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pluralsword · 10 months

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Queer Wargaming with Cards

Yeah we do wargaming.

With cards.

Extremely gay cards.

You know, the Transformers Deck-Building Game XD

It's a wargame in the sense that we've collected a bunch of expansions (we have the core autobot game, the core decepticon game, infiltration protocol expansion, and the war for cybertron core game) that would together enable 4v4 gameplay... we calculated that would mean having a card matrix (the battlefield as it were that gets flipped over to reveal allies, enemies, gear, friendly or enemy strategies, bosses, and locations, and battles resulting in defeated enemies leave ruins) of 6 x 6 (36 cards, with one starting polity) cards, and a 21+21+21+5 deck containing the bosses and more polities... (note the game rules go up to 2v2 or 3v1 or 4 player coop/team competitive but if one wants to get in more content and players you just increase the matrix from a 4 x 4 for four players to say, 4x5 for five, and add two cards to boss stacks, going from a 11+11+11+5 to 13+13+13+5, and so on for more players)

as a deckbuilding game, a core mechanic is collecting cards from the field and adjusting your deck and buffing cards and the like, all actions you take are with cards, whether repairing, attacking, blocking, assisting, recruiting, commanding, damaging, and so on. So inevitably you end up collecting a bunch of blorbos, tactics, and gear...

so it's completely unlike any other wargame in that every player is a sort of mass effect style commander who brings their team of blorbos (including humans and non-transformer aliens), gear, and tactics with them to wreck or charm opponents, lead polities, repair the tolls of war, collect relics, take down enemy leadership, protect each other, complete war goals, along with defending ones own leaders...

which is a very transformers premise, come to think of it, but it also feels a lot like ancient war stories, and very gay equivalent, both because of all that and because well, transformers has been very same-gender love uwu intentionally since 2012 which shows no signs of halting, and hit a gender expansive aspect too (the deckbuilding game so far only has sword arcee and overlord but we are sure more will turn up)... so suffice to say that uh we are glad this is the board game we decided to collect for-

its also a lot cheaper than wargames typically are for army building or what have you, and has a built in cooperative or solo mode if you don't want to fight your friends! for reference the amount of money we've spent on the game to now have a vast number of gal characters who would appear on the board is around the cost of a single Manticore missile tank from a certain grimdark game... (although that series is infamous for being much more expensive than other wargames)

speaking of women:

With the cards we have there are 11 different options for playable characters (the leaders of your decks) who either were introduced as gals (Arcee, Elita-1, Slipstream, and Windblade), have at least one gal iteration (Starscream, Skywarp, Ironhide, and Optimus Prime) or would have been canonized as gals but either that was turned down at the time or character cut from a continuity budget (Ratchet and Jazz respectively). If we had the Dinobot expansion that would put us at 12 since Swoop is a gal in Cyberverse.

also the alt modes are on the flip side, transforming is a key mechanic since you need your alt mode to move around usually (respectively, Ratchet: ambulance, Arcee: sports convertible, Elita-1: sports muscle car, Slipstream: fighter jet, Windblade: VTOL jet, Starscream: fighter jet, Skywarp: fighter jet, Ironhide: van, Optimus Primes: truck without the trailer, Jazz: sports car)

Dunno about you but that's a lot of options who are gals for any board game usually... and they vary vastly in capabilities, for example:

-Arcee (from the core/autobot set simply known as the transformers deck-building game) has a skill lay out that is built around moving quickly and gathering maneuvers to use selectively customize personal prowess while playing cards that, in our experience, tends to defeat/eliminate the most enemy npcs on the board (at least until the war for cybertron expansion). she also has strong synergy with her own npc card and the energy blades whose art of hers held by her from the same set.

On an obscure lore note, since the Matrix of Leadership card can be picked up by anyone who can play 8 power (having the power and the touch here doesn't seem to function on a morality basis but hey it doesn't always do that anyway), if you do it with her you can effectively play Arcana Magnus, which is close to the name that was considered for her if she had won the choose a Prime poll for the Power of the Primes toyline (for which she ran on a platform of giving up her career as a warrior, serving with honor, and focusing on reparations in the aftermath of the Great War)

-Windblade (war for cybertron bonus pack) can boost one of her cards while on a site (because of her cityspeaker thing) and can for 1 energon also teleport to allies / sites (another reference because of titans often having spacebridges, but also she's a flyer), and then draws a card she has card draw... on top of that for 2 energon she can recruit an enemy of 2-4 power so she can recruit from the start of the game without the matrix of leadership (which is the only other way to do this, from the core/autobot set)- so effectively politician Windblade has made it into the cardgame (which was so exciting to us), and she can also move allied players to an adjacent space when switching to alt mode, her team versatility is very different from Ironhide who is all about focusing on blocking attacks for teammates, or Ratchet who doles out assists and repairs like no tomorrow (this also uniquely positions Ratchet to defend friendly Autobot bosses)

-Slipstream (war for cybertron) is the first real starter sniper/gunship of the lot, she can give her starter cards +1 range and can also battle enemies not in her space with +2 range and +2 power which makes her a killer to rival arcee, and has card draw or can self heal 2 damage and in alt mode can choose a card from her discard to put on top of her deck so she is the deck engine blorbo (insert blue/red deck joke here)

-Elita-1 (war for cybertron) on the other hand has a sort of turn by turn engine because when she recruits an autobot they go on top of the deck for the next turn, so she can determine her next turn draw, and also can boost autobot cards- and most importantly, for each autobot she controls on the field in play, she can deal 1 damage to a target character, so um... Elita can completely mess up enemy players/teams, if she has five Autobots played on a turn she can hit someone in the same space as her for 5 damage... which means -10 points at the end of the game if not repaired! she is a menace even compared to the Decepticons in other other sets because of the amount of damage she can deal mid-late game. If one wants to reimplement the core game co-op/solo rule of a team loses when a character takes 5 damage, but instead do it as the player is taken out until getting at least a damage repaired (for the record we came up with this variant, but otherwise it's a death by a thousand cuts situation where you can keep racking up damage), this makes Elita extremely dangerous for shutting down opponents and also the ideal Autobot wielder of the Star Saber, since that card is in part for dealing damage to other players

-Skywarp (infiltration protocol bonus pack) on the other hand is all about scouting (Jazz from the autobot/core game bonus pack is even more so), utility, disruption, able to teleport upon transforming to altmode, flipping adjacent regions' cards face-up when playing a starter card for the first time on a turn, and able to either cause a friend to discard a hand and draw again -1 (which is handy if your pal does not like their hand and especially if they know what cards are next), or can do the same thing to an opponent to try to mess up their next turn or defensive actions they might take

-Optimus Prime's War for Cybertron variant is the strategic counterpart to her own (for clarification, Transformers Universe Optimus Prime and Yellow Splendid Convoy are she/her Optimi) autobot/core game card autobot card boosting and card draw/blcok capabilities and to Elita-1's guerrilla cqc style: this Optimus can block an attack from anywhere in the field against any player, while having the ability to draw a lot of cards or just build up victory points while on a polity

-Starcream actually has interesting counterplay to Elita in that she (she was a gal in the French dub of TFTM) can spend energon to give 1 damage dealt to her to a target player anywhere... and aside from this can also can battle Decepticons allies to gain their defeat rewards instead of adding them to her deck. Very Starscream

Some reviews of the game said it is lackluster with the lack of energon utility and having a lot near the end of the game- a rule was implemented in War for Cybertron capping the amount of energon one can have to 12, and also another rule (unsure if this was a rule before) established that cards spent to fight people could not have their move points be used after, so the game is now significantly more difficult hehe

We've played it a bunch of times with friends prior to acquiring War for Cybertron, it is easily one of our favorite games not just because of the intentionally queer-coded alien robots' art and personalities being all over the game, but also because the dynamic card synergy is enjoyable and the bosses can really mess you up if one doesn't have the right build. We aren't getting into this because we'd be here all day but the npc's personalities are certainly there: e.g. well known for her martial artist bodyguard iteration, Chromia (war for cybertron) helps players to gather maneuvers and to buff them in combat/diplomacy, along with having significant move and combat/recruiting capabilities herself (this could, for example, help Windblade collect combat and scouting cards, or enable Arcee to be even more deadly). There's other things we haven't tried yet, the Infiltration Protocol expansion comes with the eponymous six phases of Decepticon resource extraction invasion from IDW1 as a playable mode, and the bonus pack (which we have tried) came with Metroplex (who is an Autobot boss location rather than playable card), and also has a 1 vs team mode where the solo player is buffed significantly

anyway, we had to ramble about it because this game is cool as hell

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zedecksiew · 3 months

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How To Play The Revolution

So: I do not like the idea of TTRPGs making formal mechanics designed to incentivise ethical play.

But, to be honest, I do not like the idea of any single game pushing any particular formal mechanics about ethical play at all.

So here I am, trying to think through the reasons why, and proposing a solution. (Sort of. A procedure, really.)

Assumptions:

Some genres of game resist ethical play. A grand strategy game dehumanises people into census data. The fun of a shooter is violence. This is truest in videogames, but applies to tabletop games also.

Games can question their own ethics, to an extent. Terra Nil is an anti-city-builder. But it is a management game at heart, so may elide critiques of "efficiency = virtue".

Not all games should try to design for ethical play. I believe games that incentivise "bad" behaviour have a lot to teach us about those behaviours, if you approach them with eyes open.

The systems that currently govern our real lives are terrible: oligarchy, profit motive; patriarchy, nation-states, ethno-centrisms. They fuel our problems: class and sectarian strife, destruction of climate and people, spiritual desertification.

They are so total that the aspiration to ethical behaviour is subsumed by their logics. See: social enterprise; corpos and occupying forces flying rainbow flags; etc.

Nowadays, when I hear "ethical", I don't hear "we remember to be decent". I hear "we must work to be better". Good ethics is radical transformation.

If a videogame shooter crosses a line for you, your only real response is to stop playing. This is true for other mechanically-bounded games, like CCGs or boardgames.

In TTRPGs, players have the innate capability to act as their own referees. (even in GM-ed games adjudications are / should be by consensus.) If you don't like certain aspects of a game, you could avoid it---but also you could change it.

Only in TTRPGs can you ditch basic rules of the game and keep playing.

So:

D&D's rules are an engine for accumulation: more levels, more power, more stuff, more numbers going up.

If you build a subsystem in D&D for egalitarian action, but have to quantify it in ways legible to the game's other mechanical parts---what does that mean? Is your radical aspiration feeding into / providing cover for the game's underlying logics of accumulation?

At the very least it feels unsatisfactory---"non-representative of what critique / revolution entails as a rupture," to quote Marcia, in conversations we've been having around this subject, over on Discord.

How do we imagine and represent rupture, to the extent that the word "revolution" evokes?

My proposal: we rupture the game.

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How To Play The Revolution

Over the course of play, your player-characters have decided to begin a revolution:

An armed struggle against an invader; overturning a feudal hierarchy; a community-wide decision to abandon the silver standard.

So:

Toss out your rule book and sheets.

And then:

Keep playing.

You already know who your characters are: how they prefer to act; what they are capable of; how well they might do at certain tasks; what their context is. You and your group are quite capable of improv-ing what happens next.

Of course, this might be unsatisfactory; you are here to play a TTRPG, after all. Structures are fun. Therefore:

Decide what the rules of your game will be, going forward.

Which rules you want to keep. Which you want to discard. Jury-rig different bits from different games. Shoe-horn a tarot deck into a map-making game---play that. Be as comprehensive or as freeform as you like. Patchwork and house-rule the mechanics of your new reality.

The god designer will not lead you to the revolution. You broke the tyranny of their design. You will lead yourself. You, as a group, together. The revolution is DIY.

+++

Notes:

This is mostly a thought experiment into a personal obsession. I am genuinely tempted to write a ruleset just so I can stick the above bit into it as a codified procedure.

I am tickled to imagine how the way this works may mirror the ways revolutions have played out in history.

A group might already have alternative ruleset in mind, that they want to replace the old ruleset with wholesale. A vanguard for their preferred system.

Things could happen piecemeal, progressively. Abandon fiat currency and a game's equipment price list. Adopt pacifism and replace the combat system with an alternative resolution mechanic. As contradictions pile up, do you continue, or revert?

Discover that the shift is too uncomfortable, too unpredictable, and default back to more familiar rules. The old order reacting, reasserting itself.

I keep returning to this damn idea, of players crossing thresholds between rulesets through the course of play. The Revolution is a rupture of ethical reality like Faerie or the Zone is a rupture in geography.

But writing all this down is primarily spurred by this post from Sofinho talking about his game PARIAH and the idea that "switching games/systems mid-session" is an opportunity to explore different lives and ethics:

Granted this is not an original conceit (I'm not claiming to have done anything not already explored by Plato or Zhuangzi) but I think it's a fun possibility to present to your players: dropping into a parallel nightmare realm where their characters can lead different lives and chase different goals.

Jay Dragon tells me she is already exploring this idea in a new game, Seven Part Pact:

"the game mechanics are downright oppressive but also present the capacity to sunder them utterly, so the only way to behave ethically is to reject the rules of the game and build something new."

VINDICATION! If other designers are also thinking along these lines this means the idea isn't dumb and I'm not alone!

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( Images:

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/developer-diary/victoria-3-dev-diary-23-fronts-and-generals.1497106/

https://www.thestranger.com/race/2017/04/05/25059127/if-you-give-a-cop-a-pepsi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames

https://nobonzo.com/

https://pangroksulap.com/about/ )

#theory #ttrpgs #politics #revolutions #proposals #pariah

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invadergia · 2 months

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@mychlapci @lurkerintheabyss

Saw the post about cybertronians laying eggs and had to try writing this. Please go follow them if you're not already. :D

Vehicon Steve

First story attempt

I don't know all the cybertronian terms for things so sorry

Sorry if there are spelling mistakes

------NSFW UNDER-------

Tfp Steve and a plane

Steve was struggling today on the nemesis. He had been going through a rather rough heat this time and it was getting in the way of his work.

Sure Steve was able to keep it under control for a bit, but each time he did it was always coming back stronger, and stronger, and stronger. A few times Steve had to hold in his overload as commander Starscream walked past him in the hallways.

Steve couldn't take this much longer, his heat was getting stronger, his armor feeling heavy. He needed to do something about it. He needed just a good fragging to finally get it out of his system.

At that exact moment his team was called by commander starscream that his squad was to go out on a scouting mission for materials shockwave required. Steve rushed up to the flight deck transforming to head out with his team.

When they arrived at the location Steve seen it was another military base, the vehicons quickly raided the base wanting to get this over with and returned to there secret games aboard the nemesis. But Steve felt like he was on autopilot. Steve couldn't get his head to focus. He was stumbling around the base carrying only a few scraps of metal in his hands.

Steve stumbled into a open hanger looking up to see a few humans running out of the building, but Steve didn't care. All Steve could see was the beautiful, stunning F-22. Steve couldn't look away, it was perfect.

Steve dropped the scrap in his hands stumbling over to the jet. He gently placed his hand on the sides of the cockpit gently rubbing his hands down it's side and onto it's wings. He could have sworn he seen it trembling but it was probably just him.

Steve slowly made his way around the aircraft gently rubbing along it's wings and teasingly rubbing a finger or two into it's thrusters. Steve could feel his heat rising and a tingling sensation running up his back with every touch he gave.

Steve soon made his way to the back of the aircraft seeing the perfect little hatch for a plug of sorts, in his mind atlases. Steve gave a teasing touch to the opening feeling around before sinking his fingers into the port finding the inside to be quite soft.

Steve practically melted at the felling wanting to just get his charge down and deal with his heat. Steve looked around seeing a few cans of oil, grabbing them he slowly poured some onto his finger and onto the port slowly thrusting his long sharp fingers into the soft inside of the jet. Steve began moving his fingers faster coating the inside with oil before slipping his finger out and placing his hand on his modesty panel.

Slowly transforming the panel away Steve's spike pressurized fully his left hand grabbed the oil can bring it above his spike letting the oil drip down into it. He gently grabbed his spike in his other hand gently stroking his spike covering it in the oil.

Steve moaned softly as he prepared his spike, he craved release and he was to far in to stop now he leaned forward pinning the jet underneath him.

Steve took a deep breath before slowly thrusting into the jet he moaned again as he slowly began to thrust his hips forward gently thrusting in and out of the jets port. Oh primus he needs this bad. Steve gently strokes the jets wings gently rubbing into the little seams along it's wings and barrel.

Steve pumped his hips faster thrusting deeper into the tight port of the jet. He just needed a little more. As Steve thrusts into the jet harder his spike pushed deeper and deeper into the internals of the jet pressing hard into the systems inside the engine began to stir awake sending a strong vibration into the sensitive nodes on Steve's spike.

Steve moans out as he feels the vibrating insides of the jet hitting all the right places. He was so close now his hips on autopilot as he pounds into the jet without warning Steve screamed out as he overloaded into the jet filling the tight space full of his transfluid and eggs, thrusting in a few more times before sliding his spike out with a wet pop.

Steve felt so good basking in his afterglow, but his charge was still high, he needed more.

Agent Fowler hated when the cons made these smash and grab missions they always caused a lot of property damage. Not to mention his superiors were breathing down his neck from the last one. Agent Fowler walked around the base surveying and logging the damage caused by the cons until he noticed a stream of blue liquid coming from one of the hangers. He slowly stepped inside only to blush slightly at the sight but more or less he was terrified and slightly discussed by the sight.

There in the hanger was a F-22 jet covered in transfluid, energon, and other cybertronian fluids he didn't wanna know about but next to it was a giant vehicon trooper one of the countless troopers for Megatron himself. Agent Fowler knew they could be dangerous at times but this one was gently cuddling the aircraft, nuzzling it as if he was... it suddenly clicked in Fowler's head what had happened when he seen the trooper had his spike out not fully pressurized but still very noticeable for a human.

Fowler took notes of the damage to the aircraft quietly seeking around the death machine seeing the fluids leaking out of the cockpit, tail, turbines, and many other places. Agent Fowler had seen enough and stared heading back when he here a wet splat from behind him, slowly turning around he seen... was that an egg!?!? The vehicon slowly woke up gently grabbing the egg and sliding it back inside of the turbine before snuggling closer to the jet with a low hum.

Fowler quickly left feeling a headache coming on from having to explain what he had just seen to team prime and his superiors.

#transformers #transformers prime #tfp steve #first story #eggs #valveplug #macaddam

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mirakurutaimu · 3 months

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Opinion on Ral Zarek now being an Otter in both meanings of the word?

rant time i talked about this on Twitter a bit yesterday but it's so fucking stupid. like it's kinda cute that Bloomburrow has the kingdom hearts lion king world "if you go here you're an animal while you're here" thing, but also the only thing we were really told about Bloomburrow leading up to it was "there will be no humans on the plane". so we're all like oh shit, cool, sounds like it's gonna be its own unique thing without a bunch of Dudes You Know in it since there's no humans in it, right? we can finally escape the cycle of banal, tropey sets that are mostly just "Characters From Magic's History Dress Up In Costumes" (MKM, Cowpokez, NEO, Capenna) but nope. of course not. if you planeswalk/omenpath to bloomburrow, you turn into a furry! now watch them sell secret lair packs of fur-tfed planeswalkers, because of course every set needs to be a vehicle for a bunch of stupid gimmicky Products™️ they can sell to gamers with extremely loose wallets

oh, yeah, and alongside this announcement was that they're cutting off printing of portuguese cards. it's not the Biggest deal since I've heard firsthand in non-English speaking countries that they usually just end up using the English cards anyways (gee I wonder if this has anything to do with the globalization of American culture lol no problems there). but they only decided to cut off the printing of portuguese (and simplified chinese) cards because they're facing a 2% drop in profits this year... because of all the stupid royalty fees they're paying on their dumbass Universes Beyond crossover bullshit lol

i've loved Magic since i started playing in high school, but as of late that love has been waning a good bit. the game is so bogged down by corporate product shilling bullshit. every card needs 900 alternate arts. 900 alternate borders. every set needs a hideous alternate card treatment. every set needs 56 different kinds of booster packs. no more Block-format releases, no more core sets, just products, products, products, products.

i used to be a big fan of Commander/EDH, but ever since it really caught on and Wizards/Hasbro decided "well, this is the most popular gamemode, we now need to design the entire game around it" and it kinda completely ruined commander imo. what was once a gamemode about running weird, niche interactions and building something with a unique flavor or playstyle now boils down to "well, just pick one of the 92849634796782435678 legendary creatures they've been printing for the past few years and run all these extremely pushed commander staples they keep printing" and it just ain't fun anymore. gotta sit down at the table and look at entire Doctor Who decks and Transformers cards and Tomb Raider cards and etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc. Commander tables are just fucking billboards now lmao

it's very clear WOTC/Hasbro has no idea what to do now that they did the Giant Multiverse-Ending Threat of the Phyrexians in All Will Be One. much like the marvel movie franchise which MTG has been so emulating for years now (AND HAS EVEN SIGNED A FUCKING CROSSOVER DEAL WITH AS OF LAST YEAR, SEE YOU IN 2025 THANOS COMMANDER DECK), we're at the period where they're just throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks, twiddling their thumbs with these boring, tropey sets, all the while drowning players in a deluge of alternate arts, secret lairs, crossovers, etc. a common complaint among magic's playerbase is that nowadays they're literally selling too much shit. preview/teasers season for one set will immediately be followed by previews and teasers for another set. there's no time for anything to breathe it's just buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy buy.

youtube

anyways stop giving hasbro money, print proxies and play magic for free :)

#don't forget final fantasy cards coming next year!#askmi #sorry for busting out my rantsona voice #like all other things mtg is ruined by money

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a-thread-of-green · 4 months

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I have two commander decks. One is blue-green, led by Vorel of the Hull Clade, and focused around building up as many +1/+1 counters as possible on a single evasive creature. I love it on a philosophical level because all the art and flavor text is about the freedom and power of bodily transformation and, as a trans woman in the early stages of feminizing my body through hormones, I jive with that.

The other is a white-green, led by Sythis, Harvest's Hand, and focused around buffing creatures with auras, with a sub-theme of token generation. I love it on an aesthetic level because all the art is of elves and dryads and lady-knights, with a sprinkling of cute fey creatures, and it's all very lush and cottage core and divine-feminine, so basically my transition-goal mood-board as a commander deck.

I told all of this to a friend from my commander pod as I tried to decide which one to bring to our next game night, and after I got through all that florid description, he asked me, "Well, which one is better?" And that's when I had to admit that, in terms of actually winning the game, they're both utter shit.

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hometoursandotherstuff · 2 years

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Former Dairy Farm turned into a mansion in Dartmouth, Massachusetts. And, the exterior still looks like the original barn. ($2.29M) Let’s look at this unique home.

The main entrance hall.

The home has lots of wonderful angles and balconies. Plus lots of wood. Interesting pattern of lights in the ceiling, too.

The very open kitchen features Shaker Cabinetry.

This is an aerial view of the island.

The fireplace is massive.

And double-sided.

This reproduction Victorian bar is fabulous, isn’t it?

Some of the more interestingly-shaped ceilings are done in wood.

The barn has 2 silos, so there are 6 round silo rooms. Love how they made this one into a pantry and installed rounded cabinets.

A potting room/green house. Love that. The house is so empty, can you picture this filled with greenery?

Lovely stone walls and curved doorways.

The main bd. is gigantic, and has a matching stone fireplace.

The en suite has facing sinks. I’ve never seen anything like that.

The game room has a small kitchenette.

At the very end of the building is a guest house.

Lovely breezeway.

Plus a massive garage.

You could do so much when decorating this home. And. look at the 2 roof top decks.

https://www.priceypads.com/former-gulf-hill-dairy-farm-transformed-into-2-29m-mansion-in-dartmouth-massachusetts/?

#converted dairy farm #historic dairy farm conversion #architecture #old house dreams #mansions #long post

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mattcraft · 4 months

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Oh goodie!! Ok so-

Tango, right? Guy whos basically a Looney Tunes character irl? This guy?

When he started to make Decked Out 2, he changed his skin to this-

-and kinda became the “dungeon master” right?

What if it wasn’t just a cosmetic change. What if that was due to the Deep Frost Citadel itself.

(Cont. under the cut bc it gets Long)

As someone who loves any kind of “the thing that usually isn’t alive *is alive*” story, I am giving that treatment to the Citadel because I cannot be stopped <3

What if when the hermits arrived to season 9, the castle was already there. When Tango found it, he had asked if it belonged to anyone or if someone had built it. No one claimed it as their own, so Tango decided to move in and make it his base for the season.

He doesn’t get too far in making it his own when he starts hearing voices and whispers seemingly coming from nowhere but only existing within the Citadels walls. It’s nothing much at first but as time goes on it grows into something loud and demanding. It’s the castle itself speaking to Tango through his mind.

Someway, somehow, the Citadel gets Tango to do what it wants. It craves death and bloodshed, so it gets him to dig out and build a dungeon underneath the castle for hermits to die in over and over. He makes a deal with the castle, and disguises it as a game. A sequel to a game he made a few seasons back: Decked Out.

As he begins work on the dungeon, the hermits take notice of changes to Tango whenever he visits the shopping district for supplies that he’s running low on. The tips of his ears and his fingers start to look blue and frostbitten, and his skin feels cold to the touch. His hair, its usual fiery yellow slowly but surely turning blue, begins to stick out more than usual. Sometimes they even notice him shivering, even when it’s the middle of summer. Lots of hermits have periods of time where they go through a change of appearance of sorts, so no one decides to bring it up much, although the dedication to the look is a little worrying.

There are lengths of days to weeks to even months where the hermits don’t see Tango. Some are worried and fly to his castle to check on him, some even trying to get him out every once in a while. They know he’s working on a huge project, but it’s not entirely like him to be going mia like this so often.

As the dungeon nears completion, Tango’s transformation into the Dungeon Master is practically complete. The Citadel offered him a change of clothes to better match his new look- a set of dark robes edged with a shiny blue strip that swirl in intricate designs at the cuffs and back. When the hermits see him now- which is rare- he’s stopped shivering, his red eyes have now changed completely to blue, and sometimes you can see his breath despite it not being cold out.

When the dungeon is finished and Decked Out 2 begins it’s first phase, the Citadel couldn’t be more pleased and demands that Tango take care of the upkeep to the redstone and the monsters that live inside the depths of the castle, as well as continuing to make the dungeon better and better. The Citadel was having too much fun- there would be no way it stopped any time soon.

Some notes I’m not sure where to put either:

When the dungeon resets itself and announces that it’s ready for a new player, turns out thats the castle speaking through Tango letting everyone know it craves More. His eyes glow blue or light up with a blue flame, and his voice gets dark and gravely. This happens sporadically too btw. For fun

Tango promises to the citadel that once the season is over that others will want to play and will sacrifice themselves over many times and that the castle wont go without

The more deaths there are the more the castle ends up building itself out instead of Tango having to do it manually. Areas change, traps get more dangerous, and at one point the entirety of the Burning Dark appears and Tango uses it as incentives for the hermits

The wardens and ravagers in the dungeon are not *hostile* around Tango either, however theyre not NOT hostile, so he still has to watch his step around them. Was able to give them all collars with names on them though, and greets them when no one is running the dungeon every so often

#hermitcraft #tangotek #decked out 2 #hc #mcyt #spk #ive been having so many thoughts #i just drew a dm!tango today while at work :]

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rpgsandbox · 7 months

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The Book of Many Things

Discover startling – but delightful – new content in this reimagined version of the Deck of Many Things.

The Deck of Many Things is a famous DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® magic item whose effects are as spectacular as they are unpredictable. Within this box, you’ll find the Book of Many Things, which illuminates the deck’s mysteries and provides everything Dungeon Masters need to use it in their campaigns. This book includes advice, adventure locations, and new monsters for Dungeon Masters, as well as character options, magic items, and organizations for players, all inspired by the deck.

This set also includes lavishly illustrated cards for the Deck of Many Things, including additional cards that triple the deck’s size, allowing you to build the perfect deck for your campaign. An accompanying guidebook shows how to use the cards as a traditional oracle deck or to create D&D® adventures inspired by the cards.

WILD CARDS FOR YOUR COLLECTION!

Introduce even more magical whimsy into your game with this reimagined version of the Deck of Many Things. In addition to the 22 cards in the original Deck of Many Things, discover 44 startling – but delightful – new cards that only add to the randomness. Substitute these wild cards into your deck however you please for the perfect blend of curated chaos.

INSPIRATION FOR PERFECT CHAOS.

Creativity can’t be forced, but the Deck of Many Things provides just enough unpredictability to spark that lighting in a bottle moment. From new adventure hooks and key locations to inventive new ways to determine random encounters, Dungeon Masters have all the ingredients to build perfect chaos into their campaigns. Together with your party, craft dramatic experiences, experience startling twists, and delight in unexpected moments of brilliance.

YOUR DESTINY IS IN THE CARDS!

Do you dare to change your destiny? Transform your fate with 2 new player backgrounds, where drawing from the deck has either rewarded you with a miraculous turn of good fortune or ruined you in a single calamitous stroke. Explore arcane possibilities, channeling your magic through a deck of cards and allowing it to flourish with 1 new feat and 3 mystical spells.

THE STORY BEHIND THE MAGIC.

Dive deeper than ever before into the lore behind the beloved magic item in this expanded version of the Deck of Many Things. How did the Deck of Many Things come to be? What is the significance of one baneful figure depicted in the cards? The answers you seek – and more – will be revealed for the first time ever.

The Book of Many Things, a 192-page hardcover book for players and Dungeon Masters alike, inspired by the Deck of Many Things

The Deck of Many Things, expanded to a total of 66 unique cards

An 80-page hardcover guidebook showcasing each card in the expanded deck

Sturdy custom box to store the guidebook and all 66 cards, with lavishly illustrated art backs and new artwork

D&D Beyond digital copy of The Book of Many Things

Available 14th November 2023, or pre-order on D&D Beyond now.

#RPG #Dungeons and Dragons #deck of many things #Wizards of the Coast #gaming news

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goqmir · 4 months

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2023's additions to your magic the gathering interaction suite: trinkit's top five control pieces you should be playing now!

There's been a lot of interesting and delightful removal and counterspell cards printed in 2023, and as a sendoff to the year as your resident control player i'd love to talk about the new cards that i'm playing in my interaction-heavy commander decks :) this takes the form of a countdown list because it's fun and clickbaity and consumable but every card on this list is fun new (largely spell-based) interaction i have played with in commander decks and recommend you give a try!

starting off with our honorable mention: Invasion of New Capenna! while not a card i feel i can recommend in just any deck, this plays so well in Incubate-heavy decks, which is one of my favorite new mechanics introduced this year! this card is an auto-include in Brimaz, Blight of Oreskos, which has been a favorite deck of mine this year. Two mana exile removal on either artifact or creature, which you can easily sac a white dork (or untapped incubate token!) for the casting cost. furthermore, Invasion of New Capenna (inky for short) is the only battle i have ever transformed-- it's legitimately very good as a typal equipment (especially for incubate phyrexian tokens!). if you have an orzhov tokens deck this likely flew under your radar and i'd recommend giving it a shot :)

number 5 on the list is Cyber Conversion, a new blue staple removal piece. if you're in white or black, you'd be hard pressed to add Cyber Conversion over the other available options-- but this measures up very, very well against the other blue options! it's incredibly playable, allowing for niche interactions, preventing commanders from going back to the command zone until they can kill the cyberman, getting past indestructible (difficult in mono blue!), and generally being a cute little card. @devilkittydeckbuilding is more hype on this card than i am, so feel free to send it an ask about its favorite niche Cyber Conversion interaction, it can easily be the best option in a lot of scenarios. a Witness Protection at instant speed feels very good in hand.

number 4 is my personal favorite new interaction piece, Bronzebeak Foragers! this is like if a Oblivion Ring did everything you wanted it to-- and i already adore Oblivion Ring effects :3

Bronzebeak makes its appearance in so many of my games, and it constantly pulls its weight. it's a Grasp of Fate you can block with, it's a Fiend Hunter you can junk the exile with, it's a Banisher Priest that gains you life. this might be simultaneously one of the nonlegendary cards i have cast the most in the last couple months and the one that's pulled its weight the best. it's a body, it hits nonland permanents, it hits every opponent, it can junk the item, it can gain you life! what more do you need <3

where Bronzebeak tends to overperform is in my Oloro, Ageless Ascetic control deck, where junking a card with its activated ability gains you life, which you can use to draw a card with Oloro! every part of the card feels really good, especially in dedicated control decks-- you should play this card.

3rd on our list is a delightful card I adore slotting into every nonblue deck I can fit it in-- Reprieve!

Reprieve feels good to play. returning to hand is obviously not going to save you the game every time, but it does in a very good number of them :3 and the little extra bits they added to the card to supplement it feel wonderful too-- letting you cantrip it makes it feel so much better to slot in to your interaction suite, and the fact that it bypasses "cannot be countered" (especially when it's used to send back an uncounterable game-ending Thassa's Oracle) is very niche but feels so fucking good when it comes into play.

i've been building a lot of red/white decks lately (i've been on a bit of a mardu kick :3) and i tend to play reprieve alongside Lapse of Certainty and Tibalt's Trickery (and Red Elemental Blast sometimes) as a very delightful to resolve boros counterspell suite which has been incredibly fun.

#2 is Guff Rewrites History!

they've really been pushing removal lately.

hitting each opponent at the table is really. really good. maybe a bit better than wotc is giving it credit for at the moment-- because the table tends to shake when you resolve Guff Rewrites History for the low cost of three mana.

first of all, the rules text on this card doesn't really convey right away that you are basically sacking any random token for a cascade trigger for any cmc. I don't actually play GRH (pronounced as a dog barking growl "grrrh!!!" when at a table of trans girls) outside of decks that provide me with solid sac fodder-- it's performed for me recently mostly by sacking food tokens in my Rocco, Street Chef and 1/1 humans in my Silvar & Trynn. so that's the first boon-- minimal cost cascade in a deck that's built around it.

second, you hit nonenchantment, nonland for /each player/ which is an insane trick for red to get. this might be one of the best feeling interaction spells i've ever resolved. this thing pulls its weight and then some-- sac a token to it as soon as you can.

the best interaction piece of the year is not a particularly exciting one nor a surprising one-- Stroke of Midnight.

i like Stroke. it does the thing. it's cute! cinderella's silly moment :3 what if Generous Gift couldn't hit lands (not a big deal) and in return the token it gives them is way, way, way worse (a big deal!)

this is a pretty easy addition to any deck. it's nonland permanent, it's minimal downsides, it's instant speed, three mana-- what more do you want?

here's hoping for a fox themed boros removal spell 2024 <3

#mtg #magic the gathering

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catiecat1320 · 5 months

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New Fic!!

This one’s a Secret Santa gift. Their one wish was for angst. A lot of angst.

⚠️Warning for character death!⚠️ It’s not graphic or anything but [redacted] still dies, soooo…

Read below the cut ⬇️

If Shadow had known what would happen, he would’ve never done such a thing. Wouldn’t have ever thought of it— he shouldn’t have thought of it at all, regardless of what happened after.

Perhaps he was a hypocrite.

It was all his fault.

……………………………………………………

It was an accident.

Shadow knew this, yet he couldn’t help the blazing fury that buried itself in his gut. Why did Sonic have to be such a moron?! That cocky, blue, son-of-a-bitch hedgehog just had to go around meddling in everyone’s business and ruining everything!

He… he’d been so close. So close. Then— Chaos, he wished he could just throttle that—

“Shads?”

There was only one person bold enough to call him by a nickname that lame. Shadow growled, hoping that he would go away, but a second later he felt a warm hand on his shoulder. The black hedgehog whipped his head around, crimson eyes piercing emerald, and jerked away.

“Woah! Geez, take a chill pill.” Sonic huffed, his breath visible in the chill air. “What’s wrong?”

“Gee, I wonder.” Shadow spat, baring his fangs at the hero. “Oh, maybe it’s what happened this morning!”

Sonic reacted with no more than a twitch of his face at the comment, as if it had been nothing important at all. “Dude,” he started, taking another step closer, only to be cut off by Shadow.

“Do NOT ‘dude’ me, faker. Do you even know what you did?”

The confusion that settled on Sonic’s face as he tried to recall told Shadow everything he needed to know. “You don’t. Of course you don’t. What did I expect?”

“Shads—”

“My name is Shadow.”

“Shadow. Look, I… I’m sorry I made you upset—”

“‘Upset’ is an understatement. I hate you with every fiber of my being.”

Sonic frowned, his fingers doing a nervous tap dance on his elbow. “Okay, why— sorry, what random nerve did I touch this time? What happened?”

“If you don’t know, I can't help you.” Shadow snarled in response. Without another word, he sped off, rocket skates flaring as he slid down the icy hill. He hoped to lose the other hedgehog, but Sonic clearly had other ideas as he gave chase.

Sadly, the blue blur had always been just a little faster than Shadow, as much as he hated to admit it. Sonic eventually caught up in their impromptu race, trying and failing to talk with the sheer speed tearing apart any sound he made. Could he not see that Shadow wanted to be left alone? He was practically pleading to get decked.

A few moments more of this game of cat-and-mouse caused Shadow to snap. Scratch trying to clear his head. Sonic isn’t , nor will be, letting up— that much was clear. Well, fine. He’d share a few choice words with the idiot, since he wanted it sooo badly.

Shadow abruptly turned around, grabbing Sonic by the shoulders and slamming him into the ground. “This is all just a game to you, isn’t it? You think it’s just harmless fun.” He spat, the bitter malice in his voice surprising even himself. “You play the hero and inflate your ego, basking in the limelight and not caring about what you leave behind.”

“What do you mean?” Sonic grunted, flipping Shadow off him and getting up, dodging furious punches.

“You know exactly what I mean. You just don’t care.” Shadow sneered, letting his barriers break. Pent up frustration and disappointment morphed into anger, fueling the fire that now burned openly. His fist caught the hero’s jaw with a crack, causing him to stumble and giving Shadow the opening to kick him firmly in the gut. “People got hurt. Hospitalized. Things were burned, shattered, destroyed in that building, and you turn tail and run off without a second thought. The fastest thing alive can’t be bothered to clean up his own messes, apparently.”

“I… I didn’t know.” Sonic whispered, distraught. He dizzily sidestepped Shadow’s chaos spear. “I was focused on… the badniks—”

“Something you should’ve gotten rid of a long time ago.” Shadow retorted. “But you’re too busy going off on adventures.” Both hedgehogs were out of breath by now, clouds of mist puffing out with every breath. The reasons for both, however, were very different: Sonic had gotten it knocked out of him, figuratively and literally; Shadow had spent all his breath screaming. “I was in that building, Sonic. It nearly came down. But do you care?”

“I—”

“What would make you care? Does someone important to you have to die before you come down Earth? What if… what if it had been Tails, huh? Would you finally realize your stupidity then?”

That was low. Shadow realized as soon as those words left his mouth— there was nothing that Sonic cared for more than his friends. Not even himself. But he faltered at that, and the black hedgehog took the chance to lunge, the thought disintegrating.

The both of them went tumbling, and Shadow ended up on top, pinning the other firmly to the ground. It was completely unnecessary, anyhow— the “hero” didn’t seem very keen on escaping.

“Next time,” Shadow continued after a moment, his voice low. He glared at Sonic with bloody ruby eyes, hoping that his message would finally get through that thick skull of his. “Remember what’s around you. And when someone gets hurt because of your idiotic actions, make sure it’s you.”

Then he warped away, unaware of the single tear that traced down Sonic’s face, that which was etched with a wounded expression of acknowledgement.

……

Miles away, in a luxurious apartment above the dazzling Club Rouge, Shadow reappeared in a flash of light. What would scare the wits out of most people had become customary in this unconventional household, and the bat barely glanced up from her spot on the couch. “Welcome back, hun. Are you feeling better?”

“No.” Shadow growled, the lingering anger from his fight beginning to wane, leaving just exhaustion. Rouge pursed her lips, looking the scruffed up ultimate lifeform over.

“You ran into Sonic.” She stated, not as a question but as a fact. It wasn’t too hard to guess— after all, there’s no one else that cracked the stoic Shadow— in more ways than one— as much as his archrival.

“He ran into me.” Shadow huffed in response. Rouge shook her head, chuckling to herself.

“I assume you two had another lover’s spat?”

Brilliant crimson glared daggers at Rouge, who was unfazed. “He is NOT my ‘lover!’ I can’t stand him.”

“Sure thing, hun,” the bat laughed. “So explain why your muzzle suddenly matches your stripes.”

“I… Shut up!” Shadow yelled, his voice cracking. He was in no mood to deal with Rouge’s bullshittery. Storming up to his room and slamming the door, he collapsed beside the bed and buried his face into his arms, breathing heavily.

Why was everything going wrong today?

He didn’t know how long he stayed like that. He might have even fallen asleep at some point— he didn’t know. But he remembers when Rouge knocked on the door and came in (without permission), and sat down beside him.

“Hey. I’m sorry,” she started softly. “Are you feeling alright?”

Shadow lifted his head and shook his hand at her. So-so.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

He didn’t answer, instead turning away. Rouge sighed. She was hoping he would open up; not that she expected much. She tried a different tactic. “Well, I heard the paper files from the ARK were destroyed today, but they probably had digital or backup ones. That’s what you were looking for, right?”

That caught Shadow’s attention. The hedgehog perked up immediately— because it was. Not that he’d tell anyone (but Rouge was smart enough to know), but he’d been digging through just about everything to find the records from the ARK, a piece of his past, and it just so happened that the building that held them got torn apart. He thought they were gone, but Rouge’s words sparked hope— and regret.

Shadow slumped once more, the harsh words he’d shouted with such misplaced fury earlier grating on his ears. “Rouge, I… I yelled at Sonic. For destroying those. It was an accident— not even his fault! He was trying to help. And I lashed out at him for it… I-I think… I went too far.”

Rouge patted his arm gently. It wasn’t exactly uncommon for Shadow to act without thinking. “It’s alright. I’m sure he’ll understand.”

“Really?”

“Of course. You know him. Now come on, let’s get started on those files. You can apologize the next time he comes around.”

Shadow nodded. “Okay…Thanks, Rouge.”

“No problem.”

……………………………………………………

“What happened?”

Shadow looked up from the computer quizzically, deep in everything they’d dug out of government files. Rouge stood in the doorway, phone in hand, barely concealed worry written on her face. “Two weeks ago. You… Tails, I’ll call you back.” The bat said, promptly hanging up. She took a breath before continuing. “You came home after fighting with Sonic. Shadow, what happened exactly? What did you say?”

“Is that really important?” Shadow winced, mentally shoving the resurfacing memory down. “What’s going on?”

“He’s gone off the radar. It’s Christmas Eve, and no one has seen nor heard from him since you—”

Shadow didn’t hear the rest of her sentence. He’d already dashed out, heart pounding, rocket skates leaving a trail of slush in the freshly fallen snow.

……

Rouge frantically pinged Shadow’s communicator, but he didn’t bother to answer— instead turning the thing off— too wrapped up in his thoughts as he sped through crisp, pale scenery. It can’t be that hard to spot a speck of blue against it all, right?

Sonic was known to disappear for days at a time, doing who-knows-what. But two weeks was a record without any word, for as much as Shadow knew, plus the blue hedgehog always returned for special occasions. And what more occasional than a white Christmas?

There was definitely something going on. Something bad.

Shadow had a sinking feeling that it was caused by himself.

Harsh words reverberated in his skull, his mind having handily retrieved them from the back of his Things To Forget pile.

Where was that idiot?

……

He must’ve searched through half the country before catching a glimpse of the blue blur trudging through some inconspicuous woods, heading somewhere in deep. Shadow grumbled in annoyance as he changed direction and chased after Sonic. So he was okay, just ignoring all of his friends.

A closer look, however, told a slightly different story. The hero’s lithe frame was marred by neglected scrapes and bruises of unknown origin, and Shadow could see, both from the rise and fall of his chest and the puffs that left his lips, that his breathing was labored. Shadow’s brow furrowed with concern. What happened?

Before the black hedgehog had a chance to call out to him, Sonic slowed, his ears flicking, likely picking up on the sound of snow crunching under metal shoes. Then he turned around.

“Shadow.”

Shadow decided that he’d prefer one of his nicknames right then. It was unnerving to hear his name, partnered with an uncharacteristically serious expression, come out of Sonic’s mouth. But of course he didn’t say that. “Where have you been?” He asked instead.

“Places. Does it concern you?”

Yeah, this— this whole thing— was unnerving. Shadow couldn’t put his finger on why. “I… It’s Christmas Eve. You’ve been gone for two weeks. Your friends are looking for you.”

“Oh.” Sonic responded, much less of a reaction than Shadow had been expecting “Tell them I won’t be there. I’ve got things to do.”

And he ran. The little bitch ran off before Shadow could get another word in, causing him to stiffen in frustration. What—

That’s when it struck him. Sonic was acting just like him. It seemed as if the events from two weeks prior were playing out with them on opposite sides.

In an ironic twist of fate, that left Shadow to play the role of annoying, stubborn pain-in-the-butt.

He groaned and chased after Sonic, hoping to catch up before he lost him.

……

Unfortunately, Sonic quickly outpaced Shadow, who did terribly in this kind of terrain. He ended up stumbling blindly through the woods trying to find his blue rival again. Luckily, the “things'' Sonic had to do weren’t exactly quiet. Horrendous screeching of metal and machinery, punctuated by the sound of an explosion, led Shadow to his destination: an abandoned Eggman base. Sonic had clearly wasted no time tearing through the thing, and Shadow followed the trail of destruction out the other side.

Well, maybe abandoned wasn’t the right word. A hoard of beeping badniks surrounded Sonic, their glowing eyes failing to elicit any fear as the hero stared them down with half-lidded eyes. In the absence of shadow-casting trees, the winter sun highlighted the dark bags upon Sonic’s pale muzzle, along with a fresh scratch that he took no notice of. He readied himself into a fighting stance, waiting. Then the first bot attacked— but not at him.

Shadow jumped, the bolt missing his face by only a millimeter— much too close for comfort. Oh, right. He was in enemy territory. He snapped out of his thoughts and shifted gears, spin-dashing the badnik and landing beside Sonic.

But as they fought, Shadow noticed two things: one, Sonic was slower, his attacks not as effective as they usually were. Although, that wasn’t unexpected— Sonic was observably injured, after all. What both worried and frustrated Shadow was number two: most of the time, the two hedgehogs fought side by side in perfect sync. It was like magic, the way they clicked. But this time…

“Stop trying to protect me,” Shadow growls, ducking as Sonic flipped over his head and stomped on a badnik beside him. “I can handle myself.”

“Sure. Like that bot didn’t almost blow your head off earlier.”

Well, at least he got his sass back, Shadow thought, rolling his eyes. “That was one time. Focus on yourself. You’re hurt.”

“Isn’t that what you wanted?!” Sonic snapped, his voice breaking. “Gods, do you hear yourself?”

Shadow stopped dead, the weight of the remark hitting him like a train. Oh. Oh, Chaos. That’s… He didn’t mean… Had Sonic…?

Any words he wanted to say stuck in his throat. Amidst the flurry of frantic thoughts came one which was clear as crystal: You caused this. Whatever Sonic’s been doing to himself is because of you.

“Oh Sonic, you’re a terrible hero.” Sonic drawled in a horrible imitation of Shadow’s voice. “Go fuck yourself over more than you already are.” He delivered a swift kick to a motobug and sent it crashing through the last of the badniks. Emerald eyes brimmed with tears, and one escaped, tracing a path down his cheek.

He’s crying. Chaos, he’s crying. Shadow had never seen Sonic cry before. He wanted it to stop.

But Sonic didn’t stop. “Oh, w-wait, you did what I said. Actually, do this instead,” he shakily continued.

“What do you want from me?! What… What more? I… everyone else is clear. I’ve got to be a hero. The hero. The supposed better person. The light in the dark. The beacon of hope. I… I’ve got to be everything. I can’t— I can’t cry. I want to cry. I shouldn’t be crying. Why am I crying?” He rubbed at his eyes furiously, but the tears just came faster, along with his breaths. Eventually he gave up and looked up at Shadow numbly, face flushed and damp. “What… What am I doing wrong?”

Shadow, who had been standing there like an idiot, speechless, finally found his voice. “Sonic…” he whispered, taking a step forward.

That’s as far as he got.

Because then everything collapsed, all too fast; but at the same time, all too slow.

…A badnik. They’d missed one. Or maybe just didn’t smash it hard enough.

With the last of its artificial life, it fired at Shadow, who, mind reeling from Sonic’s mental breakdown, froze on the spot. His mind screamed at his body to move, but he simply could not react fast enough.

The shot didn’t make it to its target, though.

Because Sonic was there instead.

The bolt punched through the hedgehog, somewhere among his ribcage, then out the other side, bringing a burst of bright red, stark against royal blue.

Sonic collapsed to his hands and knees, taking in a single, sharp breath.

Shadow doesn’t remember screaming.

But he knows he heard it— shocked, terrified, piercing— as he dropped to the ground beside his counterpart.

No, no, no.

Warm blood ate at crystal white snow, melting it into a sickening slush.

Sonic toppled into Shadow, coughing, droplets of red dripping down his chin.

He weakly grabbed at his chest as Shadow frantically turned him over, exposing the worst of it.

It was a gruesome sight, one indescribable, one his memory blurred out.

…Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew then that Sonic wouldn’t make it.

In a twisted way, it both calmed him and panicked him.

He peeled off now blood-soaked gloves, fumbling with his communicator before pressing SOS.

Then he applied pressure to the wound, wincing at Sonic’s pained whimpers.

“Shad… Shadow. Shads.”

Shadow hesitantly looked over.

Sonic’s usually lively emerald eyes were devoid of the spark that Shadow so liked to see. They’d taken on a dull, glassy look, struggling to focus on Shadow’s face.

“Y-you’re… you’re crying,” he mumbled.

Shadow blinked, processing the remark. “That’s… that’s not important!”

Sonic didn’t seem to hear him. “Hmm… you m’kay?”

The sudden question so clearly contrasted the situation at hand that Shadow could help but choke out a bitter laugh. “What? Y-yes. No. I don’t know any more. Why…That sounds like a question I should be asking you?”

“Mmm… ‘m fine. Always fine.” Sonic replied absently, his head lulling to the side. “Sleepy…”

“No!” Shadow yipped, eliciting a disappointed whine from the injured hero. “No. No, no. Stay awake, Sonic. Th-they’ll be here soon. You’ll… you’ll be okay. Okay. Please.”

Sonic shook his head lethargically. “Shadow. I… Don’t cry… hate crying.”

“Sonic. T-that’s not important,” Shadow chokes. He opted to let up on the pressure, which was not doing anything to reduce the bloody puddle that formed beneath the two. Instead, he gently gathered the other in his arms, cradling him against his chest like it would fix everything. “I… earlier you asked what I wanted from you. I need you to stay alive. Please, Sonic, please.”

Sonic blinked, slow, deathly. “Sorry. Can’t… can’t do that,” he whispers, pressing against the patch of fluff, and Shadow sobs in protest.

“No no n-no, Sonic, please. Sonic!”

“Shhh…” Bare paw pads pick up on the sensation of touch, and Shadow realizes that Sonic was grasping his hand. “Shhh… ‘s gonna be okay, Shads. Mhm? ‘Innit funny… this is how— I die… after everything…”

“Y-you’re not going to die, Sonic. You’re not! Sonic, Sonic, Sonic…” Shadow shook him in a desperate attempt to keep him awake. He absently wondered if Sonic could hear his erratic heartbeat as he rambled, straining to pick up on sounds of rescue.

“Sonic, Sonic, please. They’re coming. Just… just hold on. They’ll help you and you’ll be okay and everything’ll be fine. Sonic. Sonic, I-I’ll take you on a vacation, okay? Anywhere you’d like. As a Christmas present! You deserve it. Okay? Don’t die. Don’t die. Don’t die… Sonic?”

No response.

Shadow looked down in panic to find that Sonic’s eyes had drifted closed, a single teardrop belonging to himself trailing down a blue eyelid. “Sonic! Wake up wake up wake up—”

“Mmph… squishing me…” he weakly mumbled. Shadow had never felt more relief in his life as when Sonic shifted in his arms.

But that relief was short-lived.

“Shads… don’t blame yourself, m’kay? ‘S not… ‘s not your fault… not— your fault…” Sonic whispers, his words slurring together. He gave Shadow’s hand a light squeeze. Then his head drooped and he exhaled, shallow, content.

He did not take another breath.

Shadow let out an unholy screech. “S-Sonic! Nononononono Sonic, Sonic y-you’re supposed to be home for Christmas, Sonic, what about your friends?! I… don’t do this to me— please! I’m sorry! Wake up. Please. I need you! I can’t do this again, Sonic. Sonic! I… I love you, Sonic. I love you.” And he did. Shadow confessed, to himself as much as to his lover, something he’d always denied, something which was always true, in a frenzied attempt at the impossible.

It was too late.

Much too late.

On a day that was meant to be joyful, filled with holiday cheer,

A life was lost, and another, shattered beyond repair.

#sonic #sonic the hedgehog #shadow the hedgehog #sonadow #writing #fanfic #fanfiction #ao3 #angst #whump #character death #writers on tumblr #writeblr #oneshot #secret santa #merry christmas #CatieCatWorks

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talenlee · 17 days

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April 2024 Wrapup

The way this month has ended has coloured most of everything else happening within the month, none of which is stuff I consider meaningful content for the blog in general. Suffice to say this is a month in which I was trying to save money and do my best and by the end of the month I am extremely frazzled and uncertain as to how I’m doing what I’m doing. But you didn’t come here for that, you came here for posts! Posts about Spiderman!

Alright let’s dive on into this. What are the Game Pile articles this month?

Examining Gender and Capitalism in Braid. This video got me a comment I liked a lot where a commenter noted that being good at making puzzles doesn’t make you any good at criticising humans’ reactions to puzzles.

Sheriff of Nottingham, a dramatic tension and bluffing game, where players have to construct a language, then lie in it, all with a dash of political manipulation in the form of bribes. A great game in the ‘Anxiety Engine’ model that I like but never am likely to own.

Planetfall and Bioshock Infinite, a long form essay video where I both recapped the basic experience of Bioshock Infinite and brought into contrast the idea that videogames’ ability to affect their audience is directly in contrast to different aesthetic forms.

Gazillionaire, a truly awful looking game that, hilariously, just after I wrote this article I finally played to a victory. Know what happens when you beat the game? The game keeps going and just moves the goal post further.

And then the Story Pile articles?

Hazbin Hotel, a series you should steal about a particularly pre-modern Christian vision of Hell expressed through gnostic mysterio and also the story of a bunch of shockingly hot endearing monster weirdoes.

You Were Never Really Here, which is part of an ongoing series of Positronic Collection movies. This was chosen specifically to mesh with the theme of me, as a person, and it’s kinda eerie how good a job it does at that.

16 Bit Sensation: Another Layer, which is an anime that you might think of as ‘fun’ and ‘good’ and which made me so mad I specifically set aside the time to kick it in the teeth into my April articles.

Oshi no Ko, a series I like just enough to complain about it a bunch. I mean I really like it, and really like complaining about it.

Lords and Ladies, one of the many books I consider one of the best Discworld books. This one’s about elves!

But there’s more! I wrote about a brilliant idiot, in the form of the transformer Wheeljack, and I wrote about my demon boy OC big brother figure, Bael. I wrote about a Magic: The Gathering deck I like and technology in the game I dislike that we’re getting even though I dislike it. I also spent some time reflecting on my current WIP game designs, which I found a lot of fun and want to do more of.

I talk to you a little bit. I talked to you in terms of what I think of you as an audience, I talk to you about creating tension in your writing, and I talked about the way I treat you, and how your time is a gift. I reflected on what it means to be a part of my audience, and whether or not there are things about you I can control. I also encouraged you to make things and show them to me, as a present to me.

There was some world-building talk; I talked about the way planes can be seen and treated as distinct parts of the world, with Planar Lenses, and I also explained a setting element in Cobrin’Seil, a favourite place where the wizards and sorcerers train together but also learn how to swing a hammer. That place, The Laewaes Dramaturgist, also served to talk about the ways that people in universe, in general, discuss the idea of types of spellcasters. While I was on the D&D thread and organisational systems, I dug into the 3rd edition magic item system. While talking about my personal fascinations in D&D, then, I also talked about the druid, and Why Is Druid?

This turning of the years in April, again, does make me think about things I was told about how my life would go. One of the most miserable considerations there was the way I was told that my sex life was going to go, and what that meant and what I should be expecting, all told while we should definitely, definitely not have opinions or expectations for sex. This was told through a metaphor of a jellybean jar.

I noticed that the logo for Hazbin Hotel, the key, looks a bit like the Sonic the Hedgehog winged ring logo and that’s what gave rise to this. Behold! A drawing of two characters with one looking happily at her idiot. You can get it as a sticker, or coasters, or a t-shirt. For example.

I don’t like how much work I got done this month. Obviously, I fear that if I go back and look at all the other posts I made this past year that may be the case. But in the PhD, last month featured a dedicated chunk of work on my literature review, and this month should be the completion of the draft of the methodology. We’re now at the point of getting things onto the page, and as I write this – on the 27th – my birthday has proven to be an impediment for that. Like, turns out that people want to see you on your birthday.

At the late point in the month I devised a new idea for something cool and complicated (and more about that on the Patreon). I have a want to do something cool with a few different systems – a new game mechanical idea, and a push for a kind of video that’s a little easier to make than most.

May has five Fridays in it, and they’re set up so there are going to be three main videos in it, so look forward to that!

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

#Diary

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