#i really want to do one of this with in game pictures too at some point. but i don't even have my game installed rn | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lindsaylohansrighttoe · 19 hours

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Things to do instead of eating.

1. Strip all your bed sheets and wash them.

2. Do some dusting around your place.

3. Clean out your computer of unwanted files by doing a disk clean-up and a disk defragment. Your computer will run better and faster.

4. Get a couple programs called Ad-Aware, plus Spybot Search and Destroy and scan for adware components. You don't want that stuff on your computer.

5. Do a free online virus scan to make sure your computer clean if you have one.

6. Check online for security updates for your software. Better safe than sorry.

7. Exercise, exercise, exercise. It's good for you, keeps you fit and moving burning unwanted calories.

8. Listen to upbeat music and dance around.

9. Watch TV, but place the remote control far away. This makes you get up when you want to change channel, ect.

10. if your sitting, twitch your leg. Might as well burn calories while you sit down too.

11. Play a musical instrument.

12. Design your own thinspirational or pro-ana site. It's actually quite time consuming, fun and it teaches you a skill.

13. Find songs that relate to ana/mia.

14. Burn a thinspirational cd.

15. Make a list of your goals and how/when you want to have them acheived by.

16. Try out a new hair style.

17. Exfoliate your body. (Must have very warm shower for this to open your pores.)

18. Give yourself a make-over.

19. Have a cool shower.

20. Go through the song section and download the songs, then burn your own thinspirational CD.

21. Keep checking back into my blog!!

22. Do an online research of your favorite musician, and join any Yahoo groups that might be around on this musician.

23. If you don't already get a Yahoo account and enjoy the benefits like free e-mail account, messanger, groups, games, ect.

24. Get AOL instant messenger, then chat with others.

25. Unsure about a piece of information reguarding weight loss / metabolic rate, ect.? Do an online research to make sure your information is as accurate as possible.

26. Make your own journal, writing down goals - food eaten - calories burned - weight lost - thinspiration pics - motivational things, and such.

27. Brush your teeth. Get a travel-sized toothbrush and toothpaste set and use it often. A clean minty mouth can make the thought of eating less attractive. Also, if you brush after every meal and every supposed meal, it's less obvious whether you've eaten or not.

28. Take a shower. Hot steamy water can suppress the appetite, in me at least, and paying close attention to your body will serve to remind you exactly why you're losing weight in the first place. If you feel clean you may not want to "dirty" yourself with food.

29. Fidget, take up a new hobby, find something to focus on. Find something with which to distract your hands and / or mouth. Chewing gum works for many people, but check for calories. Sewing or stringing beads is good, detail-oriented and monotonous. Keep yourself occupied.

30. Exercise. Find something you love to do and do it. If, like me, you're too self-conscious to exercise where people can see, then do it when you're alone at home or in a locked room or other safe place. Make it interesting. The best I've found? Dancing. Find music you love, cover the windows up, and don't even think about what you may look like since there's nobody to see. It's a lot of fun, and it helps you get more familiar with your body as well.

31. Find triggering pictures. You have internet access, I know you do. When you feel like eating, pick an actress or model that you think is particularly beautiful and search for pictures of them ... or for pictures of people you find particularly ugly and fat. It's a slow, involving process and for me at least a great way to avoid eating.

32. Take a nap. A lot of people think they're hungry when really they're just tired. Also, drink water, since thirst can make you think you're hungry as well.

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multifandomworldsposts · 2 days

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Finally Meeting

pairing: colby brock x fem!reader

warning: hickeys, making out, protected sex, death threats

A/N: this story is from kinktober but a longer version!

Y/N’s POV

I’ve been messaging a youtuber name Colby Brock for a year and I’m finally going to meet him at the Trap House. We met at Playlist Live last year and we’ve been chatting since then and facetiming each other and Colby showing me his roommates including some friends of youtube friends as well.

One day, I bought a plane ticket to go to LA so I can meet Colby in person, but I didn’t tell Colby about it because I want to make it a surprise. I text the Trap House guys without Colby in it and told them when I’m landing and where my luggage is at so they can meet me. When I landed I text them that I’m in Los Angeles, Elton, Corey, Devyn, and Jake came to pick me up from the airport and we made a plan because they said to the rest of the house that they’re going to Target, so we went to Target and got some stuff they needed and I got some stuff for myself.

“Let’s put your stuff in a separate bag so Colby will kinda figures out that you’re here.” Elton says getting a separate bag ready for me.

“Okay. Are you sure this’ll work?” I ask.

“Colby tells us what you eat by the facetiming you guys do.” Corey says.

“Okay.” I said. I hope this works.

When we got to the house I get nervous, Devyn notices and tries to calm me down, I can’t believe I’m meeting Colby since we saw each other last year.

“Alright, Devyn, stay with Y/N and Corey text Devyn when it’s time for you two to go in.” Elton says with a camera on and has the Target bags in his other hand.

“Alright, you ready Y/N?” Corey asks.

“I am but still nervous.” I say.

“I’ll be here with you okay?” Devyn says rubbing her hand against on my back.

I nod. I’m ready.

Elton, Corey, and Jake goes in and Devyn and I were talking quietly so no one inside can hear us. Corey texts Devyn, it’s time to see him. Devyn takes my things and opens the door for me, the house looks so cool in real life. Colby walks out, his face looks confused but excited at the same time, I run towards him and runs towards me, we hug so tightly, I can’t believe I’m here with him.

“I can’t believe it’s you! I thought you have school today?” Colby stops hugging me and says.

“I lied, I had a flight to come here and Elton, Corey, Jake, and Devyn helped me.” I say.

“I fucking knew it! I saw the bag of things that you eat, I knew there was something going on!” Colby says looking at the guys.

The guys and I laugh.

I get settled in the house in Colby’s room and I felt tired so I took a nap. After the nap, everyone and I went to Dave & Buster’s, Colby and I went around to other games so we can talk to each other privately.

“I still can’t believe you’re here.” Colby says while we’re walking to a game.

“I can’t believe it either.” I say following him.

“You wanna get in the photo booth?” Colby asked.

“Sure.” I nod and smile.

We go to the photo booth and we take pictures, like us smiling, kissing, and some of the trap house boys came in and photobombed us. The pictures came out great! I send a picture of the four pictures of Colby, the roommates, and I to my parents so they can tell that Colby is real including the roommates as well. My parents believe me!

A FEW DAYS LATER

Colby and I have been talking about our personal lives for a while now and we began to kiss each other sometimes, but we’re not ready to go too far.

“You still tired?” Colby asks me.

“I am, it’s just the time zones, you know.” I tiredly say.

“I get what you’re saying Y/N/N.” He says.

Eventually, Colby introduced me to some of his youtube friends like, Brennen Taylor, which he’s kinda nice but he makes me uncomfortable.

Colby and I went on some dinner dates and some of his fans were nice but really rude at the same time. We went to some haunted places in Los Angeles as well which I really enjoy haunted places and anytime I get scared I would hold on to Colby and he would understand what I’m doing so he would hold on to me as well.

One night, Colby and I were alone, everyone went out to do a video or something but Colby and I stayed back. Colby was really touchy this night. All you can hear is me giggling by him touching me, and we start to kiss. I haven’t been kissed before so this felt special to me. Colby and I made out for a few minutes until we began to take our clothes off and Colby getting a condom for protection. He goes in and out of me and us moaning at the same time. He gives me hickeys, I moan even louder, I don’t want him to stop.

We continue our session until Colby’s door opens and it’s Sam looking horrified and Colby covers us, I look embarrassed. I hide my face in Colby’s chest, I never felt embarrassed in my life. Sam runs out of Colby’s room and Colby and I look at each other and chuckle.

“We’ll go somewhere special next time I promise.” Colby gets a strand of hair out my face.

“I’d like that.” I smile.

I’m so happy I’m with him but I hope we do something else then what we just did.

NEXT WEEK

I post pictures of Colby and I on social media.

And this how I told the world.

‘yes, the rumors are true, i’m dating colby brock. we’ve been dating quite some time now and he makes me beyond happy and my family and friends can see it, him and i are happy together and a lot of people support our relationship. love yourself and treat people with kindness! 🥰🤍’

I got death threats from a BUNCH of people.

colbsxkoala: why would he date her???

xplrupdates: she looks fucking ugly 🤮

colbyybbrocks_necklaceee: colby, choose better 🙄

sam_666_golbrock: it’s a no for me

solbybrockers: ew. i can see her fattiness in these pictures 🤮

Colby can tell on how much these comments affected me. Even the trap house noticed how my body language was and they all knew how upset I am about a lot of these comments.

“Don’t listen to them Y/N, they’re just trying to make you feel bad about yourself and your nothing but a sweet and kind person and I can tell how Colby feels around you, he’s so happy to be with you, I’ve never seen him this happy in my life.” Sam says to me while I was sniffling.

“You think so?” I wipe off my tears off my face.

“I know so, Y/N, don’t let these comments ruin your life, you wanna go out with the guys, the girls, including me and Colby to get some ice cream?” He asks.

“Yeah sure, ice cream always works for times like this.” I say wiping tears away from my face again.

“I mean that is true.” He chuckles.

Everyone and I went to go out and I felt nervous the whole time, Colby could see it.

“Relax, we’re all here, if something happens we’re here to protect you.” Colby whispers in my ear.

“I know, it’s just now I’m terrified to go out because of those people on social media talking about me.” I whisper in Colby’s ear.

“We’ll protect you on and offline.” He whispers.

“Thank you.” I whisper back.

We get our ice cream and then we walk around to see what’s going on in LA, some fans came up to us but I tried to stay positive around them but they were really sweet. I would check my phone once in a while and the comments are flowing in but I’m trying to check my messages like my parents wondering what’s going on in LA and am I okay there.

to be continued…

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barbatusart · 3 days

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how do you make your art so expressive and fluid-looking? do you have a technique or is it just how you've trained your hand? I try to get my figures more fluid but they always look so stiff! even practicing figure drawings...maybe because you draw so fast that helps? idk man...any advice? thank you!

thank you first off for such a compliment!!! fluidity & shape are the things i prize most in visual art to the point where ive given up gunning for "correctness" in favor of chasing the preservation of motion lol. gonna put my response and my Full Visual Art Journey to where i am now under the cut as it's an image-heavy one and a bit long winded (shocking for me to be long winded i know LOL)

so i absolutely used to have the exact same problem many years ago of my stuff being too stiff, ie my sketch would be loose and fun but my inks would be nervous & tight & not as fun to look at as the sketch

this is a super old thing from 2011 when i was still on my anatomy journey (you can tell cus the sternum and nose are, uh, interesting LOL) but you can kinda see what i mean - the sketch underneath is fun & has movement as sketches do, but these little fineliner inks are so visually Nervous. the issue for me at the time was that i was subconsciously exactly that: nervous of messing the picture up, and that fear of making a mistake telegraphed loud & clear to my inks. using fineliner tools 100% did not help me either, as microns & the like have little to no "give" to them; you put the pen to paper and you get what you get, and you have to sit there & meticulously build the line up to get any kind of lineweight.

i was ultra dissatisfied with my output so i made 2 changes a few years after this: i stopped doing pencil sketches and started just doing straight inks, and i swapped to a brushpen

these are from 2012 or so & some of the first things i did in straight brushpen inks with no pencil, and theyre a total mess but they are LOOSE AND FUN! i had 100% no idea what i was doing with the brushpen and had no control over it because i was so used to the thin lines pencil & microns gave me, so everything i made was sloppy & out of control as i was struggling to keep control of the tool, but honestly it was absolutely freeing for me. now i had the looseness of the sketch right there at the forefront. the issue was though, how could i get enough control of the brushpen to make something that wasnt so messy? even if i had freedom, if i got too wacky with it, itd just turn into a black ink mess. i was completely done with pencils at this point and didn't want to go back & risk losing this looseness & freedom, and then i realized like - what if i just do my straight ink sketch like this & then figure out a way to go back in & "carve" into it to clean it?

enter the next tool in the arsenal, the white gel pen. this was my first experiment with it & it was legitimately a complete game changer, because now i could slop on my inks as much as i wanted & go right back in with the gel pen & literally carve out the black lines to as crisp as i pleased while still preserving the motion & energy of the ink sketch. i noticed even with tons of layers of gel too there was no way to fully get rid of the ghost outline of my corrections, so at this stage i leaned into that quality even harder & changed from white paper to exclusively brown

at this point i wanted to showcase loud & clear to myself exactly what i was cleaning up, i LOVED how this looked. i even went a step further & got some really translucent red ink for a second brush pen (had to fill the cartridges with the red ink manually in the sink lol) so i could do an even sloppier red sketch underneath, half precise slop on black ink on top of it, clean it up with the gel, go back in with the black, forever and ever and ever

and like this was an absolute physical mess of material but it was beyond fun. id completely given up on anything being clean or correct, because i could always clean it & correct it & have a blast showcasing the journey of start to finish as preserved in the materials. i basically gave myself permission to like, be imperfect, treat inks like clay, & draw with complete abandon like a kid again

eventually utrecht stopped making the kind of brown paper i loved (these brown paper books were HEAVY DUTY & could take so much punishment, when i was done with a book id legit flip it over & start drawing on the backs of the pages) & then all the available material physically couldnt handle the amount of medium i was putting on my pages, like legit the paper itself was just ripping & dissolving lmao. so at this stage i got an ipad (i could never wrap my head around a tablet & not looking at my hand and the tool touching the artwork) & pivoted from trad to digital in like uhhhh 2018ish & just did the exact same techniques of slopping inks down, carving with the eraser, going back in with the inks, carving more with the eraser, and so on. and now since it was digital & i never had to worry about my paper literally melting underneath my brushes LOL i could just go forever on one thing

early attempts while learning the new medium in my fury road era

tail end of the SAD SACK roughs in like 2019ish (SAD SACK really was what got me locked in with my digital technique & how i wanted to attack it)

tail end of the SORTIE roughs from like 2021, at this stage i think my style got so fuckin crazy because i wasnt worried about my pages getting destroyed anymore so im like Violent with the ipad lmao, that & it got Really fast bcus since i wasnt bothering with correct anymore & had no medium-being-destroyed barrier i could just gunshot-speed get these down

and then most recently DE RERUM NATURA from like january of this year which i think showcases what im currently doing pretty accurately

this got long whoops lol POINT IS: i dont worry about being correct (because i can fix it later), i dont worry about being neat (because i can clean it later), and i skip the sketch stage entirely by slop-inking & eraser-carving interchangeably, which lets me fix and clean all i want while preserving the energy & action of the first marks. plus, going straight inks all the time i think trained my hand & eye to A. put down the marks i want correctly in the General Space of where i want them, and B. do it faster & faster lol

after all this my advice to you is this: swap to a new tool! try a brush, try paint, try a medium you have no control over but something that forces you to improvise and remember whats so fun in the first place about making a mess on your canvas of choice. remember that any mark you make, you can tweak, fix, carve, shove around, whatever. i think a lot of people get stuck in the rules they have set for themselves with art (i know i did!) and we tend to forget that there are no rules. try & remember that feeling of being little & just going wild on paper without any care whatsoever about being Right. go for it, because you can always tweak it - even inks arent permanent 🤓

#q&a

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bluecatwriter · 18 hours

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Top five instances of Arthur Holmwood crying on people

I cackled when I read this, but very quickly learned that I do, in fact, have a Top Five in this category! ;)

Crying on Mina when they first met. When he broke down sobbing on her shoulder, got comfort, told her he'd always help her and would be a good friend, and then they promised to be siblings to each other? That was My Moment with Arthur. Like, "Okay, ideal man, actually." That is when I latched onto him like a weasel clamping onto a bird's throat.

Crying on Jack. Despite having this scene filtered through Jack men-do-not-need-much-except-a-manly-squeeze-of-the-hand Seward's perspective, we see SO much of their relationship here, and it makes me go feral. Him acknowledging that Jack loved Lucy too and being cool with it? Throwing his arms around Jack and laying his head on his breast to cry? I AM GOING TO START BREAKING WINDOWS

Crying on Jack and Quincey on what would have been his wedding night. Okay, it's headcanon that he sobbed all over them, but it IS canon that he spent the night with both Jack and Quincey after staking Lucy's body. You can't tell me that there was not a lot of sobbing at that sleepover.

Crying right when Lucy died. This whole sequence really gets me, but just the picture of him sitting in the drawing-room, not having been able to even kiss her good-bye, crying in a way that nearly makes Jack break down. MY BOY

Crying on Van Helsing. This is another headcanon one, but on September 20th when Van Helsing offers to sleep on the couch across from Arthur so he won't be alone that night, I just imagine that some crying happened then, too. (The motif of people sleeping near Arthur so he won't be alone makes me want to beat my fists on the ground. THEY'RE ALL SO GOOD.)

(Ask game here)

#OUR art #arthur holmwood #dracula daily spoilers #ask games #answered

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reyreadersblog · 2 days

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Okay so, this is my first fic..in a while (after my wattpad phase) and might be really bad...but well, enjoy.

| Tags:@jkriordanverse @reminiscentreader @sophiesonlinediary @f4iry-bell @lxvebelle @tornqdowarnings

(If i forgot you im so sorry)

GAMEMASTER'S DUTY

(This is technically a scenerio where Lyra has a stalker in the game, so if that kind of things disturb you be aware)

~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~

Lyra's pov:

"I speak without a voice,

Reveal without a choice,

In my silence, histories rejoice"

I said the riddle out loud and sighed.

"Mabye an ancient ruin?"

I always found riddles stupid and useless, it's just a jumble of meaningless words. Even though i was never an 'Enigmatologist", i've always been good at solving them.

But i didn't have a strengh to solve it now. Not in the library, at 2 a.m.

I came here hoping i'd find something, a connection, about my father, instead i found a book full with these damned riddles. I was stupid to think i'd find anything in here in the first place. This library is huge, filled with books. Who thought there would be a library on the "Hawthorne island".

I close the book and checked my phone, no massage from them, from a stalker i've had ever since the game began. They've been sending me threats and pictures of me. At first i thought it was a spam-account or a bot and tried to ignore it.

But after that one time, when they sent me a massage saying "i know you killed him", i think i might know who they are, who he is.

"What are doing here ms. Kane?" Said a voice behind me, i turned around and i saw him. A person i wasn't really glad to see, Grayson Devenport Hawthorne. He was leaning against the library door frame, his silver eyes staring at me. His hair was wet, he wasn't wearing suit and a few buttons of his shirt were...undone.

And so what Lyra?

"Mr. Hawthorne..." i cleared my throat "i just.." i was usually really good at lying and gaslighting people but why was i stuterring now?

"I couldn't sleep and this library has a very good aura, so i came here" i took the book in front of me in my hands and started flipping through it's pages "besides here are some very intersting book" i said

"You're holding book upside-down, ms. Kane" he said in a low voice.

Right. shit.

I put the book down, then i looked at him and asked:

"And what brings you here mr. Hawthorne?"

He seemed..surprised by my question. He entered the room.

"I went swimming, i saw lights coming from this room and came here to check since the lights should be turned off in every room by 12 p.m."

"Oh.." i said

"Is something bothering you ms. Kane?" He said with a bit worry in his voice.

"What makes you think that?" I returned him question

"That you're in the library, at 2 a.m. going through german books?!"

they're german?? I was so caught up i didn't even notice

"This one's english" i pointed at the riddles book

Grayson came closer, beside me, and looked at it.

"An ancient ruin" he said

"What?" I asked

"The answer to this riddle is an ancient ruin" Grayson said.

I looked back at the riddle. I knew i guessed it right.

I nod at him. He closed the book and held in his hand.

"This was the first ever book of riddles i was supposed to finish in a day" he said strongly.

"In a day?" I couldn't hold back my surprise

"Yes, well i guess you can say my grandfather was..diligent"

At the mention of his grandfather my blood boiled and i looked away.

He noticed it too.

"You still haven't answered my question" he said demandly.

What question? Oh, that.

Fuck you.

I shouldn't tell him. I don't need his protection. If i wanted to figure out who it was i could easly do it with my hacking skills.

And then suddenly, i got a massage on my phone, i checked it and it was him.

A picture of me standing in a library before Grayson came in.

A shiver went down my spine.

"I have a stalker" i confessed to him.

He looked more confused than surprised.

"A stalker? Ms. Kane i assure you John Oren has the best security system around this island to make players feel sa-"

I cut him off and showed him the picture of me.

Grayson stared at the picture, he looked even more confused and frustreted right now. Then he looked deep in my eyes, like he was looking for an explanation.

I could've drown in those silvery gray eyes.

"I know who he might be, when my father...shot himself...there was this one detective who became obssesed with the case, he divorced her wife, left his job and started working on the case , he staked me and my family and not a long after he broke into my house and started threatening me, screaming "you did this, you killed him", he was arrested and i've never heard of him..unti the game."

I could not describe expression on his face, was he thinking about the first part of the story?

"Until the game...? Lyra why didn't you say it earlier?"

I was surprised, not by the fact that he raised his voice a little, but the fact that he called me by my first name.

I sighed.

"I'm not worried about myself Gray-"

"I AM" he yelled.

There was pure shock on my face, i never thought i'd see him angry.

Grayson took a deep breath in, then he brushed a hand in his hair, went closer to the desk and leaned on it.

"As a gamemaster, it is one of my duties to make sure players are safe, and you are not, i'll announce this problem to Oren, he'll tell our security team but you may need to have a bodyguard at your room for a while, until this problem is solved"

Then he comes closer to me, he stands right in front of me.

"I need to make sure you're safe ms. Kane." He says, softly.

He is taller than me so i have to look up at him, i smile and nod.

"Understood." I say

He smiles, for the first time, ever since i've met he, he smiles.

"I should really go back to my room" i say.

"You should"

I never needed anyone's protection, all my life i've done nothing than protect myself, because others wouldn't.

But holy shit, it felt good to felt protected by someone.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

DO NOT LAUGH.

#the inheritance games #the hawthorne legacy #grayson hawthorne #the hawthorne brothers #avery grambs #the brothers hawthorne #the grandest game #the final gambit #libby grambs #nash hawthorne #lyra kane

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tobiasdrake · 22 hours

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Now, reading your blog makes me wonder how Gohan from the Buu arc would do in a killing game. He's in the right age bracket, after all.

Assuming power levels weren't a factor because that boy could crack a planet in half with his thumb when powered up so that's a complication....

I don't think Gohan has it in him to become the Blackened. Not because he's a good guy; A lot of good guys crack under the pressure of the Mutual Killing Game. Despair driving people to do things they would never consider outside of this extreme and traumatizing environment is the name of the game.

I say this a lot but it always bears repeating: Both the killers and their victims are all victims of Junko Enoshima. It's a Whodunit series built on extreme circumstances pushing people into extreme behavior, but the answer in a big picture sense is always Junko. There's a lot of nuance with regard to personal culpability in every killing but the broadest culpability lies with Junko. She's the guiltiest party of every case.

Gohan, I think, could be pushed under Killing Game circumstances to kill someone. He has, let's say, a temper. His rage is exactly the kind of psychological weak point that a talented manipulator could exploit. I'm reminded of the way Celeste wound Hifumi up, aimed him at Taka, and pulled the trigger. "He stole the important thing and he's planning to kill you and also he... hurt me...."

Gohan would absolutely be a sucker for that kind of approach.

But that's the closest to Blackened I think Gohan could ever get: A manipulated patsy for the real Blackened. Gohan himself couldn't be the Blackened for one simple reason: He's too honest. I can imagine Gohan killing someone if given the right trigger to set off his rage. Gohan can too; It's why he didn't want to fight Cell. But I can't imagine him concealing it and going through Class Trial to consciously try to escape at the cost of everyone else's lives.

If Gohan were the Blackened, he would come clean and accept his fate. Which, to a writer, means he can't be the Blackened. That's an irreconcilable problem.

I do think, however, that Gohan would best be suited as one of the protags that makes it all the way to the end or at least gets a couple cases under his belt before someone else kills him. He's smart and he likes to solve puzzles. He got really into the redundant time machine and cicada shell mystery.

He's also. Uh. Not to put too fine a point on it, but Gohan's seen some shit. He is no stranger to brutal violence and corpses. He's even killed some people himself. He's a good pick for the character that goes straight to work investigating the body while the other characters are still gasping in horror and throwing up in the corner. A strong fit for the Kyoko archetype.

Whether he makes it all the way to the end or dies in case 3 or 4 so we have to make do without him, is a matter for the plot to decide.

#danganronpa #dragon ball #dragon ball z #son gohan

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fancyfade · 3 days

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Tim and Damian for the ask game bc I'm predictable

12, 21, and 23 :)

12 What’s a headcanon you have for this character?

Damian: That he spends half is time with Talia <3 I also headcanon that if he did think Bruce and Talia would get back together again he would be outwardly supportive but inwardly suspicious (after like everything has happened, and he's 14, not 10) becuase he doesn't want to get his hopes up for nothing.

Tim: I headcanon that his hair doesn't grow back after hte explosion at the end of Robin. I just think its neat when characters have scars. Everyone's on tim's missing spleen but not Tim's burnt back of head?????

21 If you’re a fic writer and have written for this character, what’s your favorite thing to do when you’re writing for this character? What’s something you don’t like?

Damian: I really like when Damian draws comparisons with how he's treated in different situations by different people, often misunderstanding the people involved due to his own experiences (like assuming Talia is constantly evaluating his skills and judging him when she just meets him in The Way My Mother Didn't Raise Me, like she's another trainer).

Tim: I haven't written any Tim centric fanfic yet RIP even though I have ideas for some... but currently I guess (and this is my favorite thing for almost all characters if you can't tell :P) when his perspective informs his narration, like I wrote this line

This time, Damian gives him a longer look. He’s narrowing his eyes, threateningly.

in Batman and Son Rewrite (my first DC fanfic so there are things I'd change but not this part) and initially it was "He's narrowing his eyes, suspiciously" because Damian just genuinely was suspicious and uncertain of Tim's intentions. But I'm like wait Tim didn't know that, Tim doesn't really have the most charitable read on him. So I re-wrote it so it was influenced by Tim's POV rather than what Damian was thinking

Something I don't like.. hmm well I try to avoid writing it if I don't like it, but I guess for my past work I think both characters seem a little too soft at first. Tim is written back when I just new him from Batfam crossover events, Nightwing, and Batman comics (which I read a ton of, so there wasn't no comic basis) but before I read his solo title which I think really helps flesh out his character and I would have a lot different ideas for him now... Damian I think I overdid a bit on how ... hmmm IDK how to describe it. But sometimes in my fic i Published a bit ago he comes across as a little too vulnerable (on the outside) even if I was trying to avoid it.

23 Favorite picture of this character?

For Damian: Pick any one of these smug Damian faces by Patrick Gleason, that's peak Damian (link)

For Tim, probably one of these images I drew (link) where I re-imagined early Robin Tim who was joking about how small he was as. actually a young teenager and not miniature adult XD

Ty for ask! Asks from here (link)

#zuzuzuko #tumblr games #ask #damian wayne #tim drake #robin #dc comics

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purrplegyuu · 22 hours

Text

The best for both of us | Choi Beomgyu

Pairing: Writter!oc (named Seoli), animator!Beomgyu

Warnings: penetrative sex, oral (fem receiving), clitoris stimulation, unprotected sex, overstimulation, poor plot, gaslighting, non corresponded love, toxic Beomgyu, soft som Beomgyu, sub reader, lemmie know if im missing something.

Word count: 2,6k

Masterlist

“We’ve already read your book and it’s amazing. We also saw the animations, and we all thought they are perfect for our style. However…” he stops talking.

“However, it’s too disturbing for anyone under fifteen” says his boss. The woman, the owner of the video games company, who wears an expensive suit that screams everywhere she’s a squared closed box. I don’t really know how she manages a video games company. “Which wouldn’t concern us if we didn’t want the money, but we need this project to be suitable for all ages”

“I talked about this before, I have already rejected various contracts because I’m not interested in any project in which my art is changed” I say.

“Well, as I already said before, we need this to be suitable for all ages”

I stand up, taking my documents from the table, and when I’m about to leave, Beomgyu takes my arm, forcing me to sit down.

“Well, why don’t we listen to their proposal?” He asks, looking at me with killing eyes, which I don’t really understand since he’s always been on my side when I rejected last projects for the same reason.

“Yeah, sure. We just thought it would be better if Kira’s enemy isn’t her mother but her father. This way, we can avoid some future problems with angry mothers” one of the workers points out in the presentation, the part where all of the changes appear. I frown, disgusted. “We can also make her boyfriend the good guy instead of just another enemy—you know, for the love scenes we need to create a fandom” A good boyfriend? In real life? I cannot help laughing sarcastically at this, to which Beomgyu hits me with his elbow on my arm. “And she might also change a little bit—see, this is Kira before, and this might be her after” the picture on the presentation shows the draw Beomgyu made with my instructions. I told him to use only black ink, and draw it very messy. I remember the day we decided that this art style was just perfect for my book. When I created Kira I was thinking of the worst part of the world, I even got inspired by my own life. She’s too thin because she had very poor eating habits, she’s tall, her hair is messy and greasy and the clothes she wears are made for someone bigger. Which makes a big contrast with the whole new character they made—this Kira is short, and has a big pair of round boobs, a tiny waist and big thighs; her hair is pretty and… she just seems like another video game girl character.

“We will skip her eating disorder, and she will not die at the end. There’s obviously more changes to do, but those are the most important ones”

Everyone looks at me while I try to do as much as I can in order to not explode there and then. I feel just so offended that I cannot even speak. Even if I open my mouth, nothing comes out.

I stand up, take my papers and get out of the office, not even worrying if Beomgyu tries to hold me once again.

After an hour or two of getting back home, I finally start to calm down. That’s exactly when Beomgyu enters home too.

“Fuck, you could have waited for me, you know?” He wasn’t mad, that’s just his usual behavior.

“Seoli, we need to talk” I do not turn around to face him, keeping up on reading the instructions of the new bedroom lamp I just bought. “Seoli” he takes my hand, forcing me to turn around. “Why do you keep rejecting any minor change in your books?”

I turn my eyes. “You should know that, Gyu. My books are all too personal. If I write something is because I feel it, and I don’t like it to be changed”

“Yeah, I understand that, but you cannot keep rejecting every opportunity you have” he sighs. “See, babe, I think this is the best company you’ve been contacted by, and if you want to succeed, you should sign with them”

I frown. “Why do you like this company that much? I’ve rejected thousands of companies before, and you always supported me”

“I’m just looking for the best for both of us. We’re twenty now, but soon, we’re gonna be thirty, and forty, and fifty; we need to make money for the future… this isn’t a big company—small enough for you to be important and ask for almost everything you want, but also big enough to succeed monetarily and as an artist. This is just what we need”

“I don’t care about the money, everything I care about is being loyal to myself. I won’t sell myself and my art to some shitty company. The things they said to me in that reunion were almost insulting! How the fuck am I supposed to be fine while seeing one of my deepest books being thrown away this bad and be happy with it because I MIGHT get two hundred dollars a month from now on?! Specially in this one book!… this is almost my own autobiography…” the last words were almost audible, very low in contrast with the rest of my screams. It hurts my heart as I said it.

I see some kind of compassion in my colleague’s eyes. We never talked too deeply about it, but I did tell him that most of my books have some kind of self insert somewhere, but never as important as this one.

He takes my body in his hands, hugging me so comfortably as one only time before—when I confessed to him, and he said sorry because he couldn’t correspond to me.

He moves apart without letting me go, and unexpectedly, takes the back of my neck and kisses me. He only touches my lips with his once, moving away just a little, and then kisses me deeper when I take the back of his neck also with my right hand and his shoulder with my left hand.

He’s gentle at first, only leaving some close mouthed kisses on my lips, until he notices I’m more eager, and then, he devours my mouth whole like it's the last thing he’s gonna do on earth.

His hands travel all over my body as he starts kissing the side of my neck, sucking on my skin, biting and then licking, to which I cannot do anything but hum in pleasure—he touches my back, caresses my waist and pushes the hem of my gray shirt up.

I squeeze his shoulder when he take off my shirt and starts kissing my clavicles, and scream of pleasure as he bites the bone.

While devouring my torax, he manages to take off my black bralette, and kisses all of the skin of my small breasts, making me wonder if he actually likes the curvy girls he shows me of it it’s always been nothing but a façade in order to no look like a pervert.

He takes my hand from the back of his neck, moving away from me, unbuttoning my low-rise jeans and lowering my panties, then guiding me to sit on the couch. I oblige, and soon he’s kissing my body again, my abdomen, my pelvis, my thighs—which he takes and puts them over his shoulders before looking at me, right in the eyes as if looking for consent, but keeps going without a second of thought.

I scream when I feel his muscle exploring all of my cunt without a warning.

“Gyu-“ I moan while tapping his back with the tip of my foot.

He notices I got more sensitive everytime he stimulates my clitoris with his tongue, so he decides to do precisely this while one of his fingers caresses my entrance. A second finger enters, and he starts scissoring as if measuring if something will be able to come in.

My hand found its way on Beomgyu’s fluffy hair, which I take strongly trying to move it apart but also trying to keep it as close as I can.

Once he positions himself on the perfect way to have me screaming his name once and again and again, he starts doing it nonstop, faster, and holding my body by my pelvic area so I don’t move too much. My whole body trembles from pleasure, and I feel the knot on my lower abdomen tightening so much I feel it’s about to break.

And within thirty seconds morr, my whole body spasms under his, while I scream nonesenses and cry his name. He keeps on licking my whole cunt, cleaning me from my orgasm, making me cry at the oversensitivity. I try to push his face away, however, my strength after an orgasm is always null.

He goes back to the same speed as earlier, to which I scream: “Too much, gyu!”, but he doesn’t stop. Instead, his pace becomes even faster, making my head spin as I unexpectedly orgasm once again, faster than the first time.

He caresses my pelvic bones, licking my juices from his face. He stands up and kisses my lips once again, letting me taste my own cum.

I hear his right hand unbuttoning his jeans while his left hand helps him hover over me. I hear his clothes fall to the ground, and then, his tip touches my left thigh. I move away from the kiss for a second, moaning as I mentally prepare myself for having sex after one and a half large years of not being active.

“I know it’s always been hard to go through changes, babe,” he mutters in between kisses. “but everything I’m doing is looking for the best for you. You’re really successful with your books, but you don’t know if it will ever change as you grow up” the contrast between his lovely words and his condescending voice tone, and his hand lifting one of my legs up to my ribs making me go crazy. “Besides, you can ask for any change you want, and as long as it doesn’t make the game too disturbing for kids under twelve years old, they will accept it” the tip of his cock touches my clitoris at first, and then, he explores my whole cunt, looking too casual in contrast with my high expression. “Seoli, I will always be by your side” and suddenly, that option didn’t seem like trash anymore.

With that, he puts the head of his cock inside my entrance, to which I scream squeezing his shoulder. He goes back to kiss my clavicles while going on until he bottoms out. Feeling his tip against my spongy point, the deepest part of my cunt, makes me forget about all of the doubts I have, and I already know that the second I wake up tomorrow, I will be calling the company and ask for them to meet again.

He doesn’t give me time to get used to his big size, and starts moving immediately after he bottoms out, at a savage pace that makes my head spin. The way he’s hitting my cervix strongly over and over again has me cumming after less than two or three minutes. He doesn’t stop there though, and doesn’t even slow down. The second orgasm comes after maybe five minutes more, much more intense and piercing. My legs tremble, and he chuckles while taking my other leg and lifting it up to my chest also, making his cock go even deeper.

He holds both my legs up with one hand while the other stimulates my clitoris in circular motion, nonstoping, without giving me time to recover.

I cum once again, and my whole body feels so tense I feel like I'm about to break.

“Gyu-yu, I can’t anymore” I cry, the tears spilling from the corner of my eyes as I take his shoulders, trying to move his body away from mine. “please”

“I know, sweet, but you’re gonna help me cum too, right? You’re not a selfish princess, right?” His face is not close to mine now, and my legs find their way on his shoulders while he prepares himself for fucking my cunt faster and stronger than before.

I squeeze the silk of the couch, while my tears run down my face and all over the couch, and I scream his name over and over. His pace becoming even more animalistic as I feel his cock twitch inside of my vagina, the heat inside of me making me feel like I’m about to be torn there and then. The feeling is so unbearable, but also addictive. At this point, I don’t even understand myself.

He cums inside of me with a guttural growl, and keeps fucking his cum in for some seconds before using his hand to try to put his cum in when it tries to escape. I cum on his fingers one last time, and he leaves a kiss on my forehead.

(…)

I fix my lanyard with my work ID on my neck, holding my drawing tablet and the handmade sketches I’ve made.

“Oh, see! There’s coffee over there!” Beomgyu says amazed.

“Every company has coffee for workers, Gyu”

He goes to get a cup while I look for the office. The boss asked me to meet her once I accepted working with her. I signed the contract a week ago after making her accept the clause of letting my opinion be the most important one over there.

“Oh, Seoli!” That voice… it’s just impossible to forget it. “Oh my god, I’m so excited to see you again! Ever since high school I knew you were gonna succeed, you’re so talented!”

We went to high school together, and after we graduated, we also went to the same college. She stuck to me since then, but I never liked her a lot. She wasn’t a bad person, I just didn’t match her energy. However, I did everything I could in order to separate her from me in college, right after I realized Beomgyu liked her. Beomgyu and I met at college—the three of us decided to study an art major—, and it took us only one semester to start living together as roommates, and two more months to start working together on the animation of my books. We left college so we could put all of our time on making money with the animations, and luckily, that was enough for Beomgyu to forget her. At least that was what I thought.

“Dami? Do you work here?” I ask.

“Kind of. My mother is the owner of this company, and she likes me to participate on all of the projects. We’re gonna be a team! Just like in college!” She says with a big smile. “Where’s Beomgyu, by the way?”

Everything makes sense suddenly, why did he get so excited when I received the invitation to this company, and why was he so eager for me to come, and why did he want me to stay here.

I turn around slowly, and as soon as I find him with a scared expression, I feel my eyes ache.

He fucked me so he could get a chance with the one girl he likes.

How dumb.

#purrplegyuu #beomgyu smut #txt smut #beomgyu overstimulation #choi beomgyu smut #tomorrow by together | purrplegyuu #beomgyu soft dom #toxic beomgyu #tw: gaslighting #kpop smut #the best for both of us | beomgyu

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dirt-piper · 2 days

Text

The TF2 problem

Don't take anything I say here as gospel - much of it is my own speculation and musings.

TF2 is my favorite game of all time. I started playing it wayyy back in 2012, and while I don't have that many hours racked up total (a meager ~1K), I can at least consider myself to be a few rungs above 'total n00b' in terms of familiarity with the game. I've experienced the best and worst eras of the game - from the Love & War update to the current botting crisis, and I have loved TF2 every step of the way.

But just because I love it, doesn't mean I think it's flawless!

Around 2015-2016 I noticed (alongside damn near everyone else playing TF2) that TF2 was changing, and not in a particularly good way. Love & War was in many ways a perfect update for TF2 - it gave attention and goodies to both the highly casual and the highly competitive ends of the playerbase, with a fancy new taunt system bundled with some pretty fun new weapons. At about this time, Blizzard announced the imminent release of their new game Overwatch, which was directly inspired by TF2 - and now presented itself as being a direct competitor to TF2 in its own niche. This, of course, turned out to be bogus - Overwatch is its own game with its own niche that has a playerbase nearly wholly separate from TF2's.

A common trend amongst the TF2 playerbase at the time was this sense of dread regarding Overwatch - either that it would suck up the entire TF2 playerbase, leaving the game to die, or that Blizzard would try their damnedest to manifest such a reality. Either way, a ton of die-hard TF2 fans began to absolutely loathe Blizzard's new game (before it even came out, I might add) for so much as daring to 'unthrone' TF2.

This entire premise is stupid. It's stupid now, and it was stupid then. But the fear became so pervasive throughout the community that, eventually, it seemed like VALVe was getting scared too. The tone and focus of TF2's updates began to shift far more heavily towards the competitive end of TF2's playerbase - which has never been the majority - as VALVe appeared to try to pivot TF2 into a stance where it could better "compete" with the upcoming Overwatch. Bits and pieces of this started showing with Gun Mettle and Tough Break, before Meet your Match completely revamped the game into a more competitive-focused format.

Why they would do this didn't really make sense - if VALVe wanted to compete against Blizzard's new AAA FPS with a competitive scene, then why would they try to remodel TF2 to position it as a "more valid competitor" to Overwatch when CS:GO was already a proven champion in that space? TF2 doesn't need to compete with Overwatch. It never did. So why would they expend so much effort to change TF2's course when, frankly, it was doing fine as-is?

Looking back now, with nearly a decade of hindsight and a bit more insight into VALVe actually works, I think the picture is a bit clearer, or at least the one I've formed in my head is. I don't think TF2's sudden drastic shift in focus was the result of VALVe scrambling to shore TF2 up against the onslaught of Overwatch - I think it was, rather, the TF2 team scrambling to shore TF2 up against VALVe.

VALVe is not a normal game studio. VALVe is not only lucky enough to be their own publisher (therefore making them a completely independent studio - yes, VALVe games are 'indie'), but also extremely lucky enough to be the de-facto publisher for nearly the entire PC game industry, thanks to Steam. VALVe makes money off of every single game sold through Steam whether they made it or not, essentially guaranteeing them a constant stream of exorbitant income regardless of their own output. They have a complete vertical monopoly of their own industry - they own themselves (VALVe has no shareholders whatsoever), they own their products, they own their publisher, they own their distributor - and now, with the Steam Deck, they own their hardware platforms too. VALVe answers to nobody but themselves, because they own everything that could possibly impact their business.

VALVe is, in a lot of ways, in a somewhat similar situation to AT&T (aka 'Ma Bell') back before the breakup of the phone company back in 1982. AT&T owned the entire phone network - from the switching equipment to the phone lines to the handsets plugged into them - and they charged every person in the country who leased phone service from them (you couldn't own a phone back then!) a subscription fee. AT&T, then, had basically infinite money to do whatever the hell they wanted with (though the government strictly regulated their commercial activities so they could not compete in any industry but telephony). As a result of this, Bell labs, the core Research & Development branch of AT&T, was in a very unique scenario - projects undertaken by Bell labs researchers weren't given budgets - they were given quotas.

AT&T didn't care how much money or time was spent on a project by a Bell labs researcher, so long as it ultimately resulted in something that benefited the company. And this model worked very, very well - Bell labs' researchers gave the world the transistor, the laser, the CCD, the Unix operating system, the C programming language, and received 10 Nobel peace prizes.

VALVe, through Steam, has a free, infinite revenue stream. VALVe's staff, then, effectively have infinite money and time at their disposal to make whatever they desire - so long as it ultimately results in something that benefits VALVe. Or, at least, so long as the people who hold the most seniority at VALVe think it would benefit VALVe.

It's no particular secret that the old guard at VALVe are, largely, unenthusiastic about TF2. Remember - Team Fortress is VALVe's oldest franchise. The original Team Fortress mod was released in August of 1996 - a mere one month after the Nintendo 64's initial release - a full 2 years before Half-life. Sure, VALVe didn't initially create Team Fortress, but they bought Team Fortress Software for a reason - Team Fortress was insanely popular. And it's not just TF2 that has absurd longevity, it's the entire Team Fortress franchise; here's a match from a Quake Team Fortress competitive tournament that is currently ongoing as I write this post:

youtube

VALVe acquired Team Fortress software with the premise that the sequel to Team Fortress would become an expansion to Half-life, thereby increasing Half-life's desirability by attaching it to the sequel of one of the most popular FPS games available at the time. TF2, of course, took a bit longer than expected - so Team Fortress Classic, a more-or-less direct port of Team Fortress to goldsrc, was released in 1999 to satiate people until the real TF2 came out.

That took another 8 years.

When TF2 finally released, it pioneered the concept of games as a service - that you could buy a game once and it would receive new content, features, fixes, etc. indefinitely - for free. These were not paid expansions or DLC, these were actual updates made directly to the game that anyone could get access to so long as they happened to own the game. And, once TF2 went free to play, the deal became even better. This model was utterly groundbreaking in 2007 - it's the standard for how most games operate today, sure, but only because TF2 proved how well it could work.

The issue, of course, is that VALVe was eternally working on TF2. By 2015, Team Fortress 2 had been in development in some form or another for 17 years. With this perspective, it seems understandable why some of the more senior members of VALVe would have grown sick of Team Fortress - they'd been doing or dealing with the same game for nearly 2 decades.

But, of course, newer hires at VALVe would have nowhere near the same level of fatigue - many of them were likely still very passionate about the game, and eager to continue its lifespan - but when the people who sign their paychecks and review their employee performances are sick and tired of hearing about Team Fortress, it becomes less and less attractive to pour effort into the game, no matter how much they may personally wish to.

Under these circumstances, the tonal shift TF2 experienced around the release of Overwatch appears more as an internal struggle - the remaining TF2 team trying desperately to prove to their seniors that TF2 was not yet ready to be phased out, that the game could modernize and remain relevant in the modern competitive gaming scene, that just because they were sick of TF2 didn't mean that everyone was.

So, they gambled. They bet TF2's future on a new revamp to adapt it to the then-modern world of competitive e-sports... and fumbled it pretty hard with Meet your Match.

The problem with the TF2 team's attempt to make TF2 more suited to the modern world of competitive gaming was that they seemed to overlook that, to the average non-competitive TF2 player, the game as it was was perfectly fine. Through Quickplay, any player could be automatically placed into a server matching their desired criteria and just... play. A server would stay on a given map for roughly 45 minutes (though players could vote to extend the map timer) regardless of how many rounds there were, meaning that everyone got the same amount of time to play the map regardless of how good or bad either team, as a whole, performed. This game players plenty of time to just... have fun playing TF2. There was no rush or hurry or incentive to play the game in any way other than how you wanted to.

This made TF2 very unique in the FPS world - the truest example of a "casual shooter". There were no ranks or rewards or incentives to play every day beyond random item drops and the enjoyment derived from simply playing the game itself.

The TF2 team's attempt to 'modernize' TF2 in Meet your Match effectively ruined this.

In addition to the introduction of a new, dedicated 6v6 competitive mode, Quickplay was replaced with 'Casual' - a matchmaking lite that tried to find a middle ground between the chaotic ad-hoc freedom of Quickplay and the more rigid, competitive structure of Competitive. It didn't work. Most TF2 players just wanted to play TF2 - casual forced them to stop and wait for the matchmaking system to find a server for them matching its desired criteria, stop and wait every other round for the server to change maps, stop and wait for matchmaking cooldowns to run out if they left a game in progress - so much time was spent stopping and waiting to play the game that hardly any was left to play the game itself. Yes, some of these problems have since been smoothed over, but Casual still forces the play to spend less time playing the game than Quickplay did. In my opinion, Casual, as it was released, could have been perfectly fine if Quickplay was kept alongside it. Instead, in one fell swoop, the way the vast majority of people played TF2 was effectively removed from the game.

In fairness to the TF2 team regarding this gamble, they were under enormous pressure - not just from a TF2 community growing increasingly paranoid about TF2's future due to the imagined threat of Overwatch - but also from the higher-ups at VALVe they were trying to convince.

However, the TF2 team snuck a back-up plan into Meet your Match - the Heavy vs. Pyro war. By outright promising a future major update (or perhaps two, even!), the TF2 team could at least insure that, no matter what their 'bosses' thought, they could justify their continued work on the game as fulfillment of a promise made to the community. And, if the new update was enough of a hit, it could perhaps inspire their 'bosses' to let TF2 continue to live on, at least for a little while.

So, the TF2 team pulled out all the stops for the next update. Jungle Inferno had an animated short, new maps, new weapons, entirely new features (ie. the contracker), it had a massive hype-spiraling 4-day-long update announcement, major weapon rebalances and overhauls - they clearly tried their damnedest to make the best TF2 update possible.

Whether or not the team managed to convince their superiors is unknowable. Jungle Inferno was followed by the fanfare-less Blue Moon update in early 2018, followed by radio silence. The TF2 team may very well have still been hard at work on the elusive Heavy update, but the double-whammy of the all-hands-on-deck push to get Half-life: Alyx finished and released immediately followed by the COVID pandemic likely reset whatever momentum or motivation the TF2 team had left.

This scenario, as described, is painful enough. From the outside, it appears as though VALVe had rebounded from Meet your Match, and was doing its best to improve the game in the wake of their own missteps, only to suddenly drop TF2 with zero explanation given. TF2 was left in a state of indefinite limbo with no clear outlook whatsoever on the future.

What made this infinitely worse is that VALVe had left the game in a state that wasn't just unfinished, it was broken.

TF2 has literally always had a botting problem. For the first span of the game's life, this generally manifested as idling/trading bots, but later on more and more bots began to appear that sought only to disrupt gameplay. Micspam, false votekicks, aimbotting, speedhacks, etc. - purely for the sake of irritating real players. Until Meet your Match, these cheating bots were relatively uncommon - real players could very easily either kick them from the game or simply join another server via Quickplay. Their impact on gameplay was no more than a minor, brief annoyance, and thus they were considered a non-issue.

Meet your Match's new Casual system, however, dramatically restricted the player's ability to hop to other servers when bots arose. Not only this, but the ability to switch teams at will was disabled on Casual servers, meaning it was now impossible to deal with bots on any team but your own (previously, if the other team was too slow to kick their own bots, it was possible to just wait for an opening on the other team, hop over, and call a votekick against the offending bot that would usually end up succeeding). Now, the disruption caused by a single bot was far more impactful than it had been before - because it was a far greater chore to either kick the bot or find a different server. Moreover, Casual outright incentivizes players to stick to the same server until the end - awarding them extra points the more they play, and nullifying any progress they've made towards a given contract that match if they leave before it ends. Players are thus, in effect, forced to play even when bots have made the game unenjoyable.

This resulted in a feedback loop - bots were now more irritating, so people complained about them more, so bot hosters hosted more bots, making them even more irritating - and that feedback loop has continued nearly unabated until modern day.

The TF2 community has been begging for an end to the botting problem for ages - and there have been genuine efforts from the TF2 team to try and fix the problem, but they have been too small and too infrequent to make much impact. And, to be frank, there is no way to effectively, permanently remove the bots. Attempting to keep any and all bots from the game would require enormous, constant effort from the TF2 team - something which is a very tall ask given VALVe's attitude towards the game for the past decade.

What can be done, however, is to simply make the bots less impactful. To let players more easily avoid them, to let players enjoy the game for longer so the bots are no longer such a nuisance, to let players have enough freedom in how they play that they are no longer forced to suffer through games with bots. It won't outright remove bots forever, but it will make them so much less of a nuisance that bot hosters will likely lose the incentive to bother with them. As soon as that happens, the feedback loop will be broken, and the botting issue will decline in severity as their potential impact on players' enjoyment of the game is neutered.

The simplest way to do this is to make Casual just as free as Quickplay was.

45 minute map timers, extensible by vote.

An Indefinite number of rounds per map.

Ad-hoc joining, leaving, and team switching.

Progress on contracts not erased by leaving mid-round.

These are not overwhelming changes. If anything, it's something of a return to form - not outright bringing back Quickplay, but making Casual into a suitable replacement for it - at long last.

And - most importantly - it's a one-time fix. It does not require an eternal arms race against bot hosters, nor a full return to frequent, massive content updates (though those would be nice).

One update to make TF2 more fun, to make the bots less impactful, and to give the game a better standing for the future.

One update to fix TF2.

-DirtPiper

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