays more traditionally for Doom (more gun-focused) but Shihong is a fair bit weaker than Hae Lin, and is unfinished in her current state. https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=46787

Suggested mappacks: Term said that he considers SCYTHE 2 to be the canon experience for Hae Lin. Anything even vaguely japanese-ish should work and things with lots of verticality and jumping in mind. JCMP, Yomi, hellbound and Dark7.

Castlevania: Simon’s Destiny - I saw this when I was originally searching for GMOTA when it was nothing but a single map that played Vampire Killer and let you whip some candles. It’s a total conversion, meaning it comes with its own mapset full of jumping and mazes. You can pick up subweapons like the boomerang cross and the holy water that work exactly like you’d expect. Extremely good if you’re a castlevania fan or just wanna jump and whip around in a good doom mod. https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/97654-castlevania-simons-destiny-v12-out/

Reelism - A goofy mod that reminds me of playing tf2 with randomizer on, or Killing Floor. Wave-based survival combat where the available weapons, enemies, and mechanics are randomized each wave. You might get thousands of angry skeletons and have to fight them with flamethrowers while sliding around the floor with ice physics. You might get harmless Bronies and shotguns will spawn while annoying pop-up ads spam your screen. You might have to fight robots with joke weapons such as an assault rifle that only fires SOMETIMES. At the end, you have to fight a boss, and that’s randomized too. Great fun, especially multiplayer if you can wrangle people for it. http://thekinsie.com/reelism/

Map packs:

RYLAEH - A short 10 level pack based around lovecraftian horror. Neat! https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/p-r/rylayeh

SCYTHE and SCYTHE 2 - One of my all time favorite mappacks. A mesoamerican theme to the levels, lots of ancient temples and you exit through a stargate at the end of every level. The difficulty is more in line with doom2′s maps, as well. https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/megawads/scythe

Ancient Aliens - This is a really well made mappack with usually a gimmick on each map. As with most ‘modern’ mappacks, it assumes you’ve been playing doom for 30 years so it’s pretty hard. Otherwise, very very nice. https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/aaliens

Yomi - Large, fun maps with lots of traps and ambushes, the occasional keypuzzle. What i’d consider ‘standard’ as far as mappacks go in terms of design and difficulty. https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/v-z/yomi

1024 - A mappack where each map in it is 1024 map units. If you think that sounds boring, they play with verticality and gate things off in interesting ways to give even these tiny maps an interesting sense of progression. https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/1024

Dark7 - By the name, it makes me think of ‘Perfect Dark’ from the n64. Lots of running around deserted military bases and stuff, interesting verticality, actual secrets to discover. https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/d-f/dark7

JCMP - Japanese community mapping project. Contains only maps made by the still surprisingly active Japanese doom community. Often difficult, always interesting, but individual maps quality varies because of the large number of contributors https://www.doomworld.com/files/file/18503-japanese-community-project/

Hellbound - A mappack based around the idea of waking up in an ordinary urban apartment to a city that is slowly descending into chaos. The maps get more ‘hellish’ as you go, and are very large and aesthetically interesting, although the actual gameplay is nothing all that interesting. https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/hellbnd

Brotherhood of Ruin - Reminds me a lot of duke nukem 3d’s map design. Key puzzles, interesting enemy placement, lots of fun. According to doom wiki this holds the award for top 10 mappacks of all time! https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/p-r/ruinbros

Valiant: Vaccinated Edition - Valiant is an excellent TC on its own, but Vaccinated edition leaves the weapons and monsters vanilla so that you can run mods with it. Full of fun and interesting ambushes, and a wonderful implied lore of figuring out what happened to this space base. https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/megawads/valve

#doom modding #doom #mod ramblings #hope my suggestions help if my opinion means anything to you!#long post

7 notes · View notes

phoenixfire-thewizardgoddess · 7 years

Text

TF2 Headcanon - Demo/Spy & Sniper/Scout

Requested by @camiluna27, re: an ask they got about Demo being handsome and the best kisser, bc I was too lazy to make a fic. Written in Chat, so continuity’s a crapshoot.

-Title: Constellation Consternation-

[Alternate title I was too busy laughing at to use: Speaking in Tongues] . . . .

The basic headcanon is that Spy KNOWS he's amazing, but maybe certain teammembers have all mentioned that Demo is The Best at kissing, and a handful of other things (and he's most concerned about Scout knowing that, bu the runner is really just yanking his chain and parroting what Sniper told him about the explosives expert).

Fed-up, Spy goes to confront the guy over this whole seducing his son and the rest of the team, nonsense. Openly outraged at such impropriety in their ranks. Demo listens, nodding along to each complaint and french curse with a deadpan expression, trying not to smile at the idea he'd stolen poor little Scout's innocence and Spy was (in the most roundabout way possible) trying to defend his son's honour.

But really, he knew what this was about.

When Spy finally stops talking, he tilts his head, grins and says, "So ye're jealous I hadnae gotten around to ye faster, is that it?"

And Spy reels for a moment before stuttering out something most likely blistering in French, and glaring.

"I'll take that as a yes, then, laddie?" Demo leans back in his chair a long moment, sincerely trying not to laugh at the whole scenario, then stands up. "Well, you know ye could have just asked, right?"

"I would never degrade myself to do such a thing," Spy snarls back, suddenly questioning why he even came.

"The asking, the kissing, or the fact you're seething with jealousy that I got to ye last, Spook?" Demo responds, backing the other into a verbal corner.

Spy's expression hardens as he tries to find a verbal retort; though the temptation to flip the bird at the Scot and cloak was incredibly tempting. The worst part was he got the impression that the man was right... and that would sincerely mean he'd lost control of himself and his sanity.

He was the one who did the seducing, had people unconsciously adoring him, wondering what it would be like if he was to-... and he'd leave it open to interpretation. It was also a challenge, and he disliked someone claiming to be more skillful than himself.

Indeed, there may be some other personal motivations, but still... Spy must be the best. Ironically, he was the one who nearly jumped out of his skin when Demo suddenly appeared closer than before, placing a hand to his shoulder. Spy must have gotten lost in thought, been quiet for far too long for the other to think of invading his personal space so significantly.

"I know I'm a lot to take in, lad, but do ye want a drink to help you get over the shock of wanting tae kiss a Scotsman?" Demo offers, half-jesting, but still holding a bottle of Scrumpy in his free hand.

Spy actually snaps out of his pensive stupor to laugh at that; unfortunately, it just so happened to be the ugly laugh he tried to bury all those years, much to his horror. "Oh, mon amie, I do not think that will be necessary... but the offer is appreciated." he finally says, switching on the suave tone he usually uses, as if that will erase all the deplorable lack of decorum from before(um).

"Alright then lad..." Demo beams, sliding the hand on Spy's shoulder up to caress the man's masked cheek. "How about we skip right to the fun part and compare abilities, aye?"

Spy's lips quirked up in amusement, before snaking a hand around to the other man's nape, guiding them closer together. "Oh oui, I can give you a few pointers..."

- - -

Sniper, on the other hand, had not exactly been lying about how great Demo just so happened to be at kissing, and quite a few other things. Which had a tendency to put his boyfriend on edge, seeing as Scout wasn't going to admit it, but he was pretty insecure about a lot of things and therefore was twice as loud and flashy to cover over it.

When the mercs had originally banded together, it'd downright pissed Sniper off; not to even mention the others, who were less laid back, overall. But it didn't take the world's most skilled psychologist to work out the reason.

To be fair, Sniper had definitely messed around with a few of the others over the years... but Scout had been hung up on Miss Pauling, so he'd seemed off limits for casual fun. Not to mention, like the other mercs, they saw Scout as kind of this brash, bignoting brat when he arrived... and even daring to glance at physique made them feel old, mortal and vaguely guilty.

Perhaps it was the fact he came off as emotionally immature, a child at heart... and 'at behaviour' if that was a thing. Medic had clearly tried to make it so, in his documentation of the matter.

But since he'd settled into the team, the kid had... dunno, grown up a little? Sniper couldn't think of a more delicate way to say it, really. Didn't change who Scout was at heart, 'cause he was this great big ball of energy and enthusiasm and sometimes bad ideas like whether he could do a backflip off the base roof and land safely (he couldn't), but he did have a slightly more mature outlook on things. It was in the way he thought before he spoke, unless riled up; how he tended to act more strategically than before, worked with the team instead of racing ahead and dying a thousand times to get to the intel or capture a point.

Sniper could appreciate the change, and so did many of the others. However, Sniper was the one that Scout attached to most strongly from day one for some reason... and that'd been fine.

At first he'd been under the assumption that the kid either needed a quiet person to vent to, or just some sort of pseudo father figure... But then he realised that Engie was clearly playing 'Pa' with the kid (and Pyro), and if the runner wanted to speak to someone who wouldn't respond, he could have talked with any of the others. Sniper was the one person who actively listened when Scout talked, and responded; the others were... well, busy, and often commented they did not have time.

But the longer you work with someone, especially as closely as RED did, the more you knew them. Their eccentricities and insecurities; strengths and flaws.

Scout was personally offended that Sniper had vegemite on his toast of a morning; specially shipped in by Mann Co. as an 'essential supply' for the aussie. And Sniper was often infuriated to find Scout had left stuff all over the base, in a subconscious effort to remind them all he still existed.

But all that downtime moved them from teammates to friends, to... whatever this was. Not quite lovers yet, there were a few hangups. Mostly Scout over-analyzing the whole thing and wondering if he'd ever liked Miss Pauling at all, or he'd led her on...

Sniper had made Spy explain the very concept of bisexual to the stressed out runner, so he'd stop agonising over the whole 'attraction to both' thing. To be fair, he's pretty sure the topic had just never come up in Boston... after all, the runner's third-eldest sibling had a boyfriend, and the family was totally fine with it. He was tying himself in knots for no reason.

But then, Sniper could relate. He used to overthink things to the point of near paralysis, when he was younger; sometimes even now, if he was too stressed out or they'd had a really bad match. The rest of the team would just designate someone to go out and stargaze with him, until it wore off; usually Scout, but Demo did it frequently too.

Because that was how his Mum had managed to snap him out of it. They'd go outside, stare up at the stars, and she'd point out constellations and celestial stories until all the constricting thoughts just ebbed away.

And after the first few times on base, it just became normal practice for a stressed-out merc to come out to the Camper at night, say nothing, and have Sniper usher them to the roof ladder. He'd tell them stories, point out constellations, even ones they'd done a thousand times before... because it was soothing. The main issue was getting everyone off the roof, when (usually the stressed out party) conked out from emotional exhaustion.

Sniper now had a box up there, bolted on so it didn't fall off whilst driving, full of blankets an stuff. Made the whole thing a little less stressful.

Just had to get up before morning, though, or you got a wicked sunburn. Engie was working on some sort of automatic sunshade rig to shield any late-night worriers when the sun rose; but it was still in progress for now.

Still, it was his favourite thing to do with the runner. Especially when it was just the two of them there because they wanted to be... no stress between them. It felt... right, had for a long time.

The insecurities were a hang-up though. Sniper had realised things had changed when Scout slowly, painfully slowly, took his hand, a few months back while staring up at the stars. Could feel how tense the runner was, like he was going to bolt if Sniper even breathed wrong. To be honest, it'd been a bit since someone had wanted to hold his hand, high school maybe?

Still, it was a thrill of unexpected warmth, intimacy. And he slowly, just as painfully slowly, gave the bandaged hand a reassuring squeeze; hearing the runner exhale in relief and just about deflate beside him. They'd woken up leaning against one another, and sunburnt as a crisp; Medic had found it HILARIOUS as he treated them.

Sniper never should have brought up the Demo thing. He'd only been joking with the others about it, one night when everyone was a bit drunk, a bit less guarded about the things they said.

He thinks that was the night Demo finally managed to seduce the stoically insular Heavy/Medic duo... but he can never be sure. Not that switching it up between the mercs was inherently wrong, or even seen as promiscuous... they'd been here years, relationships formed and fell apart 'secretly', and flings happened. The only real issue was if someone from BLU was making eyes at a RED; and vice versa. That had to be dealt with before the Admin found out. But as far as they knew a few people had gone out of their way to subvert the no-interaction clause in their contracts... just because they could, and also... predominantly because it was thrilling.

Sniper was incredibly aware of what the Scouts had done, and he's pretty sure the other Sniper was too. Scopes, and all. But was the battlefield really a good place for that sort of thing? Scout still hadn't admitted making out with the other runner, and neither had the BLU to his team. Sniper really wanted to ask why, but he's pretty sure it's the same reason he saw Spy seducing the BLU Sniper in July last year at Vanguard...

...because they could.

What else was there to do around here... but each other? That is to say, breaking rules was fun.

But even with all that daring action out there, most agreed that Demo was the best at what he did. And he's pretty sure Scout was developing as much of a complex about it as his father...

Sniper really should have checked if the runner was there before joking about it with Engie. Now he couldn't even get the lanky bloke to hold hands, it was pretty frustrating.

He'd told Demo, on a night when the explosives expert had come to visit him at the camper to stargaze, with an obscene amount of booze; the logic behind it being there were twice as many constellations if you were drunk enough. The Scot had laughed, thought about it, and asked if he should try to woo 'the loud lad' to fix it. Even though it was in jest, Sniper had gotten defensive over it, and turned it down.

"I was kidding lad..." Demo had reassured. "For one, I think maybe Spy has taken a fancy to me but he dinnae know it yet, and it'd be weird to mention I'd Frenched his son... or, well, half-Frenched, his mother's American, aye?"

Sniper burst out laughing at the statement, and Demo took the opportunity to sneak away the fourth bottle of beer, deeming the Aussie a tad too drunk to climb down from the roof safely as it stood.

"What I meant was... if you and the others are always talking up my abilities, to other blokes who have a lot of experience with other lasses and lads and a few inbetween... then how would it make ye feel if you had none of it?" Demo questioned, sobering the conversation for a bit. He grinned, "Oh aye, I know about the Scout Class' attempt at snogging on the battlefield the other day, caught 'em by accident as I jumped past. But that isnae more or less experience than high school fumbling about when ye think your parents aren't watching. And to have to follow someone like me, well, I don't think he's comfortable with the idea... not yet, at least."

"Huh..." was all Sniper managed, suddenly realising a few things. He scratches the stubble on his chin, pensive. "So what should I do about it?"

"Oh that's easy... just tell the lad everyone's a bit shithouse when they first start out, and it's like those video games he likes... you've gotta learn how through experience to, uh, level up." Demo grins, nudging Sniper with his elbow in camaraderie, before immediately grabbing the sharpshooter so he wouldn't topple over from the impetus. No sense of balance when he's drunk, Sniper.

"Thanks mate."

"Aye, no problem. Now, did I tell you about what I managed to do to that bloody BLU Spy today? Well, everytime Engie left spawn the bastard would..."

The tale echoed out into the night as the two men exchanged light-hearted stories of the more hilarious murders and deaths they'd experienced during that day's battle.

Of course it was on top of the van, when it happened. Most things of importance tended to happen there...

After a long fortnight of no contact whatsoever, Scout was suddenly on his roof, snuggled in a blanket and staring up. Sniper saw it was his chance to talk things over with him, and climbed up slowly. Remaining in sight the entire trip.

"Hey..." Scout mumbles, not looking at him.

"G'day," Sniper returns, he doesn't like saying it much because it's a stereotype, but Scout always seemed to like it. "Nice night. Mind if I sit?"

"S'your van, Snipes..." Scout's still distant, mentally if not physically, Sniper realises.

He sits beside the runner.

"Look, you might know a few of the other guys... have spent time together in the last few years. Not all of them were flings, but they weren't long enough for any of us to start getting anniversary gifts over. And yeah, I might have had a thing with Demo a few times... and some of the others... but it doesn't mean I have any expectations from you."

Scout's eyes widened, and Sniper realised he needed to rephrase that statement.

"Calm down, bilby, I mean... everyone's different. Some people have a lot of experience in some areas, and others don't... but everyone starts off at zero, right? I mean, were you born playing baseball? Nah, you learned how, and you got better. Probably fucked up a few times, hit the ball the wrong way, fell on your arse, knocked over the wickets, got distracted running towards the goal before you could get a touchpoint-... what?" Sniper pauses.

Scout's laughing pretty hard. "Y-you don't know how baseball wo-works do ya, Snipes?" He's just about in tears at this point, pink-cheeked and gasping for air between gales of laughter. He's never looked more adorable.

Sniper lets out a slight huff of amusement. "I know how to Sports, Scout. There's a ball, and running, sometimes sticks and you score a touchpoint if you get the wicket in the goal or something..." he says, getting it more wrong with every word just to see Scout continue laughing like that. Carefree and relaxed.

"Oh my god, I can't-... Snipes... oh my god... I am teaching you baseball next time we get a weekend free... 'touchpoint'." Scout was in hysterics, leaning against Sniper as he tried to catch his breath. Every now and again he'd wheeze 'touchpoint' to himself, and start laughing all over again.

It took a while for the runner to calm down. He wipes his eyes on bandaged hands, an errant wheezy giggle escaping now and then, but finally relaxes against Sniper. Who can't resist any longer and pecks him on the forehead. To which, the runner squirms and complains like a little kid.

"Aw man, Sniiiiiiiiiiipes, Ma used to do that in front of all my freakin' friends... you have no idea how much I never heard the end of it..." Scout whines, turning to look at the Aussie. The bandaged hand closest grabs hold of Sniper's own, and the grip is rock-solid, like the smiling runner is making a decision.

"I uh, I ain't as good as Demo... probably shit at it really, but would you mind if we, uh... fuck, I had a whole thing for this but now all I can think about it 'touchpoint'..." Scout nearly chokes suppressing a laugh at the word again.

He really was pretty fucking adorable when he was like this, Sniper grinned. "You don't need to ask, Scout, it's fine... 'course we can." He assures, and moves in closer, watching for any signs that they were about to have a loony-tunes moment... where he'd lean in to give the runner a kiss and find nothing but a Scout-shaped cloud of smoke. Wouldn't past the speedy merc.

But no, Scout's still there when their lips meets. He seems to have some idea how it all works, which is a surprise, but Sniper tries to lead things in a direction that will circumvent clashing teeth. A hazard of excited teenage make-outs...

It was pretty good, all things considered, and he could see that realisation dawning all over Scout's face. Slightly flushed, a little chocked, and grinning as they pulled away.

"See? You're pretty good at it... just need a bit more practice and you'll be right as rain." Sniper says, putting an arm around the runner's shoulders and delighting in the way Scout leaned back against him.

There was a lengthy silence, which was starting to concern the sharpshooter, before Scout spoke up.

"...I dunno, Snipes, it wasn't that great..." he pauses, just long enough for Sniper to become slightly alarmed and a tiny bit offended, before continuing. "Think we might need a loooot of practice..."

The aussie sharpshooter chuckles, kisses the smartass on the forehead just to watch him squirm away laughing, and says, "Much as you want, mate."

Spy left Demo's room the next morning, striving desperately for immaculate attire despite the evidence of rumpling. He straightened his tie as Engineer and Medic came around the corner, talking animatedly, only to pause and look at the espionage agent with expressions of incredulity.

They looked at him, his attire, the class symbol on the door behind him, and then back to Spy, with growing grins of amusement.

Spy snorts derisively. "If you think I look sufficiently dishevelled, you should see the other guy..." and walks off, not even bothering to cloak. Pleased to have won, if not the kissing segment of their little game, then the other various challenges instead.

When the pair finally do come face-to-face with one another again, that day, everyone in the room is suddenly Very Busy and Definitely Not Listening.

"Lad, ye've one-upped me in some areas and that was a surprise... but I'm pretty sure I still hold the title for best kisser on base..." Demo announces, grinning.

Spy closes the book he had been reading, carefully placing it down on the sofa before standing up to look Demo right in the eye. "Oh, you still cling to that notion, do you?"

"I won, ask any of the others, I'm good at what I do, Spook..." goads the explosives expert, making a sweeping gesture at the few other mercs gathered in the common room.

"Truly?" Spy says, appearance utterly nonchalant. And then the man smiles almost predatorially, and Demo knows he has him.

"Round Two, then?" Demo queries.

"Oui... but let us have dinner together first, like civilised people." Spy responds, heading for the kitchen.

It takes the other man a moment to catch up, and it hits him like a lightning bolt. The last the other mercs saw of Demo that night was the man racing out of the room, after Spy, yelling, "Did ye just ask me on a date, Spook?"

To which the answer was a slightly distance-muffled "Oui."

- - -

The End

- - -

Random Extra:

When Scout and Sniper finally came inside half an hour later, no one would look them directly in the eye or explain where the missing mercs were.

Sniper elbows the runner in the side genially. "Look at it on the bright side, bilby... you might end up with two dads outta this."

It took Scout an hour to stop screaming.

#tf2 #team fortress 2 #fanfiction/headcanon/piece of shit #scout #sniper #spy #demo #spy/demo #demo/spy #sniper/scout #scout/sniper #speeding bullet #bomb voyage #i am trash #behold #it's all puns tbh

106 notes · View notes

freakxwannaxbe · 7 years

Note

Hey, can you recommend me some lets play youtube channels I can watch? I've mostly followed vloggers, but I started watching those recently and I really want to know more I could look in to

Boy howdy could I ever! The three biggest names are ofc Pewdiepie (even tho he switched to comedy videos and has been really controversial lately), Markiplier and Jacksepticeye. But lets go beyond that, I’ma list some I personally follow the most.

Achievement Hunter (+the LetsPlay channel, which was their first channel before they branched out, it still has mostly AH videos, but also features Funhaus, GameAttack, Cowchop and others) - A big group with great chemistry and lots of game playthroughs to chose from to watch. Updates regularly over the week, with some series spanning through years and hundreds of episodes.

Funhaus - Best way to describe Funhaus is “Bunch of Guys being Dudes”. Really great energy and commentary, most of their videos leave me in stitches. Warning for dark and offensive humor tho. Updates regularly over the week.

Multipurpose Gaming - Three friends with great chemistry playing video games, lots of laughs and lots of chattering, with some really good games, too. I personally recomend their Undertale playthrough. Updates regularly over the week.

Cryaotic - Chill dude with a great taste in game and really good commentary. He is the least overwhelming channel of the ones I counted up here, since it’s just one guy with a great voice, so you don’t get an assault on the senses that comes from many voices coming at you. Doesn’t upload as regularly as he used to, but you can follow him on Twitch where he streams regularly with friends on Fridays and Saturdays, and also has whenever-he-feels-like-it streams over the week. Also would recommend Draxr, with best-of videos from his streams.

Game Grumps - Mostly known for the duo of The Grump (Arin “Egoraptor” Hanson) and The Not-So-Grump (Dan “NinjaSexParty” Avidan), but features a lot of other great personalities. Amazing comedy, good games, both nostalgic and new, lots of laughs and giggles. Updates regularly over the week.

ComanderHolly - Holly is tightly knit with the Grump family. This channel features her and occasionally her husband and friends. Lots of great games, and sometimes even birds! Good content 10/10. Updates regularly over the week

KittyKatGaming - Suzy is also tightly knit with the Grump family, even more so than Holly, who is more of a guest than a regular member. Lots of guests, lots of laughs, lots of games. Updates regularly over the week

DanAndPhilGAMES - You probably know Dan and Phil, since you say you follow vloggers, so you probably also know of their gaming channel. I love these two, they’re such sweet guys and their aproach to gaming is much more chill than some. Update somewhat regularly.

Cr1tikal - The chillest mofo on youtube istg. His unique commentary, coupled with his deadpan voice, makes for some amazing humor. Very dirty language, but to be honest, it doesn’t come off as such at all when you’re listening to him. Doesn’t do actual full LP’s, just short videos. Updates not on a schedule, but do come out fairly regular.

Escobario - Real fun and sweet guy, does mostly fun Overwatch and TF2 videos. Updates not on a schedule, but do come out fairly regular.

Extra mention: Twitch!

I recommend Vinesauce in general, look in to which streamer fits you, but as for me, I regularly follow:

Vinesauce - Fullstream youtube - Best-of Youtube - Vinny, real chill dude, real great games.Vargskelethor - Fullstream youtube - Best-of Youtube - Joel, a Swede with a love for Metal. Also does those great Windows Destruction videos.Revscarecrow - Fullstream youtube - Best-of Youtube - Rev, also real chill, good games and also the horror that is Frozen Flash games.

Also, Snake. Snake is love, Snake is life.

Edit: Also Polygon is a good channel with good soft boys, my personal fav shows are Car Boys and Monster Factory! The McElroys are 10/10 would recommend to everyone.

#Anonymous #magical ask of freaky

23 notes · View notes

lacksley · 7 years

Text

Dear Author/Artist

Hello dear creator! This is my first time participating in the trick or treat exchange, so I’m sorry if my requests are too specific or too vague. I do have anon turned on if you have a burning question but I’m not sure if you’re allowed to talk to me? Once again, I am very new.

If you have matched with me on multiple requests, please know that I did not fill them out in any particular order other than how I encountered them in the tagset (by media, then alphabetically) so don’t worry about trying to pick out the one you think I’d like best based on the order listed here! Pick the one that speaks to you!

A brief explanation of bonus points: these are perks! They are extra, they absolutely do not have to be included if you don’t want to or can’t, but they are little things that I would enjoy a lot! That being said, on to the letters!

Cardcaptor Sakura

This was my very first fandom and I’m very fond of it. I am just starting to get back into it so I can read the Clear Card arc, but I haven’t gotten there yet, so no spoilers please!

I suggested on AO3 a few ideas: a spooky card hunt, a class Halloween party, and to be honest, I really am not picky. I’ll probably be happy with anything I get, just because I love this show so much! If you want to include other characters that were not nominated, like Touya or Yukito, that’s great!

Free!

I only requested two characters, but if it turns out you’re not a fan of SeiGou, I also wanted to check the “any character” box but the form would not let me. So! SeiGou is preferred, perhaps a nice fall date? Or a scary movie date?

If you don’t want to or can’t write SeiGou I think a test of courage would be fun with the main Iwatobi team + Rin!

Haikyuu!!

Something I think a lot of anime fandoms are sleeping on is Hyakumonogatari, a parlor game where you light 100 candles and tell 100 ghost stories, extinguishing one candle after you finish a story so the room gets darker and darker as the night goes on. This would be really fun to see with the main Karasuno team (including characters who weren’t nominated, if you wish) and any of the characters I requested. Maybe they’re at a training camp? Maybe it’s just a big fun volleyball sleepover! Bonus points if the ones that are the most scared are the ones who are usually more stoic/brave/hotheaded.

Any ships are fine, but please don’t write OiKage if you choose to include them!

Tsubasa: Reservoir Chronicle

We have been blessed by so much good Halloween art for this series. Is it conceivable that the gang might stumble into a world where suddenly everyone becomes werewolves and vampires at night? If we’re going with the puppy/kitty dichotomy I think it would be lovely to see Kurogane and Syaoran as werewolves, and Fai and Sakura as vampires! Mokona would be cute as a goblin or an imp or something equally small and devilish! Bonus points for KuroFai and SyaoSaku!

Voltron: Legendary Defender

VLD has a lot of potential for creepy stuff, whether it’s aliens, locations, or each other! I’m not too picky about what I receive for this, but I think there could possibly be something with Allura shapeshifting to scare the paladins for some old Altean harvest tradition or something! It’s up to you creator, have fun!

Ships are fine, but I would prefer not to see Klance as I am sort of burned out on seeing content for that ship. However, bonus points for Hance!

Dishonored

As I said on AO3, I have not finished Dishonored 2, and I have not played Death of the Outsider and have been trying to avoid any promo stuff for it since I haven’t even finished Dishonored 2! Please don’t spoil me!

I tried to request characters that play prominent roles in Dishonored, but I didn’t want to include people like Billie Lurk who also play big roles in Dishonored 2 and DotO, to avoid someone who only wanted to/could create for those games. I’m okay with any characters who show up in Dishonored, I just wanted to avoid any issues with creators who were interested in characters that show up in all three.

That being said, I am the most interested in the Outsider. I really dig the brand of creepy occult horror Dishonored has, the relationship the world has with whales and the supernatural. I threw a few ideas up on AO3 but I’m really just interested with anything you have to offer! (Although, I suppose bonus points for Daud!)

Mass Effect Trilogy

The line Shepard has in ME3, when they are assaulting the Illusive Man’s base and she wonders if she’s really Shepard, or just some kind of advanced intelligence, really gets to me. I think parts of that were possibly explored in the Overlord DLC, but I have not played it so I am not sure. So, I would love to see something with Shepard confronting her humanity/identity. Has she been seeing things? Are there glitches in her cybernetics? Or is she really just an AI pretending to be Shepard?

Bonus points for LI comfort, extra for Kaidan but I am also fine with any of the requested characters.

Team Fortress 2

TF2 is one of my oldest fandoms and I’ve been around long enough to participate in many Scream Fortress events. I love the sense of humor the writers have, and how completely ridiculous and stupid the things they come up with are, so what is happening with our mercs this year? Is Merasmus back? Did they find out what Medic did with their souls?

Ships are okay (but totally optional, gen is equally fine), bonus points for Sniper/Scout but please no Spy/Scout!

And that is it for my requests dear creator! I hope they don’t cause you too much trouble, and I don’t think I’ll be updating this again but if I do I’ll leave a note saying I did, so maybe check back in before the exchange is over?

Good luck, and happy Halloween!

#erin shush #dear blank letter

0 notes