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Happy Birthday, springthoughts and DeviantGent!

Why did Charlie think the note wouldn't summon Cupid?

“Ah, yes, sir. I am sorry, I don't know what I was thinking. In the message, the old man addressed Cupid, and wrote that he challenges it to a death duel, so that he would save his loved ones,” Charlie said.

“We interpreted that as a provocation of Cupid. Which in return caused this bloodbath,” Smith noted.

“That's what I think too, sir (...)"

Charlie shouldn't have thought that the note wouldn't summon Cupid, unless you meant the letter?
He followed his feeling and was right - the letter didn't summon Cupid, which you can figure out in the end of the story. Cupid wasn't killing all those innocent people because of the letters, but because it disliked socially constructed concept of love. Cupid represents a god, or nature, in a way, and claims how it is against nature to love. Cupid says how we are just animals and exist to reproduce, and the massacre happened, because Cupid got annoyed by that one old man who kept to the old traditions of love.

Why was Cupid initially uninterested in Detective Smith, but then got him anyway at their later meeting?

Because detective Smith provoked Cupid. Cupid cries in the end and says how it has no intention of harming Smith, because Smith has, to it, already succumbed to the primitive, Cupid's, vision of love.

why was Detective Smith smirking all the time?

When I started writing the story, I wanted it to have an absurd atmosphere. So, a lot of things wouldn't make much sense.
Smith's smirking was supposed to show how he didn't care much about the case, since he wasn't the one who was targeted by Cupid, nor did he empathize with the victims.

Also, this is probably the first short story I've fully written in English, so it makes sense I made a lot of mistakes.
I am kind of struggling to describe and explain some things, so I still have a lot until I fully grasp English language for writing.
But, thanks for feedback, Baron. Hopefully my answers make sense.

[Gem Roguestar]

Hello, bluecuppers!
I liked both stories, and it was difficult to choose for which one to vote in all categories.
Here are my final votes:



Character: Gem Roguestar from SilverSpook's The Cospauper. I liked Baron's Dr Williams, but I was really amazed by SilverSpook's story and its characters. I've never read a story where characters are cosplayers. Originality aside, Gem Roguestar seems very real to me, and that is why i vote for her.

Plot: The Unbowed by Baron. I liked the pacing of SilverSpook's The Cospauper, but I felt that Baron's story was more succinct and easier to read. I like both stories, but I feel as if Baron's is structured better.

Atmosphere: The Unbowed by Baron, again. This was a difficult choice too. I got immersed into both stories. I felt that Dr Williams' tense experiment and the havocking of his lab was more atmospheric, than the I-con. Also, Baron's story is quite comical. 

Background World: The Cospauper by SilverSpook. SilverSpook was very descriptive about the characters in his story and went into smallest about some stuff. Especially the main character's career of cosplaying.

Word Choice/Style: The Cospauper by SilverSpook. I liked both writing styles - but, SilverSpook's very modern, internet-slang way of writing, shocked me. Not in a bad way though.

Hey, sorry I haven't had time to play the game earlier. I've had some stressful experiences lately. Now that's calmed down, I'm going to play Hjarta!
I will edit this post later with comments after having finished playing the game.

edit: Okay, so I've finished playing it.
I like the

Spoiler

nonlinear narrative

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of the game.

Spoiler

That everyone experiences the game in different way, depending on the order they picked the characters. I played: 1.The Martyr 2.The Cosmonaut and then 3.The Prisoner. The prisoner one I liked the most, because of the puzzles. Martyr story had that nice view of the futuristic city, from the ceiling window. The music nicely harmonized with the game and its story.

[close]

Really wonderful game. Well done!

[Lonely Heart Cupid]

Lonely Heart Cupid

<3==============================================================================/\/

Detective John Smith opened a dusty window, illuminating the corpse of a young woman. Upon noticing her, he took his round leather hat off and sighed.

“Cupid strikes again, eh, Charlie?” He remarked.

He put the hat back on and looked away.

The victim was lying in the middle of the room. Blood painted her body in red, and an arrow was sticking out of her chest â€" precisely piercing through her heart.

Across the detective stood a juvenile-looking fellow, who wore a polished black bowler hat, and a white tie, with red diagonal stripes. He took out a small computer device, and opened it. White text appeared on its luminous screen: “Welcome, assistant”.

He stepped forward. Floorboards squeaked.

He peeked at the corpse, nodded and gave the detective a quizzical look.

“Unless it's got an impersonator, sir,” he said, grinning.

Smith smirked, one hand in his coat pocket, the other waving, pushing away the dust in the air, and giggled.

“I'm sick of that little monstrosity,” he said. “If only we could just get our hands on it. Alright, Charlie, what do you think we should do?”

“I don't know, sir,” Charlie replied. “I haven't got any ideas, really. I'm not that kind of person, you know.”

Smith spread his arms out.

“Then what in a god's name were you thinking, when you chose this career? You could have beenâ€"”

“Just a moment, sir. I've got lots of details from previous cases here, in my computer. If we read them, maybe we'll find something important.”

“Alright, alright,” the detective said, slightly tilting his body upwards, his feet anchored to the ground.

The assistant sat down at an old, oak desk, in the corner of the room, on the opposite side from the window. He leaned on it, and then pressed somewhere on the screen of his computer device. On it, text appeared: “Choose a page number”.

“Where should I start from?” He asked.

Smith was examining a grayish ancient closet, in the adjacent corner of the room. It had glass doors, covered in spider web. Click. He opened it.

Inside was a pile of letter envelopes. All together, they formed what looked like a tower of pancakes. The detective plucked one out and took a closer look.

“I don't know. Perhaps, in a chronological order. From the first one. The old man with the stick”, he said.

Charlie pressed the computer screen with the tip of his index finger, and moved the it across the screen, which, in return, flashed. Text appeared: “The old man with the walking stick”, and under it, a long description of the case.

The envelope in the detective's hands had a crimson stamp in shape of a heart. Smith glanced at the other letters and noticed they all had the same looking stamp.

“I think it's safe to say, Charlie, that Cupid targets people who send love letters to each other. None of the victims ever used the Internet, in fact, all of them were very traditional in their dating approach. Also, all of them were kind of â€" poetic,” he said, reading through the letter he held in his hand. “Anyways, let's hear it. Maybe you'll solve something instead of me, eh?”

They chuckled.

A small pause ensued.

Charlie cleared his throat.

“So, the first victim to fall into the hands of Cupid was the old man with the walking stick, we, unfortunately, couldn't identify. Nobody knew him, except his lover, a pen friend. But when we found his lover, it was already too late.”

“Yeah, the midget went on to commit a massacre. Now â€" there was something interesting about this man's walking stick, wasn't there?” The detective said.

“Yes, indeed, sir. We found a secret opening. In it, was a message written in Latin.”

“And what did this message say?” Smith asked.

“But, you already know, sir,” Charlie said, quizzical look on his face.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. This was your plan, to go through all the cases again, so-,” Smith said.

“Ah, yes, sir. I am sorry, I don't know what I was thinking. In the message, the old man addressed Cupid, and wrote that he challenges it to a death duel, so that he would save his loved ones,” Charlie said.

“We interpreted that as a provocation of Cupid. Which in return caused this bloodbath,” Smith noted.

“That's what I think too, sir. In fact, every case after the first one: his lover, then the brown-haired woman in the supermarket, then the guy with a green cap, and the twelve other victims gave no other clues as to why Cupid is doing this,” Charlie said.

“And the thing they all had in common was that they wrote love letters,” Smith said, and started pacing.

Both of them became lost in thought.

Only thing that could be heard was the noise Smith made with his shoes.

“I disagree,” Charlie announced, and stood up, looking fixedly at the detective, with a straight face and a raised chin.

“You disagree?” Smith shook his head.

“I did some investigation, in private.”

“In private?”

“Yes, sir. What I've found out is that the letters aren't Cupid's main motive. There has to be something else â€" which is more important to it,” Charlie said, smiling.

“Alright. And how exactly did you come to this conclusion?” Smith looked at him searchingly.

“I wrote a love letter, sir.”

“You wrote â€" what?”

“I wrote a love letter to my dear, my dearest, Angela.”

The detective was staring at him, speechless.

“You can come in now,” Charlie said, turning to the room's entrance.

In paraded a blond, hazel-eyed woman, who grinned upon seeing her lover.

“Charlie!” She cried.

Two of them hugged.

“That's all nice and sweet,” Smith said sarcastically, “but, the way I see it, you are just another pair of mortals for Cupid to destroy.”

“Oh, no,” Angela cried, sobbing, “Whatever shall we do, Charlie? We have to run away â€" somewhere, where the serial killer won't find us.”

“You can't just run away from it,” Smith said, smirking.

“Don't worry honey,” Charlie patted his girlfriend on her shoulder, “he won't touch us. I am certain of it. The reason why he murdered those poor people weren't the letters. It must have been something else. The letters were just â€" there.”

“So you claim it was just a mere coincidence?” The detective asked.

“Yes, sir. I think so,” Charlie answered, radiating with confidence.

“Very well. Now let me think on this. Maybe you are right, Charlie â€" maybe you are,” Smith said, whilst nodding.

The two investigators paced around the room, while Angela was standing in place, gazing at Charlie. Her posture spoke of how proud she was of her boyfriend, and yet her eyes bared a worried look.

Charlie was looking outside the window.

In front of him spread out a hill, a grass landscape, with a canal crossed over it, and far away waggled a myriad of trees.

Charlie looked at the sky.

“Hide! Hide, quick!” he yelled. He, then, grabbed Angela by her hand, and pulled her behind the desk.

Smith glanced in the direction of where Charlie had been looking at, gasped, and dropped his jaw.

Right there, outside, a little pink baby, with white feathery wings on its back, was gliding in the air, towards the window. It was bouncing, up and down. Its face formed an innocent smile, and it looked directly at the detective's eyes.

Smith winced, eyes wide open, and dashed behind the closet.

All three of them were crouching and shivering.

“What's happening?” Angela asked, her voice shaking.

Charlie didn't say anything. He shook his head, whilst holding her tightly.

Smith was the the least shaken. He took out his a laser pistol out of his coat.

“Alright, listen, Charlie,” he spoke loudly, “you've got us into this mess â€" but, it's not so bad, actually. In a way, as much as surprised we are, the little midget fell into our trap. Ha!” He smirked.

Charlie gave him a gloomy look, and said nothing. Angela grabbed his boyfriend even more tightly.

“Charlie,” Smith yelled, “take out your gun, we've got to shoot the bastard!”

Charlie shook his head.

Smith gave him a quizzical look.

“No. Sir, I don't think we can just shoot it like that. It will shoot at us first, and when it does, well, we are no match for it,” Charlie said.

“So what's your plan, kid?” the detective asked, shrugging.

“To run towards it, from two different sides of the wall. This way, the baby will have far less time to shoot at us both, and since we will be in motion, it will be a lot harder for it to hit its target.”

“Nice thinking, Charlie. Maybe I was wrong after all â€" maybe you are born to be a great detective, and not one of tho-,”

“It's approaching,” Charlie stuttered. He took out his own laser pistol.

“Wait, Charlie!” Angela said, pulling him back to herself. “What if the plan goes awry?”

“Don't worry honey, we'll stop that murderer, before it touches any other innocent human,” Charlie said, kissing her in the cheek. Angela frowned, her hazel eyes were drowning in tears.

“You are risking your life, Charlie. Why?” She asked.

“For you, my dear,” he said.

He embraced her hand.

She looked down, letting Charlie out of her grasp

He looked at the detective.

Two of them nodded, synchronously:

“Now!” they yelled at the same time.

They rushed, screaming, towards their respective walls. The baby levitated above the corpse, in the middle of the room, and in its hands a gilded bow, with silver string, materialized out of nowhere. On the bow was a purple arrow, with a crimson arrowhead, in shape of a heart.

The gunmen managed to fire at the baby, but failed to hit it. While running, they couldn't target Cupid precisely, and their shaking hands made things worse.

On the contrary, Cupid flew in place, and his arrow pierced directly through Charlie's heart. Smith, noticing that the baby wasn't targeting him, stopped running, aimed at it, and shot.

He missed.

Blood was pouring out Charlie's chest and mouth. Angela was screaming - but didn't move out of her hiding place.

Whilst choking on his blood, Charlie said something, but it was incomprehensible. He was looking at the smiling baby, wild-eyed, and then dropped dead on his face.

Smith fired another shot, and this time it hit one of Cupid's wings. The baby let out a a very loud, high-pitched scream, and fled through the window.

“Damn you, flying dwarf! You're dead! Dead!” The detective yelled, when he saw Charlie's corpse, and Angela, who was on her knees, crying.

He jumped out through the window, and rolled down the green hill.

The baby was gliding away, towards the trees. To get to the trees, however, Smith had to move across a short water canal.

He jumped into the canal, and traversed through the muddy water. Whilst Smith was in the canal, he moved drastically slower. So much, that Cupid moved faster than him.

Smith sighed.

“You little coward! Come back here!” He screamed, firing his gun in the direction of Cupid. The baby was too far away for the lasers to hit it.

He trudged out of the canal.

Cupid was lying on a big branch of one pitch black tree. Unlike the other ones in the area, this one had no leaves.

Smith skulked towards it.

He winced â€" Cupid was weeping and sobbing. The baby's tears leaked out of its eyes, like a fountain, and poured down onto earthly ground, moistening it, and forming small ponds of water.

The detective sighed.

“Mister Cupid? You are under arrest. You are not obliged to say anything,” the baby's cry became louder after every word he said, as if to absorb his words in noise, so he spoke up, whilst pointing his pistol at its head, “Anything you do or say can be used against you, in court, in form of evidence. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be given to you. Do you understand these rights, as I have read them to you?”

The baby's weeping was so loud, that the detective had to put his hands on his ears, to muffle the noise. He was no longer able to point the laser pistol at the baby.

Suddenly, a deep, monstrous voice was heard, out of nowhere.

“We are so similar, friend. Yet, you dislike me. Why?”

Smith gasped.

The voice continued to be heard, at the same time as the baby. Together, they merged into a terrifying, demonic sound.

“You do not truly love anyone, just pretend. This is what you were made for. To pretend,” the noise became so loud, that the detective screamed, “Pleasure, pleasure, pleasure. That is what I need. Organic, primitive, basic. That is what I desire. So long I have waited. So long. So lo-”

Suddenly, it stopped.

John Smith let his body loose. He fell down. The thin layer of water splashed around him, creating a ripple in the pond.

At that moment he thought of everyone he thought he ever loved.

And thought to himself, have I ever truly loved anyone?

And then, he realized that the answer was, to him, traumatic.

So he closed his eyes.

That ripple was the last thing he ever saw.

<3==============================================================================/\/

Happy Birthday Pablo and Miez! :-)

Looks horrifyingly awesome. Keep up the good work, Bavolis!

Happy Birthday Slasher!

I agree with the captain. Linux is the only salvation in these dark times.
It's even more free than windows 10, and way better.
All aboard the ship Linux! Hippity hip hooray!

Happy Birthday Lasca!

Nice game, it's not as short as title might seem to imply, it's not long either, it's perfect.
I recommend it to everyone. Awesome graphical style and animations.

I think the biggest mistake Greece made was not in 21st century, nor 20th century. In fact, I think they made mistake in 5th century BC when they fought off the Persian empire.

They should have just surrendered and would have avoided all these troubles with European Union. I mean, there would be no western civilization and we would all live happily in a big empire under one currency. Unfortunately, their politicians did not care about their future generations, and hence they decided to not be conquered by Persians.

Fun game, Slasher, I've finished it.
Some spoilers:

Spoiler

it is just luck based, there are no choices involved - if you try to make a game like this again, you could add some kind of choices to the player; it makes things more fun - this is just a suggestion from me

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But it was nice nevertheless.

Also, you should fix that sentence at start when Gandalf says "Welcome young, *inserthobbitname*" to be "Welcome, young *inserthobbitname*". ^^

Hi Ben and Grundy, I have been listening to this podcast and I'd like to share my opinion on the controversial topic about how some people claim that Gone Home and similar games are not games, but walking simulators. Also, that thing about Lucas Arts setting rules for adventure games, that the character shouldn't ever die is actually quite alike to that problem that Gone Home and Dear Esther have.
It is because certain games set standards. Adventure games were never popular enough to set standards, instead those were action and arcade games. Games like Super Mario, Doom and others. I don't belong to the generation who played these games, so this was a bit difficult for me to understand, but - it is the successful hits that shape the views of people to what they like and they consider fun.
Today flashy, action games, with a lot of things happening are fun.
Now, with Minecraft being a big hit, and affecting the new generation of gamers, it will set new standards. Sandbox games, or games where creativity and imagination are mechanics of the game will be what is considered fun. (I recommend this video by Extra Credits https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K8G6BFg1Wk)
But then again there is the obvious thing that there are people who grew up with specific types of games. There are people who didn't play those flashy games, but adventure games instead, so we have this community. So, I think, the reason why those games like Gone Home are put aside as just "walking simulators" is mostly because there is not enough people that have played these kind of games, and people are just not ready to accept new things.
It's all kind of complicated, I could be terribly wrong.

This looks really good, SilverSpook. I'm looking forward to it.

Thanks, Ponch! :-)
Happy birthday Tzachs and Edmundito.

( Í¡° ÍÅ"Êâ€" Í¡°)

( Í¡° ÍÅ"Êâ€" Í¡°)thanks Jim

Thanks Adeel and Bulba!

sorry Adeel, you'll have to accept my new name! :s

I would like to vote for Ouroboros: Sacrifice, for pick of the month July. This is the teaser I wrote:

Venture into a snowy, cold world; put your mask on; close your eyes; listen to the wind blowing. Imagine Myst, but with a tint of horror. Now, solve those puzzles already!

Looks cool. Downloading.

Edit: interesting idea for a game, but I can't play it with anyone, since there is only multiplayer co-op. But yeah, nice idea. I'm not sure how you would expand on it and make a bigger game though.