for some reason my brain immediately goes to “deviancies” for subclasses, as in something that differs from the norm for the category (of the larger kink)

No idea if the word is sufficiently reclaimed to be safe for use though, even with the best of intentions

It's impossible to talk about Bliss Stage without mentioning "teen soldiers have sex to upgrade their psychic mecha to fight aliens" is a core component of the game, but it's to the game's credit that its gameplay loop is so sublime that I will always admire it no matter how fucked up the premise.

Exalted is the game I talk about the most, especially EX3, because its chassis-engine integration is beyond most games of a similar scope, to the point that regardless of how much people hate its bloat, finding another, simpler engine to emulate it nearly always falls flat (sorry ExEss)

gotta start with Mythender, my favorite niche game about rolling a million dice to end gods using your obscene amounts of power, available for free

it taught me more than basically anything else about how to look at and design games, about the importance of feeling and vibes, and of course, metal

"She wrapped her arms around his waist, and squeezed him as tight as she could. 'I love you, Alfie, but if you act like a dick to anyone I will hurt you like a motherfucker. That, you should remember.'"

for context this is from one god to her brother, also a god

yeah but consider this: the greek gods never even heard of Hero Forge, they were too busy working with actual heroes and actual forges separately

That said, if the US can hold on to its sheer luck that it often confuses for destined exceptionalism for just two years, and stem the tide of elected authoritarianism the GOP openly advertised as its goal with minimal casualties, the executive branch may be as ineffective as if a Dem is the POTUS.

When you remove so many career government employees and bureaucrats who made it their life’s duty to know how or why the government does or does not do things the way they are or aren’t done, and replace them with cronies who only how know to please the boss, doesn’t matter who runs the parliament.

I don’t want to suggest that this is really relevant to anyone right now, let alone if it happens, because it is far easier to hollow out the institutional memory of a democratic government than built it back up again, and that institutional memory is where most of the actual work takes place.

the world owes us far more than we owe it for the anguish it causes us and our deaths, be they single stroke or by a thousand cuts