#Full Blizzard Mode

[coylesboytoy-moved]

prop hunt game mode is the best decision blizzard has ever made for the game /hj

#overwatch #make it a full time game mode blizzard 🔪

[shuttershocky]

this overwatch 2 shit has GOT to be illegal right? I mean, they sold the game on the promise of PvE and now they cancel it. This better earn them a false advertising charge

And the wildest part is that you can't even play Overwatch 1 anymore.

Anyone who's followed this blog long enough has probably seen me post a rant about how terrible video games are at media preservation, and how we should preserve games (even ones we don't like) to be playable in some manner long after the developers take the servers offline because games are art and deserve to be able to be experienced by the future long after they've been discarded by their makers as a product.

You can't do that anymore with Overwatch 1, a game that wasn't even free to play.

People paid 40$ in 2016, 60$ if they went for the deluxe edition, to play Overwatch. New heroes, maps, etc were promised to come as free updates, instantly accessible for anyone to play without grinding or microtransactions (though there were mtx for cosmetics) and that the game would be supported for many years.

This was one of the many reasons why Overwatch back then absorbed a large part of TF2's playerbase: TF2 had been chugging along since 2007, at the 8-9 year point its updates were winding down and people have accepted it was finally hitting the end of tis life, and were looking for a new cartoon team shooter that would last for years. OW was not TF2's successor and was never intended to be, but that promise of many years of free support was a major part of why people gave it a chance just the same.

And then just 3 years later in 2019 they announced Overwatch 2, a game that looked really, really similar to Overwatch 1, except it was going to have the actual story missions via PvE mode that Overwatch 1 didn't have. They said there would be enough new things to justify the '2', and that people who bought Overwatch 1 need not worry about their investment in the first game.

And then it turned out what they meant by that was that they were killing Overwatch 1 by closing its servers, forcing everyone to move over to Overwatch 2, a Free to Play game where you had to grind to unlock the new heroes (people who bought OW1 instantly had the new hero unlocked but come on), was chock full of the usual Free to Play engagement mechanics, and changed the 6v6 format to 5v5, if you had a full squad of friends before, you had to tell one guy to get fucked.

I think the worst part was that when people were understandably angry that Overwatch 2's actual changes from the original were almost all monetization based, games journalists that pressed Blizzard on why players now had to grind a battlepass for heroes, which Overwatch 1 had always given for free, were met with a "well, heroes are the strongest engagement point for our players" type of deflection where they didn't even try to hide their reasons behind something respectable.

Now they're announcing that OW2's PvE mode, the whole (public) reason they made OW2 a sequel instead of an update to OW1, isn't even happening anymore, and Overwatch 1's original 6v6 remains dead and inaccessible.

I didn't like Overwatch 1. I was really hyped for it when it came out, but found myself really disliking the gameplay (especially on its map design which I thought was terrible) which only worsened with its creative and balancing direction until I lost interest in only a few weeks.

Still, killing OW1 to force all players to move to OW2's free to play model was inexcusable. All art must be preserved in some manner, even ones we don't think are good enough to be worth preserving. Overwatch in particular was so massive in 2016-2018 that to kill it is to make inaccessible the source material of a kajillion other pieces of art from those years.

[superhaught]

To Be Another Notch... (Chapter Two)

Pairing: Leighton Murray x Reader

Warnings: sick reader, reference to the chapter 1 smut

Word Count: 1100, Part 2/?

Part 1

Just a little follow up to "To Be Another Notch in Your Bedpost." Might keep it going, might not. I don't really have any specific ideas for where this one could go, though!

Also, Anonymous Asked: All I can think about now is like what if Leighton x reader are snowed in at Essex and the reader is deliriously ill and Leighton goes into protector mode and her roommates don’t know how to react since they’ve never seen this side of her with anyone before

I don't know if I did a super excellent job addressing this ask but I hope y'all like it! I'm in a bit of a writer's block rn so I'm doing me best. <3

Reader wakes up very sick and Leighton takes care of her. (Reader is explicitly she/her in this one).

You had slept over with Leighton after your night together. You awoke, bundled warmly in her deluxe comforter.

Well, technically, you didn’t wake up of your own accord. Leighton jostled you in an attempt to wake you and it wasn’t until she had to begin shouting your name that you actually came to. And furthermore, you weren’t exactly comfortably warm. You felt freezing cold but your skin was covered in sweat and you were approaching a fever of 102 degrees Fahrenheit. 

To make matters even worse, Essex had been the victim of a massive snowstorm overnight. Leighton had only been trying to gently wake you to let you know that classes had been canceled and you were welcome to stay, but then she felt how your skin was burning.

You opened your eyes blearily and were met with Leighton’s panicked expression and the back of her hand pressed against your forehead. 

“Oh my god, you’re burning up.”

“What? Like the Jonas Brothers?” 

“Jesus Christ, no! Not like the Jonas Brothers! You have a fever.” 

“Ohhh… that makes more sense.” You coughed painfully and Leighton quickly handed you a bottle of water from her mini fridge. 

“I will be right back, Stay. Here.” Leighton ordered before rushing out of the room.

You let your head collapse into the pillow and you were asleep again before you even knew it. An unknown amount of time later, Leighton came back into the room wearing a N95 mask, which she removed once the door was closed. Her arms were full of cold and flu supplies that she certainly could not have gone out and purchased due to the storm. 

Leighton sat everything down next to the bed and started going through the pile, setting a fresh box of tissues with lotion next to you along with a bottle of electrolyte drink. Then, she sifted through the variety of medications and ultimately decided that just some straight up tylenol and cough medicine would be best. 

Leighton was waking you up again and she helped you sit up while you took the medicines and drank a bunch of the electrolyte solution.

“Kimberly’s mom sent her all of this medicine and first aid stuff, it was honestly really impressive. My mom just sent me a Louis Vuitton weekender bag.”

You chuckled lightly, even though it hurt a little to do so, then spoke in a scratchy voice, “both things have their uses.”

Leighton felt your forehead again and then made you lie back down, “I’m quarantining you in here for now, at least until the storm clears. I’ll take care of you here.”

“You’re gonna get sick…” you pointed out.

“Then, you’ll take care of me.”

You furrowed your brows, “well, of course I will, but are you sure? I can just go home,” you made an attempt to sit up but Leighton pushed you right back down.

“Absolutely not. You’re in no state to walk across campus even if it wasn’t a blizzard outside. You’re staying here. End of discussion.”

“But I don’t-”

“Shut up, would you? You’re making me tired just looking at you,” she teased. 

Leighton surprised you, then. She was no longer feeling the fever on your forehead for sheer monitoring purposes, but just softly caressing her thumb over your skin and wiping your sweaty hair aside as she did so. It was comforting. 

You smiled, “you’re really sweet, thank you.”

Leighton leaned down and kissed your forehead gently and stayed by your side until you were too tired to keep your eyes open any longer and you fell asleep again. 

Leighton put her mask back on to protect her roommates from your germs as best as she could then went out into the main area of the suite to let you sleep in peace. 

Leighton sat down on the plaid couch in their common room and exhaled a deep breath. She had never really seen herself as a caretaker type, but for some reason, it had come naturally to her when she saw how sick you were.

Bela decided to go hang out in Jocelyn’s room to gossip the snow day away (with the help of cinnamon whiskey and apple cider… but mostly cinnamon whiskey), while Kimberly and Whitney hunkered down in their room. 

Leighton scrolled mindlessly through her phone when Whitney came out to grab some food from the shared fridge.

“How’s your guest doing?” Whitney asked. 

“Okay, I think.” Leighton answered simply. 

“Is this someone we’ve met before?”

“No,” Leighton said, “she’s new as of last night…”

“Wow. You must be really into her, then.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, you let her sleep over and now you’re taking care of her while she’s sick? The Leighton Murray of a few weeks ago would never, storm or no storm…” Whitney smiled at the blonde and sat down on the couch opposite her. 

Leighton’s cheeks flushed, “I don’t know… she’s cute. Really cute. And being around her has been really easy so far. Plus…”

Whitney raised an eyebrow, “plus…?”

Leighton rolled her eyes and then lowered her voice to a near-whisper, “Plus… she made me come like four times last night… maybe more. I honestly lost count.”

“Oh. My. God.” 

“I know.”

“That’s just not fair.”

Leighton smirked and shrugged. 

“So you’re taking care of her because the sex was amazing?” Whitney clarified. 

“No, not just that. Maybe I do really like her. But like…” Leighton groaned, “I’m so fucking stressed about Tatum and Alicia still… Do I really want to jump right into another relationship?” 

Now, Whitney shrugged, “do what makes your heart happy, Leight. If you like her, I say go for it. You never know when someone might be your person.”

Leighton looked over her shoulder at her bedroom door, “huh… yeah, maybe you’re right. I’m gonna go check on her.”

Leighton stood up and Whitney smiled, “I also think you should do whatever you can to bring this nurturing side of you out more often. It’s nice.”

Leighton flashed a glare in Whitney’s direction, “yeah yeah, whatever.”

The blonde slipped back into her room and took a moment to watch you before she climbed into the bed beside you and draped her arm over you. 

You were fast asleep and didn’t feel her join you in the bed, but you unconsciously shifted and hugged her arms close to you. 

Snow continued to drench the campus and it seemed to muffle all sound.

Leighton fell asleep holding you, lulled only by the steady rise and fall of your breathing.

#leighton murray #leighton x reader #leighton murray x reader #tslocg #the sex lives of college girls #fanfiction #my fanfiction #my writing #original writing #anonymous request #renee rapp

[cheegu3]

Jake - come back to me

prompt; sadist jake, full prompt - here

summary; you try to escape from your sadist ex-boyfriend who kidnapped you when you broke up; bringing you to his house in the mountains where snowstorms and wild animals were frequent, if you escaped, would the wolf or jake get to you first?

tw / trigger warning; yandere themes, unhealthy relationships, kidnapping, toxicity, dead animals, blood, vomiting

wc; 1.7k

Your sore feet had long started bleeding, surely leaving some trace behind. But you had stopped feeling it a long time ago.

Now, you didn't care much about if he saw the small splotches of blood and chased after you. The coldness attacking your cold feed made you push through; brain in survival mode. All you cared about was getting there before he got to you, because that was only a question of when he would.

It was a race against the clock for your survival.

The forest stretched miles wherever you turned, and the initial optimism you had about reaching anyone who could help you before nightfall, quickly declined as the last beams of the sun started shining through the treetops.

Somewhere in the back of your head, you had a faint memory of a few weeks ago - when you and Jake were lying on the couch in front of the fireplace. Outside, the weather had been terrible, and he had told you of an upcoming blizzard.

You regretted not putting much importance on the warning, as you weren't quite honestly sure if you would survive the night. The wind was howling in your ear, even louder than before and it brushed sharp particles of ice across your skin, making it feel like small cuts.

Nevertheless, you had no choice but to keep pushing with your head down. Sometime, maybe around five minutes ago, visibility had gotten way worse. You weren't sure where you were going or how far you had even walked.

You were stopped in your tracks when you reached a big oak tree. Below it lay what looked like a small animal. The scarlet stood out against the bright white snow.

Slowly you crouched down. You didn't have the heart to leave it there when it looked like it was dying. Animals as well as people were always helped by your big heart.

The hands that inched closer to it were shaking. Then when it hovered right above the injured animal, you made up your mind, and finally let your fingers touch the soft fur.

It didn't move or react. You swallowed thickly, feeling a bit nauseous. It took a lot of bravery to use both hands to roll it over, and when you did so you inhaled sharply and crawled backwards in the snow.

A pair of eyes stared at you, blank and void - it was dead. You turned your head to see if there were any predators around so that you could get an answer to who or what could've done this.

To your horror, you discovered there were several more animals lying around in the snow, face down and bleeding like the one in front of you. They were all just a few meters away, spread out throughout the forest at a great distance.

'' No, no, no...'' you whispered to yourself.

Your hands rubbed at the skin of your throat, trying to control the bile that wanted to rise. Eventually, your head fell forward as you couldn't anymore, vomiting beside the animal loudly.

Sniffles sounded from you when you stood up. Your feet slowly dragged until you had the energy to get away. But it felt like you were in a nightmare; even if you had walked a hundred meters, new animals would pop out in the corner of your eyes, making the tears flow even more than before.

The wind had started to calm down, and a certain eerie quietness - the quiet before a storm, came instead. Then, you heard the sound of a motor in the distance, getting closer and closer to your location.

Ecstatic, you thought you were finally getting rescued by some local, until you realized the possibility of it being Jake. He owned a snowmobile too since he lived so far up the mountains.

The distance between you and the person coming closer was getting smaller. You only had a few seconds to dive behind a tree, hoping the snow pile offered some shielding.

It became deadly quiet.

It seemed the driver had turned off the motor, but you felt a certain uneasiness at not hearing footsteps instead. It was just quiet; even the howling wind had stilled completely.

You shuffled in the snow and pushed yourself up with the help of your forearms. There wasn't a single person in your field of view, not even an object as the snowmobile was nowhere to be seen either.

You made a hasty decision then to sit up fully on your knees and turn your body around the other direction, to see if there was something or someone there.

The second you sat up, a hand pushed you forcefully forward, causing you to dive face-first into the ice-cold snow. After letting out a muffled shriek, you rolled over and brushed the flakes from your face.

The first thing you saw when you were finally able to open your eyes again were two boots. They stood on either side of your legs, almost as if trapping them.

Your eyes dreaded going higher, but you let them anyway. Slowly your gaze wandered up; you started recognizing the clothes, and then it stopped on a very familiar face - Jake.

'' What- '' you sucked air in through your teeth, caught off guard by your whole body having gone cold from the snow melting on your face and hands.

It stung uncomfortably and your teeth clattered when you tried to talk again, '' How-how did...you? ''

You didn't finish the sentence. What you wanted to ask was how he'd found you so fast. It was hard to wrap your head around that fact; how he had found you way faster than you'd expected, days and even hours faster than what you thought.

Jake knew what you wanted to say, an amused smirk spread on his face, antagonizingly slow.

'' I already prepared for this, set up things just in case you would run away. I own these woods, did you know that? ''

'' N-no, '' you pressed out.

'' Now you do. I have cameras everywhere. You looked so stupid and cute running around so cluelessly. Did you even know where you were going? '' he snickered, '' That's why you need me to take care of you! ''

You didn't say anything. Although you weren't really sure what you'd say. He wasn't wrong; you went without a plan, or without any knowledge of the woods, and during a storm nonetheless.

'' I bet you didn't know I have wolves too. ''

Wolves? Was he a psychopath?

'' Just remember that for next time you try to escape, I will use them then. You're lucky if I get to you before they do, '' his amused smirk turned into a grin full of sadistic glee, very unfitting the words that came out of his pretty lips.

Putting on an act, he snapped his fingers and gasped dramatically.

'' Oh right! You probably can't talk because you're freezing to death. Do you want me to save you? ''

Your focus had long disappeared. Your body was much more busy with keeping you alive, as it had started shaking violently now. Small, short breaths left your mouth occasionally and your eyes struggled to stay on your ex.

'' Poor baby, '' he cooed.

You were barely awake, in some kind of daze when he lifted you up. He carried you in his arms and put you down on the snowmobile. The loud humming of the motor kept you from falling asleep as he drove off.

*******

You weren't sure if you actually managed to fall asleep after some time after all. All you remembered was that you got lifted again and carried.

You felt the temperature change and heard the blizzard become muzzled. Jake put you down on some kind of fur in front of a warm fire.

'' You'll feel better soon, '' you heard a voice say far away.

And slowly you did.

The fire spread warmth all throughout your body. You opened your eyes and could tell he was in the room, leering over you. The situation in the woods came back to you very clearly.

You tried pretending you were asleep again, scared that now that you were home you'd get punished for running away. But Jake wasn't that easy to fool, he listened attentively to every noise you made and turned his head whenever you shuffled; waiting for you to get back to normal.

He let you pretend for about an hour until he got fed up with it. You flinched when his hand touched your thigh and then bit your cheek due to your reflexes always giving you away.

'' I know you're awake. ''

Finally, you opened your eyes. Jake had sat down on the couch, his elbows resting on his knees. You swallowed down your fear and met his narrowed eyes.

'' Are you...going to punish me? ''

'' What do you think? ''

You opened your mouth to answer, but he hadn't actually expected one. It was left hanging open as you instead watched him stand up and go over to the kitchen.

While trying to turn, you discovered that you had been tied to the couch so you barely had any room to move around. Instead, all you could do was listen.

Cabinets were opened and a drawer was pulled. Everything around you seemed to turn deadly silent when you heard the familiar sound of something sharp grazing, being dragged against wood.

'' There's no use, '' he haughtily said in response to you starting to thrash around in panic.

You kicked against the cushions and arched your back to try and get out of the ropes. But like he said, there was no use. Your body didn't get any more freed and if anything, your wrists hurt more from the material rubbing against your skin.

The sound got closer and closer, stopping just by your ear. You could turn far enough to see his favorite knife on the armrest. Whimpers left your mouth.

Jake sat down again; despite you closing your eyes shut to distract yourself, you could feel the dip of the couch. It made your breaths turn shaky.

Your wrist was grabbed tightly by his soft fingers, very different from the dark and harsh look he had on his face which promised nothing but softness.

'' Let's play a game, '' he grinned, eyes filled with craze.

'' It's called- if you scream, you die. ''

#yandere kpop #kpop yandere #yandere enhypen #yandere jake #jake yandere #yandere enha

[brightlight-dazzlingeyes]

it's cold outside | charles leclerc

🍪 synopsis: The weather forecast predicts a blizzard for the next three days and a couple turns their shared apartment into a cozy hideout. warnings: just pure fluff, christmas drabble, 400 words

| listen to my christmas playlist |

In the background, the TV announced the impending blizzard like it was the end of the world. I glance at my boyfriend, Charles, who is scrolling through his phone, checking for the hundredth time if the world was indeed ending.

“Three days of snow? We’re gonna be stuck here, aren't we?” I say, pulling my favorite blanket around me.

“Looks like it’s just us and whatever’s left in the fridge.” Charles smiles, throwing an arm over my shoulder.

I squint through the frosty windows, but it’s hard to see anything outside. Our living room is fully decorated for Christmas and the fairy-lights reflecting on the glass makes it even more difficult to see the street outside. It’s like the cold transformed everything into a white void and not even our decor can turn the winter wonderland outside into something lively. I give up and turn to Charles.

“Come on, be useful and at least help me with dinner.” I half-complain.

“Excuse me? And what do you mean ‘at least’?” Charles sounds offended but there’s mischief in his eyes.

“Well, I decorated the living room practically by myself!” I jab my index finger at him, pointing the blame.

“Babe, that’s not true. I hung the stockings!” He defends himself with a grin.

Charles, in full defense mode, lists off every little thing he's done since coming home. As he goes on, the storm outside intensifies. We decide to raid the kitchen, on a mission for the ingredients of a turkey breast with pancetta, figs, and leek. The weathermen's voice faded as we became fully engrossed in prepping our meal. Slicing veggies, measuring the salt.

Our kitchen gets attacked by different smells and sounds, with the sizzle of pancetta, the earthy aroma of figs and the fragrant smell of leeks. Charles decides to be in charge of seasoning, as he freely sprinkles pepper and rosemary anywhere he can reach.

“Behind!” Charles yells, his tone playful, as he goes out of his way to pass behind me on his way to the oven. 

I chuckle, pretending to be surprised. “Yes, chef!”

As the oven door creaks open, the turkey breast, now a masterpiece of pancetta-wrapped goodness, finds its home. Charles, wearing a satisfied grin, nods approvingly at our creation.

With the meal complete, we plate up and go back to the living room. As I share each bite with Charles, in those simple exchanges, I realize with certainty that there's nowhere else in the world I'd rather be.

#charles leclerc #charles leclerc fanfic #f1 imagine #christmas drabble #charles leclerc x reader #f1 fanfic

[jeremy-ken-anderson]

Diablo 4 Lessons

One of the weirdest lessons of Diablo 4 is that there's such a thing as too much thought that can be put into long-term goals.

A common complaint was that players, coming off of the crazy builds of Diablo 2 and 3 and Path of Exile, just didn't feel awesome enough as they approached the final boss.

Much like how Pathfinder 2nd Edition's carefully crafted game balance can leave players feeling disempowered relative to more bombastic systems, D4 was designed not to immediately have your stats go to the moon, because they wanted to build in space to continue gaining power from paragon levels and seasonal buffs.

But players want their stats to go to the moon right away - or at least by the time they reach the final boss! And the segment of the population that doesn't really intend to engage with D4's seasonal content still spent, what, 70 bucks for it? Are they not the customer base? It's one thing to provide a suboptimal play experience for free players, in a "get what you pay for" kind of way. It's quite another to charge full price for the game and then not satisfy those who pony up.

So having the player still not get to feel OP at level 50, or beyond? It feels off. And within the culture D4 comes from it feels incorrect.

A similar issue happened in the story, where unlike Diablo 1, 2, and 3, the story doesn't resolve with the defeat of the final boss. And this is kind of shit, not least because Blizzard has been on shakier ground than normal recently and if the company went under tomorrow or put D4 into "Full Maintenance Mode" (i.e. "We'll keep the servers running but we're done working on it"), the people interested in the story just wouldn't get a full story. At all. For a game they paid 70 bucks for.

It seems crazy to think that Blizzard could have that kind of collapse, but then you consider Overwatch 2...and also apparently 1900 people just got dropped from D4's staff? Dangers of being part of a Microsoft conglomerate, I guess.

So yeah. Making something that feels full and complete now is usually worth more than making a nice prologue.

#review #game design #diablo 4

[cowboyjen68]

Life has been sort of a whirlwind since October. In all truth, since last October (of 2021) when I found myself single but still very much in love. Loosing her (the intimacy, not our friendship which we still very much have, thank fully) was a smack back to reality and the things I have been putting off changing in both my life and my living environment.

My teen is getting taller andd smarter every day as she heads into the end of her junior year. At once I worry about her and don't. She is independent and kind but still a teen with a teen brain. I trust her and try to balance that with not trusting her with too much. "No" is still a complete sentence in this house unless she is in negotiation mode then I have to expend the energy to explain things in a productive manner. AND I am not always right in my "no" so I have to be willing to occasionally back down without her thinking that she can always get her way by pushing back.

I have three plus jobs to keep the house and land I love and care for the animals I committed to from when I was married. A few have passed of age and sickness and it gives me some feelings of guilt to be somewhat relieved because less animals means less work and expense for me. I try and remember it also means more recources to care for my current pets. I have more time and money to improve the house and the land.

At 54 i am looking towards the long term. Somethings I can easily deal with now might be more difficult in the future. I see my older relatives, my older lesbians mentors, my friends who are MY age begin to stuggle with health, energy and Just STUFF that we all accumulate. I need to get rid of some stuff. I know my kids won't want 90 percent of what I own. Some of my young lesbian friends are now proud owners of early Fest T shirts and Star Wars lunch boxes. This clearing out will continue.

My writing has taken a back seat to manual labor, paying off and keeping up with debt and bills and planning ahead. I dislike this part. I miss keeping up with Tumblr asks and penning meaningful articles for small publications or for fun. I love writing cards and letters on vintage stationary and old cards but those too are being neglected, their boxes gathering dust and cat hair on my desk.

My house payment went up, my water heater was frozen to death in the Christmas blizzard, propane is always needing paid off , my subpump system is in dire need of maintainance before spring rains and now my cat has a runny eye. It is true what they say: When it rains in pours and if it isn't one thing it is another. Money doesn't grow on trees. And nothing breaks during the work week.

I love my land and I love my family and my life and pets. I am so lucky to have supportive friends in my life. My interactions on the internet and social media are generally kind and positive. Being a lesbian affords me a wonderful and easy connection with other women that brings me great joy. It is that connection that insprires me to share my stories and thoughts and to strenghten relationships with other generations and my own. It is my passion to instill hope for a happy future in lesbians and bi women who want build a life with and love other other women.

There are many things I want to do in 2023. Some I will accomplish, others I will not. Some are priorities and some are not. It is deciding which ones will yield the most benefit for my future health and security in the long run that I need to figure out. I also want to continue to focus on what I can do to bring about the most good help other lesbians realize their full potiential and feel comfortable and understand they are ok and wonderful just as they are because that is what feeds my happiness. I want to continue to help lesbians find cross generational community.

And probably cut back on the frosted cookies, at least until next November.

#2023

[saffronaa]

Clearing up some misconceptions about Overwatch 2 and its "Overwhelmingly Negative" reviews

Okay I just wanted to write something 'cause I saw a lot of misinfo and some confusion about what Overwatch 2 (OW2) even is, especially now that it's getting more (negative) attention again. Starting with what OW2 even is and how we ended up with such a hugely negative reception.

What's the difference between Overwatch 1 and Overwatch 2?

OW2 is free-to-play

OW2 is 5v5 (1 tank instead of 2 tanks)

OW2 has a different monetization scheme. It has a new buyable currency used to purchase cosmetics (mainly skins) from the store and to buy the battlepass

OW2 purchases are all cosmetic items EXCEPT when a new hero is released. Purchasing the battlepass will give you immediate access to a new hero. Otherwise, you will need to play enough games to unlock them.

Everything else in OW2 is either standard update stuff (new heroes, new maps, new gamemodes, etc) or carried over from OW1 (Yes, you keep all your cosmetics from OW1)

Why did they create Overwatch 2?

The original vision for Overwatch was a PvE game:

The Overwatch team, especially at its inception, considered itself an MMO development team. As we transitioned away from that original concept and started creating Overwatch, we included plans to one day return to that scope. We had a crawl, walk, run plan. Overwatch was the crawl, a dedicated version of PvE was the walk, and an MMO was the run. (Source 1)

Overwatch originally intending to be a PvE game was brought up in a Tweet 2 years before as well (Source 2).

Overwatch 2 was meant to be a major sequel with the focus on PvE.

What happened to PvE?

I recommend reading the full blog post, but I'll try to summarize.

Essentially the original vision of PvE was:

Story Missions (co-op gameplay with cutscenes)

Hero Mode (skill trees for each hero to upgrade and play in PvE)

When you heard the news that "OW2 PvE was cancelled", what was actually cancelled was Hero Mode. Story Missions were just released this season. This is still a major blow to PvE, because Hero Mode was the piece meant to give a reason for replaying the PvE missions over and over again.

PvE was cancelled because ultimately it was too much work, and they were not making enough progress at the cost of the original PvP game. (More on this later)

Why is Overwatch 2 receiving so many negative reviews?

I'm gonna give bullet points but I wanna address something first: A lot of people have mentioned the lawsuit against Activision Blizzard for sexual harassment and discrimination (More info) when talking about why Overwatch 2 is being reviewed poorly. While this is obviously a serious issue within the company and the game industry at large, the truth is that if this was the only problem, we would not be seeing reviews this bad. Unfortunately, the average gamer does not care about how game developers are being treated. See Epic Games crunch culture and the lawsuit against Riot Games for sexual harassment and discrimination. Fortnite and League of Legends/Valorant are doing just fine now.

Here is a list of some reasons why I think Overwatch 2 is being reviewed so negatively:

The original PvE vision with skill trees was not realized

Preferring the old monetization scheme of "buy the game once, earn cosmetics" instead of "game is free, buy cosmetics"

Believing the current cosmetics are overpriced

Not having immediate access to new heroes unless you pay

Preferring 6v6 gameplay to 5v5

Frustrated with content delays (Like Hero Mastery)

Expectations for more content on release

Misinformation (like PvE being completely cancelled)

Bandwagoning on the Overwatch hate train

Other pretty standard reasons to dislike a video game (game balance, don't like the lore, etc)

Distrust in Blizzard/the development team

And the last one is one I want to talk about a little more

Why is there so much distrust between the development team and the community?

While Overwatch 2 was in development, Overwatch 1 was abandoned. And the community largely felt that the content brought by OW2 was not worth the time lost for OW1.

OW2 was announced at Blizzcon on November 1, 2019. Since its announcement and until OW2 was released, Overwatch received 1 new hero and 0 new standard maps in 3 years. It previously was getting 3 new heroes and ~3 new standard maps each year.

If OW had kept its release schedule, we would've had 8 new heroes and 9 new maps when OW2 released. We got 3 new heroes and 6 new maps.

When OW2 released, lots of people wondered why they abandoned the game to make a sequel nobody asked for and with not enough changes. The developers are already aware that they made a mistake:

When we launched Overwatch in 2016, we quickly started talking about what that next iteration could be. Looking back at that moment, it's now obvious that we weren’t as focused as we should have been on a game that was a runaway hit. Instead, we stayed focused on a plan that was years old. Work began on the PvE portion of the game and we steadily continued shifting more and more of the team to work on those features. (Source 1)

This was especially frustrating for the people who were only interested in PvP.

But some people did hold onto the hope that the eventual release of PvE would make up for the lost development time for PvP.

And then the scope for PvE was cut in half, and once again the community felt that they were being served half-finished content.

It's been a continuous cycle of:

Overwatch announces a new feature

Everyone gets their hopes up that this new feature will fully deliver on everyone's expectations

The feature does not meet expectations (and is sometimes less than what was originally teased) or is delayed

IMPORTANT: And while this is all frustrating for players, and it makes sense to negatively review for these reasons, please never harass individual game developers. 99% of the time, game developers are just as passionate about the game as you are. You don't know what kinds of hells are going on behind the scenes that are preventing them from doing their job well.

Does Overwatch 2 deserve all of the negative reviews?

Obviously it's subjective, but I just want to throw it out there that I still think that Overwatch at its core is a good video game. I still play and have fun playing both ranked and quick play. I think the gameplay is very good. Everything else surrounding it is very frustrating and discouraging at times.

#overwatch #overwatch 2 #ow #ow2 #steam

[thevikingwoman]

Top Ten Video games

thanks @keturagh for the tag!

as this list shows - I'm not young, and I started out with PC gaming, where truly my love for gaming was built. It was hard to pick 10 games - for being a "gamer" I don't actually play a lot of games, and there's only a few games that really stick out as truly noteworthy over time to me. Criteria is muddled - games that are great, games that are fun, games that defined a moment for me. Yes, there's a certain amount of nostalgia too here. I've by internal logic excluded text-based IFs from considerations.

Tagging @myreia @galadrieljones @galadae @roguelioness @redinkofshame @lilas @coldshrugs @allaganexarch @a-shakespearean-in-paris if you want! And anyone else! tag me!

Civilization

I refuse to pick one, but I'll probably go with IV if I had to, just because of the music and I think it's where they introduced cultural victory. Civilization was the first video game I brought with my own money, and yes that's an old pic of all the boxes (I don't have the Civ I box 😭but I still have the disks and manual). I also have Civ VI, but no new pic. Civilization is genre defining, a PC gaming defining game - there is no other game like it.

2. Diablo II

I played so much Diablo II - it was such a fun game full of fun gameplay. It was also the first game I truly played online - meeting new and wonderful friends and got embroiled on online drama! Diablo II was just sheer fun, from the builds to the loot to the secret cow level. The cut scenes were phenomenal, the one above is still one of my favorites of all time - the shattering of the world stone. Tyrael was possible my first video game crush, yeah just the wings and voice, don't @ me

3. Warcraft III

I played so much Warcraft III. The gameplay was fantastic, just a great RTS. It had humor, but also possibly the most heartwrecking storyline I've played - the fact you get to play out Arthas decent into evil was a stroke of gameplay and storytelling genious. Coupled with this era of Blizzard's cinematic department, the hands down best cut scene ever. This remains a top game for me.

4. Mass Effect

What can I say? Mass Effect is fun to play, has a pretty great and well written story - it's one of a kind to be honest. I don't do shooters, but I do do Mass Effect.

5. Pharaoh

I love city building and this was the best one. IS the best one, as this is remastered on steam. I'm currently playing this, and this is from the other night. I love this! pyramids! logistics! production! bright colors!

6. Dragon Age Inquistion

would be weird if I didn't include this one, right? I love the game and I love all the stuff that lives in my brain because of it. Also I do think the combat is fun? I think mechanics and environment wise it's also the best of Dragon Age.

7. Assassin's Creed Odyssey

I had a hard time picking between II (best boy Ezio, Desmond), Origins (pyramids! BAYEK and AYA, the mature story!!) and Odyssey - in the end I think Odyssey won because of the feel of AC - assassin, the vast explorations, the many quests, and ofc yelling in DMs over lost love. Not to forget - clop, clop, clop, the fake minotaur quest.

8. Jedi: Fallen Order

Look, I don't like platformers or difficult combat, but story mode hit the spot, and the story was SO good. Cal Kestis is my son in my heart, the story and his character touched me.

9. World of Warcraft

well, the sheer amount of time and investment I put into this game count for something. At some point it seemed like half the world played it, for good reason. I don't think I can go back, but WoW was the first MMO I truly enjoyed, and I love the art style so much. and I got to turn into a demon for massive damage, and endlessly frustrate my healer. Infinite mana, baby, just heal me

10. Master of Orion II

another old 4x game, this just hit the spot somehow.

other contenders: Geometry War Retro Evolved, Tetris, the MasterMind game my dad coded himself and we had a vicious family competition for the leaderboard, Settlers III, Heros of Might and Magic (but I don't recall which version I loved the most), and Warlords (the original DOS game)

#about me #tag game #I love getting tagged! #long post #video games #and yes kids those are 5 3/4 inch floppy disks that actually flop

[prettytoxicrevolver]

Scenario one and dialogue seventeen for Punz please?

Punz had come home to visit you and your family for the holidays and the weather had been unforgiving the entire time. He had planned to leave just before Christmas so he could head home and see his family for the holiday but the weather insisted on a snowstorm two days before. 

You wake up in Punz’s warm embrace, your eyes cracking open to look at the stream of lighting cascading the room in a halo. You strain your eyes to look out and see the snow coming down in thick flurries. A soft smile rests on your lips and you let out a sigh when Punz’s arm tightens around your waist, his head pushing into your back. 

“G’morning,” you murmur and Punz hums against you. 

“Morning pretty girl,” he responds and your heart flutters in your chest. 

You and Punz stay in bed for a little bit, discussing the possibility of him leaving for home today but a check in on the weather tells you there is no chance of even leaving your apartment with how much it snowed and is still snowing. It was full blizzard mode, you and Punz were officially snowed in. 

“Want some hot chocolate?” Punz asks after a quiet bit, your boyfriend sitting up to look at you and you nod shyly. 

“Be right back,” he tells you, pecking your lips before getting out of bed. 

When Punz is out of the room, you sit up further and lean against the headboard and check your phone as he makes the drinks. He comes back a few minutes later, two huge mugs in his hands. He carefully climbs into bed again, handing you a mug before snuggling back into your side and you sigh, feeling whole again. 

“I love you,” you say, turning and pressing a kiss to his cheek and Punz grins. 

“I love you too.”

#punz x you #punz fluff #punz imagine #punz x reader #punz drabble #punz x y/n #punz blurb #prettytoxicrevolver fic

[nzoth-the-corruptor]

Lets rant about wow until the heat death of the universe together 🫳

alright the wheel spinner has decided our rant should be about how retail has been put onto maintenance mode. It's been in desperate need of tuning in PvE and PvP for weeks now and nothing, only for Blizzard to announce a handful of minor changes coming after the end of the MDI; PvP is basically dead because there's no tuning to classes or to MMR inflation (which is at a potentially record low 5 points a week), and there are now fully automated bots in arena.

That's not an exaggeration, btw: there's literally fully automated bots available for DH, EleSham, and SPriest, and scripts for several other classes that will do their damage rotation but still require player input to move. It's hilarious to watch a DH bot running into a wall while spamming a full damage rotation despite not actually connecting to a target because of the wall while also perfectly pressing defensives and melding coils in melee.

Still no release date on 10.2.6 or even any idea of what it contains. No word on when Fated S4 is coming out, but it's a Fated season so it's going to be fairly low effort because it's just a rehash of the content they already made and released. We're probably not even gonna get new Elite recolors in PvP & we can only pray for that one forum poster that the unused Elite Obsidian Gladiator Greatsword is finally put on the vendor for them to buy.

It's just kind of really dull to have put the game on maintenace mode about halfway through Season 3 instead of waiting until after S4's launch when we'd also be ramping up to get fed alpha/beta news from TWW.

I'm a fairly slow-paced player and I've just wrapped up my seasonal goals with absolutely no rush whatsoever. Now Imagine being someone who actually plays the game and has been doing the same rotation of keys/raiding for the last several months...........................

#SoD getting more content than Retail....... #like I play SoD too but it stings.....

[wallcrawlparker]

@deceitfultrickry plotted starter with Peter's Lokison verse!

The combat had been pretty intense, let alone confusing. Not only was the team clearly outnumbered, they were also not on their home turf and in full-blown blizzard mode. That wouldn't usually be a huge deal as most of the team was enhanced and/or bundled up in self-heating gear and literal heaters.

But Peter.... Peter's got spider DNA, and spiders can't thermoregulate. He'd been hypothermic a few times just from patrolling in the winter, so... when the youngest teammate didn't answer the call to regroup, panic immediately sparked.

Mostly, it was Tony flipping his shit, panicking about how the kid's not dressed for this and his suit's tracker must be damaged and he could be anywhere!

What Tony doesn't know, though, is that Peter had been in extreme cold before. Once he goes past his enhanced-human threshold and his life is endangered by the cold, he.... goes blue. Literally, yeah. He goes blue. His (unknown) paternal heritage saves his life, literally, by morphing him into his frost giant form. Not that he knows that. It's only happened once before and... well, he figured he must have just been seeing shit. Anyway. While the team freaked out and seemed to forget they had a literal Frost Giant/Norse God on their team currently, Peter was a few kilometres meters away, halfway buried in snow after a particularly hard blow to the head knocked him out, taking out some of his suit's gear; including the tracker.

#Powerful Heritage || Peter Lokison #🕸 Threads || Loki Laufeyson #sorry it's long #i wanted to get the scene?? #ehh im tired i just love them so i wanted to get this out now lol

[beevean]

And onto Rush Adventure now:

-Tbh at first i wasnt sold on the materials grinding for ships but later liked how it gives you a reason to improve your scores on the levels so you can get more. Idk i usually dont care abt scores but w the external motivation? Yea

-Same w the misions, good way to have lil extra stuff to do (that said why did they block the sound mode songs behind misions. Game pls my internet makes opening youtube an odyssey and now this too? Cruelty 😔)

-Oh and also the ship minigames! Its fun to have a map you can explore, and the races w Jhonny for the chaos emeralds are way better than the Surely Existing special levels (also srry if i got his name wrong lmao)

-Onto the soundtrack; its more broad compared to rush, and each song does matches well the enviroment. I like the tropical coastal vibes of the main town n training level, and oh man. Sky babylon and deep core my beloveds who literally got engraved in my neurons so hard i was struggling reading hours later bc the darn tunes kept playing in the background of my skull. Well scratch that all the tunes keep playing on the bg of my skull rn, what kind of eldritch curse is this). So yes good ost 👍

-Overall the aesthetic n vibes are also more broad with that tropical relax overtone, its quite nice. The difficulty is also way more forgiving (i mean i played on easy but that's the mode the game came in) and the tutorials with the controls are helpful (yes i struggled with the jump dash in the previous game how can you tell)

- The story is also more calm and silly goofy but in a good way (can def see what ppl mean by the diff eras in sonic writing there). I also liked Whisker being the main but kinda dumb villain for funnies vs the eggmans being a bigger threat)

-I liked the scene in the coral cave where Blaze appears bc my mind was half "haha i knew we were in Blaze's world, neat" and " weeee hi Blaze, game of the year :D"

-Marine was also neat, liked her silly dynamic of cheerful kid who is a bit too full of herself and is kind of a brat abt it, and how she later learns to admit her own limits :) And the koala villagers were neat too i like their designs :)

Overall thank you for letting me ramble into your ask box abt these games, its been fun :D

lmao yeah it's a nice incentive! I think the only other game that gives you a reward with higher ranks is Unwiished (another Dimps game), where the higher the rank the more medals you get.

also sonic 🤝 hector:having to earn their crafting materials

The missions are a good way to extend the gameplay, but IIRC some of the Sol Emerald missions were brutal... I have flashes of the Blizzard Peak mission.

The waterbike was genuinely really fun and I hated that it was considered the "worst" vehicle for travel :( I don't like the submarine, let me travel the world on my tiny waterbike while the best music plays :( also yeah the Special Stages with Johnny are original! Certainly more than Half Pipe 50.0

SRA'S OST was composed by veterans Tomoya Ohtani and Mariko Nanba while trying to recreate Naganuma's style. Definitely unique and underrated. Sky Babylon used to be my favorite too! But there are so many tracks that IMO deserve more love, like Haunted Ship, Blizzard Peaks, the boss theme and Whiskers & Johnny <3

Funny to think SRA came out one year after '06, widely criticized at the time for being too melodramatic :P Whiskers is also a nice case of Eggman being the twist villain for once! Although the credits of the "bad" ending spoil him and Nega, lol. Not that Whiskers looks mysterious himself... eh you get it.

Marine seems to have been reevaluated recently, like many things from the 2000s. I remember that back then no one could stand her and her Aussie accent lmao, precisely because she was an annoying brat. She is still mildly underrated, but I think the modern fandom generally "forgave" her because they understood that she was meant to be a foil for Tails, who is more insecure.

(two fun facts: in some countries, SRA initially got a 12+ rating because Marine says "bugger", which is pretty mild for Aussie slang but is much stronger for American standards. Also, Marine is Australian because in original she speaks in Kansai-ben, and I guess that was a way to recreate the cultural connotations! That and koalas :P)

You're welcome, you're free to rant at any time <3

#sonic the hedgehog #sonic rush adventure

[ya-killin-me-smalls]

All good! I also get what you mean, his actions are a little easier to write. But even then he's An Uncooperative Bastard, stays still as a fucking rock sometimes. Or they just. Walk off. Getting him mad enough to talk is a whole other thing, because arguments are Hard To Write already but Hank makes this harder, even with someone's very nice google doc of story mode dialogue

Straight up have like a page of different argument attempts and none of them have hit yet. My search history is also now full of silly things like "arguing over cold weather transcripts" and "friend refuses to wear protective clothing" < this one apparently ends up being a lot about PPE on construction

Also he ABSOLUTELY getting sick, and stealing someone for heat straight out of their bed by the time it's night bc he can no longer tolerate the cold. The exact same person who recommended better clothing and warned of the blizzard, getting assaulted from sleepy time with Hank's Frozen As Fuck hands grabbing them

Hank on more than one occasion has been the single biggest delay for chapter updates because he's just so. uncooperative or something

KILL HIM KILL HIM KILL HIM KILL HIM /j haha... unless 😏

#asks

[noonmutter]

My WoW Pipe Dream: RP Mode

Because I was directly asked earlier this evening what I would want to see in an RP mode, and I've talked about this off and on for years ever since War Mode was implemented, I shall now lay out my list of things that I want to see in a RP Mode for World of Warcraft.

Same idea as War Mode, just with alternate effects. It's a switch you toggle from a capital city and can disable anywhere in the world, and it will take you into a different instance of the game where the new rules are in effect. In keeping with the same rules as war mode, turning it off keeps you flagged as RP-only and functionally unable to gain loot or gold for five minutes, so you can't use it to make a way easier path to a rare and pop out to steal the kill and the goodies.

1: Removes a LARGE swath of NPCs from the game. All elite mobs, anything that has voice lines, most wandering NPCs in cities, the overwhelming majority of wandering critters, gone. Much emptier except for other players and NPCs that add life to the setting, but don't interfere with it.

2: Gold and loot cannot be earned or spent (outside of specific RP-related vendors perhaps. Things like bartenders, snack sellers, selling tickets to make instances within the RP mode overall instance, that sort of thing. debatable whether these things would remain necessary)

3: XP and renown cannot be gained in any way. Items that affect this are either disabled, or get consumed with no effect and wasted

4: /say and /emote distances massively increased

5: raid size increased, or if code prevents that from working, raids can be linked together in a similar way to various servers being linked together

6: look I just want housing okay make empty buildings in RP mode into player-usable/customizable housing plots I don't care how this one works just give it to us blizzard

7: transmog, barber, etc are free at all times. toys have no or extremely minimal cooldown, effects last longer

8: massively expanded list of playable races so the reflecting prism thingie is no longer required. again, if code prevents this, reflecting prism is given no cooldown and lasts until you intentionally click it off

9: all languages usable by anyone. Yes, All Of Them. all languages also understandable by anyone. Yes, All Of Them.

10: no mog restrictions. If it can be displayed on the model in question, it's moggable. (even if it causes clipping errors. sometimes especially if it does.)

11: Options for raid leaders to change visual effects for raid members, like inky black potions, weather machines, etc. (PLAY D&D. DO A SHOW. IMMERSE PEOPLE. DO IT.)

12: Various wierd crap that's never been resolved is resolved. The Westfall tornado is gone, Suramar isn't full of demon commanders anymore, etc.

13: All cities are neutral cities. Yes, All Of Them. if you can get there, you can be there

14: summoning stones added to lots and lots and LOTS of new locations. cities, interesting landmarks, etc

15: one person can summon by themselves. nobody cares just let us do this if they're in the party

16: dungeons and raids are accessible either directly on the world map or via their standard portals. undecided, not sure which would be less resource-intensive to sustain when the entire setup is already liable to have a fuckload of instances within instances

17: if you are in a raid or party, YOU CANNOT BE SHARDED OUT OF IT. it's the one really major thing I wanna fix super bad across the entire game but especially for RPers

Feel free to toss your thoughts at this one. I know there's other ideas that have gone on this list as I've thought of it over the years, but I'm drawing a blank on anything else right this second

#world of warcraft #wow stuff #I feel like the majority of this stuff is not unreasonable to set up #in terms of programming difficulty or server strain #but it really depends on how the game functions on the backend #epsilon is not a good alternative its structure makes ABSOLUTELY no sense and is basically an asset editor program like gmod #epsilon can do cool things but it's not good at most of them just workable

[hersheyotaku]

Fandom: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Rating: T Characters: Donatello, April O'Neil Pairings: Donatello/April O'Neil Tags: Mistletoe, Fluff, Cuddling & Snuggling, Kissing Summary: There’s more than one way to keep warm on a cold winter’s day, and Donnie discovers a new method that goes by the name of viscum album. A gift for the lovely @chubs-deuce for the Apritello Server's Secret Santa Gift Exchange! 😘 Read on Ao3 here https://archiveofourown.org/works/42633939

Donatello Hamato hated the cold.

He hated the way it made him feel lethargic and slowed his productivity, he hated the way it numbed his fingers to the point that it felt like he was handling tools with uncoordinated frozen sausages, he hated the way the nip in the air made his nose run with disgusting bodily fluids, and he hated the way it made the metal in his lab ice-cold to the touch.

Even his tech seemed to hate the cold, the metal components contracting and the lubricants thickening with the chill, causing his more temperature-sensitive machines to lag or fail. He’d had to outfit Shelldon with thermal insulation just to keep the little drone from shutting down into his own tech version of brumation.

All that being said, Donnie didn’t, however, hate the methods one could use to combat the frigid winter temperatures that permeated the subterranean lair. Soft clothes, thick blankets, steaming beverages, thermal battle shell enhancements, Genius Built™️ heat lamps, and best of all?

The shared body heat of his incredibly warm-blooded best friend and romantic partner, who was currently sharing three layers of thick sherpa blankets with him as they sat cuddled together in an oversized beanbag chair. The projector screen flickered with images of Jupiter Jim’s Pluto Vacation IV, the merry chiming of the current musical number only adding to the cozy winter ambience that permeated the festively decorated room.

Despite the entire family spending the day indoors partaking in traditional holiday activities such as cookie baking (Mikey’s favorite) and metaphorically ‘decking the halls’ with lights and greenery and the assortment of chintzy decor Splinter had acquired over the years, his brothers were now notably absent, having decided to ride out the night’s chill within their shells in a state of temporary brumation. 

And while in years past Donnie would have opted to join them, this year he had a very compelling reason to stay awake.

His reason for wakefulness reached across him for one of the mugs of hot cocoa Shelldon had delivered moments prior. April had opted to spend the night thanks to the blizzard raging across the city above, and while Donnie had installed treads on the turtle tank that could have delivered her safely to her doorstep, they’d decided spending a cozy night together watching holiday classics was much preferable to driving through blinding sleet and snow.

And if Donnie was being honest, he rather enjoyed having this uninterrupted time alone with April—a rare luxury unless they resorted to retreating to his lab in lockdown mode to avoid nosy family members.

And he planned to take full advantage of their cozy solitude.

Surreptitiously, Donnie shifted himself to make just enough room for a single metal arm to extend from his battle shell, the metal appendage snaking out from the cozy nest of blankets to hover over their heads. Within its claw dangled a small sprig of greenery adorned with tiny white berries that he’d acquired for just such an occasion as this.

With the scene properly set, Donnie made a show of clearing his throat.

“A-hem.”

April glanced up from sipping her chocolatey beverage with a soft ‘hm?’ before her eyes caught on the greenery hanging above them.

“Whatcha got there, Donnie?” she asked, raising her mug for another sip to conceal her smile at her dorky boyfriend’s antics.

“Oh, this?” Donnie waggled his sharpied eyebrows at her, pleased that she’d asked. “Why, it appears to be an evergreen obligate hemiparasite of the Santalales order, specifically the European variant viscum album, as can be identified by the small oval leaves and white berries. Which, fun fact, are each traditionally supposed to elicit lip contact when held aloft and removed like so.”

Reaching up, he proceeded to free a pale berry from the cluster before puckering his lips in expectation.

April snickered against the rim her mug. “Right, yeah, okay Mr. Subtle,” she teased, setting her drink aside before snagging the front of his purple sweater. “Bring it in, Dee.”

The touch of her soft, cocoa-sweetened lips warmed Donnie like no sweater or hot beverage ever could, and the turtle melted like a marshmallow on a bunsen burner, his insides feeling just as ooey and gooey as the toasted confection, a soft churr rumbling in his chest.

Their lip lock continued for one warm, blissful moment before April pulled back with a soft ‘smek,’ eyes half-lidded as her holly-red lips curled into a coy grin. 

“So how ‘bout we get busy using up the rest of these berries?” she purred, reaching up and plucking another small berry from the sprig, rolling it between her fingers and arching a brow at him in a challenge that Donnie was all too happy to accept, leaning in to meet April halfway as she claimed her mistletoe-sanctioned kiss.

Ah, the merits of seasonally-appropriate botany—who knew a parasitic evergreen plant could serve as such an effective method of keeping warm?

#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #apritello #rise apritello #rottmnt #rise of the tmnt #rise donnie #donatello #rise april o'neil #tmnt #secret santa #hershey’s written works