BASKETBALL FIC: Diana Taurasi/Sue Bird [Dark Souls AU]

[sexonastick]

Title: Swing Sweet Charity, Take What's Left of Me
Cast: Diana Taurasi/Sue Bird
Summary: In the land of Lordran, there is no such thing as death. There's only walking or waking again, and whether or not you remember why you bother to do either.
Notes: Originally started as a birthday gift for thebasseffect, who encouraged me to take my time until I liked it

Comments

[nycscribbler]

So I read this with the Wikipedia article on the game open in another tab. I like tabbed browsing.

I don't know much about the game, but you imparted an amazing feel of the darkness that you described in it. It feels like we've walked into the middle of a saved game, with Diana having died over and over again (good gods, that's a depressing sentence) and having lost her past. Sue's a better player, then? :) I sort of like the idea that they could be reinventing their pasts, basing it on their present.

And I'm always a sucker for references, so I grinned like a loon at Nerua and Penelope, at Rebecca and Sylvia. This might be Sue and Diana's journey, but they're never alone.

Couple of typos (dented steal, needless had slipped). Small things, nothing major.

[sexonastick]

First: thanks for noting the typos! Those are totally on me and not thebasseffect whose beta work this time was largely inspirational and idea bouncing, with only partial spellcheck and grammar because having her reread it over and over when it was meant as a gift seemed... like a less than ideal present?

I'm glad you liked it? As much as "liking" is the accurate word for something that can be accurately described as dark and depressing, of course.

good gods, that's a depressing sentence

Yeah, but accurate. The game's tagline is "prepare to die."

Thanks for reading. :)

[thebasseffect]

So, I am finally getting around to commenting. I'm horrible, I know. But luckily you love me anyway!

You already know what I think about the utterly depressing journey we get to see Diana take, slowly descending into insanity! ;) But okay, okay, I can KIND OF see how it's at least happy that she's, you know, not suffering. Because dear god Dark Souls is pain and anguish. Which I still haven't beat yet, btw, which... pretty much shows how depressing. (Because I totally beat Sleeping Dogs this afternoon. Less than 24 hours. Ha!)

But apart from the fact that this is depressing as hell! -- or maybe because of it -- I think you did a really great job capturing Dark Souls, from the combat, to the beautiful yet bleak surroundings, to things like Frampt and Queelag's sister, and of course brilliant use of the multiplayer summoning mechanism. Lots of really good, strong writing, so stop worrying. ;) And thank you for the birthday present. :D

[sexonastick]

I'm horrible, I know. But luckily you love me anyway!

Yeah, I guess so. We still haven't worked out why that is!

I've almost beaten Dark Souls, which will make it probably the second game ever that we both played but only I have beaten. (The other being Saints Row 2.) You're not going to just sit there and take that, are you? (I am like AT THE LAST BOSS FIGHT but taking the time to grind for shit to improve my armor and crap going into new game plus.)

You're welcome for the present. And... thank you for what I think are compliments? :D

Also, since I'm not sure if you used it or not: Diana's weapon is the Furysword you get from Quelaag's soul. Its power is based on your dex multiplied by how much humanity you're carrying. It's AWESOME.

[thebasseffect]

Despite your juvenile attempts at goading me into playing Dark Souls, there are some things that just aren't worth it. The ridiculous grinding and dungeon crawling involved in beating the ENTIRE OPENING SEQUENCE is, you know. Not worth it. I stand comfortably secure in my gaming prowess, thank you.

Sleeping Dogs was actually a lot better than I actually expected it to be? You should definitely try it. Use a controller though. M+K really still sucked, although I got more used to it as I played. Half the problem was I was trying to play it like a NORMAL game, meaning controlling my dude's direction with the mouse (and thus the camera) but the game is calibrated for controllers so once I started controlling with wasd almost entirely and only using the mouse for shooting aim, I was better. I actually really liked the acting and the story and everything. Better than like... anything recently. Except I guess Mass Effect.

And they were compliments. Stop pretending you're not sure!

[sexonastick]

Did you lose your save or something? Because otherwise, you are PAST the opening section and are at the shit where it gets a lot easier overall.

Also the game becomes a lot easier if you take the time to grind regularly for crafting items and humanity while watching something on netflix. This is how I watched almost all of Being Human and season one of The Tudors. I AM JUST TRYING TO HELP YOU.

I'll have to look into it. You should still give The Witcher a try. Either of them. And... I'm not sure that I've played much else this year that you'd care about that's not on a handheld or the Wii.

And they were compliments. Stop pretending you're not sure!

You really are so sweet. How could I ever doubt?

[darkmagenta]

Late to the party, I know....but I only just found this fic. God, I'm so stoked about this!!!!

Since I'm in Australia at the moment, which is amazing but a third world country when it comes to internet connection, I just loaded this fic on a tab and saved the read for later, which happened to be half asleep the next morning right before work. I only had time to skim through it really, and first I was all "yay, happy ending" hahahahaha, but then in the car ride up to work I started thinking about it again and realized with increasing horror that she just went insane, LOL

[sexonastick]

I have really mixed feelings about this! On the one hand I feel kind of bad about the fic giving you such a (presumably) unpleasant double-take, but it's also kind of... awesome to hear? Sorry!

And dude, THANK you. It's really good to hear that the world works for even people who haven't played the game, especially since it was honestly a lot of fun to write.

But I'd feel remise if I didn't mention -- since you bring up video game AUs -- that thebasseffect wrote a massive Final Fantasy XII based Sue/Diana AU that's far happier overall. It's here. (Of course, she wrote it when she still had her old username and LJ isn't properly redirecting links like that. I'll have to tell her to update the other links!)

And on a side note: I’m glad you're back! :D

I'm glad too. Thank you. :)

[darkmagenta]

Haha don't worry, I have a crappy computer that barely manages Skyrim at the moment so I'll wait with trying Dark Souls and Secret World at the moment. Need to get some better gaming equipment, really, but it's not the only expensive hobby I have so..we'll see when that happens ;).

Actually I haven't played Final Fantasy either (I know, I know!) but wow, I'd LOVE to read that! Thanks for the heads up, I'll definitely check it up when I have time. Awesome!