#Or like the intro to an otome game except otome game intros give you SOME idea of character

[captainsaku]

I don't think it looks bad btw, I just don't think it looks like Dragon Age tbh

[koinotame]

otome game ocs (old)

word count: 2.7K content warnings: unhealthy relationship dynamics, nsfw (not explicit), unreality? (heroine is self aware she's in some story), reader is implied to have trouble both at home and school + some sort of skin disorder, yandere typical levels of violence

a/n: this is a repost (unedited)! basic idea: if you know those villainess isekai stories, yeah. that but yandere. under the cut for length + this is badly formatted. originally called villainess isekai, but otome game fits it better & is a bit more distinct from gacha isekai lol. i think i mention the story being a novel but um. don't mind that i'll revise it when their new intros get posted =w=b

quick note: the villainess is a girl, and is treated as such by society, but no comments are made about reader’s gender or body. the villainess’ gender isn’t mentioned much or really important to anything, but she herself will be referred to femininely while reader is entirely neutral.

ok so the basic premise is the same as most of the villainess stories. you get reincarnated into the body of some noble girl, except you very quickly learn that she is, um, know for her attitude problems. nobody likes her. it’s sad. your (her?) father seems very loving, at least, and he seems a bit surprised when you’re polite but doesn’t comment on it. she’s also… engaged to the crown prince, who she hassled into marrying her. her father seems almost relieved when you ask if you could possibly annul the engagement because it’s very clear he doesn’t love her… except when you go to do so, he gets on his knees and starts begging you to punish him and put him in his place. and then spends the rest of the time you spend there trying to convince you to take him back. this alone is enough to give you a headache—but when the heroine makes her appearance, you’re unsettled. despite the fact that the villainess was allegedly bullying her, she’s all smiles and sunshines and… almost seems to enjoy being around you more than the supposed love interests? and that’s when it dawns on you. that’s the heroine of that popular villainess novel you remember reading years ago and remember almost nothing of. and suddenly the previous owner of your body is trying to contact you, wanting her body back—but also wanting you beside her.

the crown prince danger level: 4/5 type: worshipper

the crown prince doesn’t care about his fiancé. she’s bratty and annoying and he doesn’t like how clingy she is. the less time he spends around her, the better. despite that, he can’t deny that the disgusted gaze you give him one day has excitement pooling between his legs and deep in his gut. he’s not sure how you found out about his tastes, but if this is an attempt at seducing him, it’s working. the more uninterested and uncaring you seem around him, the harder it gets to ignore how much he likes the treatment. so when you call for him specifically, he’s excited. that comes crashing down when you tell him you’d like to annul your engagement, and for a second he looks hopelessly lost and seconds away from spiraling into panic—until he realises. ah! he understands. you’re going to play around with him, aren’t you? he can barely contain his excitement, shaking as he kneels down and tells you he’s been naughty and you need to punish him and put him in his place! your face contorts and he assumes he’s not doing enough, so he starts kissing your feet. you make a noise that he can’t hear over his pounding heartbeat and kick him down and then just… leave. the thought of being lower than dirt to you makes his body feel like he’s on fire.

the more you treat him with disdain, the more he’s head over heels. the idea of you treating him like nothing more than dirt… he’s practically drooling whenever he thinks about you. he starts offering to pay for you and buy you whatever—anything!—you want and it’s the best decision he’s made in his life. others are amazed when they see the two of you out in public—the usually stoic and reserved prince following you around like a puppy, the roles reversed for once. if he didn’t have a public reputation to keep, he’d outright ask you to lead him around by a leash. he also adores the way you call him your little piggy bank mockingly, and he daydreams frequently about the time you pulled him close by his tie when he displeased you.

at first, he was mainly enamoured by the way you treated him, but over time he’s started to care for you, too. a… bit too deeply. if anyone talks badly about you in his presence, he has no hesitation in telling them off. he’s not above threatening them but he also just goes off on tangents about how great and wonderful you are, and everybody learns that the easiest way to avoid them is by not being mean to or about you. you’d say you appreciate the fact that people are nicer to you now, but you’re getting tired of his presence in the first place. a simple "shut up" from you is enough to silence him, though. you appreciate the quiet and he’s elated that you’re paying attention to him at all. and… has he been bad? do you… want to punish him? put him in his place? call him names? degra—no wait, wait, come back, please, darling—

incredibly clingy. has to be with you at all times and will seek you out if you try to avoid him. doesn’t take no for an answer and can be incredibly pushy. partially because he loves you that much and partially because he’s hoping you’ll finally put your foot down. adores showing off for you—you telling him off is wonderful, but your praise really gets to his head. also loves calling you sweet names and doing generally couple-y stuff. let him sit in his lap while he feeds you (or sit in his! he’s not picky), let him kiss your hand every time the two of you see each other, let him call you all the sweet pet names in the world. hey, you know what? the two of you will be wed anyway. why don’t you sleep in the same bed? no? aw, okay… are you sure? he won’t do anything directly against your wishes (apart from, you know, not leaving you alone) and doesn’t want to make you hate him (any more than you already do, anyway).

eventually he gets more desperate, though. he wants to be your toy, but he doesn’t want to be your toy because he forced you to be his owner. he wants you to choose him on your own… but you won’t. you barely even look his way without all his theatrics, and the thought tears him apart. he’s not stupid. changing himself won’t help, and as much as he hates it, he can’t live without you at this point. you’re as essential to him as breathing, so even if it means you’ll hate him, he can’t let you go. he’ll give you everything else you might want, though, so please don’t abandon him…?

whatever you want, just, please… don’t throw him away.

the heroine danger level: 3/5 type: obsessive

there’s always been something surreal about her life, but it’s not until she started reading that she realised what it was. she’s perfect. too perfect—uncomfortably so. people fawn over her even when she hasn’t done anything to deserve that. her life almost seems scripted—from the way she dresses to every encounter she has. it seems straight out of a fairytale. she stopped caring about how story-like her luck and life seemed from a young age. why does it matter? if that’s the way things are, that’s the way things are and there’s not much point in trying to change them. it’s when she starts reading, pouring through book over book, that she realise she might actually be in a story. the thought doesn’t make her feel empty, and it doesn’t make her feel full. what does get to her is the idea that she might’ve been made for someone—not someone in her universe, but someone far away. someone who’s watching her, who she’s meant to exist for. who she’s meant to impress. who she, more than anything, wants to impress.

once she realises that, she plays up her act. no longer is she the uncaring girl who goes along with what the universe has in store for her. no, she’s honing her acting and personality to be exactly as she imagines you’d like. maybe this is scripted too, some part of her whispers, but she doesn’t care. the idea of being a mere character, a doll meant to entertain someone she could never touch… it’s exhilarating. she loves it. she doesn’t know much about you, so she’ll have to make do. studying becomes her favourite thing to do, but it’s studying meant to impress you and not studying meant to be helpful in her life. what type of protagonist would you prefer? the naive, innocent type, or the one who takes charge more? should she be able to cook or bake? or maybe both? what type of love interest would you prefer to partner her with? her mother watches all of this unfold, unsure if she should be concerned about what her daughter is dedicating time to or happy about her finally having some real motivation in life.

then one day the thought occurs to her. what if… what if you wanted to see everything firsthand? surely seeing a live play unfold in front of your eyes is more enticing than just reading a book? she’s never been an expert in business, and she’s not gifted with magic, but if there’s something she’s good at it’s seduction. finding a suitable body for you (that annoying daughter of one of the most powerful dukes in the kingdom… ah, maybe you’d prefer to have a rival? no, if you’re there then you could decide that) proves easy, and finding a mage who’s willing to help her out is even easier. her mother comments on how she’s even peppier than usual after she learns of the sudden personality change. it’s worked… she spends some extra time while you’re adjusting to prepare so her entrance will be perfect.

but it isn’t. you barely recognise her, and you seem uninterested in having anything to do with her. you seem completely uninterested in one of the love interests, your fiancé, too. that’s fine… until she realises you couldn’t care less about her either way. that has her frantic… until she realises that works just as well. why put up an act when there’s no need to? she’ll fawn over you, instead. and fawn she does. she follows you everywhere, content to just watch and not converse, and always insists on sitting next to you or partnering up with you. and she stares. it’s almost a bit creepy. she doesn’t mind if you find her creepy. being entertainment to you was fine, but if you don’t care about her then she’s going to take the opportunity to be in your presence as much as possible.

she has a shrine for you. there’s no beating around the bush—her entire life revolves around you. you’re sacred to her, and now that she’s got a shot at interacting with you directly she’s most definitely going to take note of everything you say. her memory, when it comes to you, is impressive, but she still writes down everything important (which is…. literally everything) about you into a little notebook she carries everywhere. and she likes keeping your things. of course she’d never dare steal from you! but a napkin or fork that you threw away aren’t things you’ll notice. she spends most of her pocket money on buying things she thinks you’d like. she’d like to give them to you directly, in person, one day, but for now they’ll have to make do in her shrine.

you gave her life meaning, and she’s enamoured with you as a result. she’ll do anything for you, whether you want her to or not.

the villainess danger level: 2/5 type: doting

smart and calculating as she may be, the villainess has always been bratty and spoiled. it’s not until she’s thrown into someone else’s body in a completely foreign universe that she sobers up a bit. she has complaints about everything, of course, but she’s never been the type to sit on her butt and wait for things to solve themselves. your room is a mess, for starters, and what are these? clothes? they’re rags. she needs a better wardrobe, even if she’s planning on getting back as soon as possible. your parents? she’s good with words. whatever they throw at her, she’ll throw back double and leave them speechless. the five overdue assignments? ugh, she needs to get used to modern technology anyway. and she’s bored. she might as well. your teachers might think you’ve cheated from how well she’s doing them. she also absolutely insists on taking proper care of your body. she’s living in it now, and she won’t deal with these pesky skin problems. or, at least, she’ll minimise the discomfort as much as possible. she’s meticulous, if nothing else.

it’s through doing all of this that she starts learning about you. the more she uncovers from files on your computer or through anecdotes from your family, the more she starts finding some strange form of comfort in you. at first, the idea of it weirds her out. she must be feeling this way because she’s in your body, right? right. that’s it. there’s no way she’s finding solace in some nobody like you. but the more time passes, the more she realises that’s just not true. she does like you. she does spend a lot of time wishing she could talk to you directly. and she has started scouring over everything you’ve left behind trying to understand you better and know you more fully. she feels almost protective of you. she’s living your life, and you’re possibly gone forever. the thought makes her feel weirdly empty inside. she ignores the thought that you wouldn’t like her as much as possible.

it doesn’t take her too long to realise that she didn’t die, and neither did you. researching swapping bodies is… nigh impossible, with the way magic doesn’t seem to exist here. so she turns to her dreams, attempting to contact you through that. she has a fair idea of what you’re like, so it’s not too hard for her to visualise you and reach out. the first time the two of you talk, it’s nothing special. you’re so sleepy you’re kind of delirious, and she’s doing nothing but ranting about how your life is all sorts of terrible and you better be taking care of her body. or else. you hear her? the more frequently you talk, the less bite there is to her words. and the more attached to you she gets, to the point where she starts thinking that, perhaps, fate is real. fate is real and the two of you were always meant to cross paths like this. the thought has her feeling unusually giddy, and at this point her previous fiancé is all but forgotten.

she wants to be with you. she never wants to part from you. she wants to hold you and brave the world together. you’re special and she wants to get to know you intimately. she’s not particularly interested in monopolising you… mainly because she knows those other two aren’t even competition. or, well, she doesn’t know that since you don’t really mention them, but if she did she wouldn’t care. she’s your friend, and what can those two claim? nothing. she, unlike those two, is normal. mostly. she respects your wishes. for the most part. she— the list goes on. she does put you on a pedestal, but it’s different from the other two. you’re special and wonderful, but that doesn’t mean you’re unreachable for her. you’re not untouchable—you’re just you. that’s what she enjoys the most about you.

don’t misunderstand. she may be the most normal, but she’s still haughty. you’re on her level and she enjoys doting on you, but anyone else? they’re beneath the both of you. she’ll gladly create a throne out of corpses and daintily help you sit, then seat herself next to you. she’s cruel, just not to you. you’re the only one able to reign her in anymore, and she loves you for it. the two of you were meant for each other, and she’ll bring the whole country down with her before letting you go. nobody else deserves you—only she does. and you deserve only the best… namely her.

she loves you, more than anything. more than even herself. and she wants to give you the entire world, just as you deserve. for pulling her out of that dark spot, and for existing.

[pangzi]

Otome gay [Nielan] - Chapter 1

word count: 1663  other chapters:  INTRO - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 [AO3]

When the doctor said Mingjue had to rest for three weeks, he knew it was going to be hard. Maybe if Huaisang still lived at home, or if he had a boyfriend, it would’ve been bearable. But one week in now, Mingjue was losing his mind. Zonghui refused to let him come to the gym to at least do some administration or something. He could do all that from home, Zonghui had told Mingjue. He had no way to get there either, as he couldn’t drive with a broken foot. So Mingjue was stuck at home, alone. 

Luckily, Huaisang had promised to come home for the weekend to keep him company. Mingjue won’t admit it out loud, but he really misses Huaisang. It’s quite boring at home without Huaisang’s constant nagging, without someone to boss around a bit.

Mingjue had only just gotten out of bed, groggily making his morning coffee, when Huaisang burst inside. 

“Dage, I’m home!” He yelled, “did you miss me?” 

Mingjue heard him drop all his stuff near the door. Only seconds later he felt his little brother wrapping his arms around him for a short hug. 

“Can you make me a coffee too, dage?” Huaisang asked, immediately going for the puppy dog eyes he knew his brother had a hard time saying no to. “The coffee on campus is disgusting compared to that honey and vanilla latte you make!” 

Mingjue pushed him away and grabbed another cup as a reply. Huaisang smiled brightly and hopped on the countertop behind him. 

Huaisang just chatted happily about some things that happened at school, while waiting for his coffee. Mingjue didn’t really reply to anything, but he was listening and Huaisang knew that. Huaisang knows not to expect a reply from Mingjue until he’s had his morning coffee, he also knows that Mingjue does enjoy listening to his non-stop chatter no matter how early it is. 

He hopped down as soon as he saw the coffee was ready, handed Mingjue his crutches and took the coffees. 

“Let’s go talk on the couch, you should keep your foot up!”

Huaisang waited for Mingjue to be comfortable on the couch, with his foot propped up on the table, to start talking again. He chattered on happily while Mingjue just enjoyed his coffee and his brother’s company. Mingjue’s heart almost ached with how much he had missed his brother. 

“Now, dage”, Huaisang said when he noticed his brother’s morning mood had passed, “what have you been up to? Have you found anyone yet to fill the void I left when I left for uni?”

“I’ve been working a lot,” Mingjue said, “no time to find anyone.”

“As usual”, Huaisang sighed, “You can’t tell me there isn’t some guy at the gym that has caught your eye at least once”

“I don’t date clients” 

Huaisang rolled his eyes and took the empty coffee mugs to the kitchen. Sometimes he really couldn’t believe how stubborn his brother could be. Mingjue has always been big on following the rules, stubbornly sticking to his own morals and beliefs even when breaking them wouldn’t harm anyone, when they could make his own life better. Huaisang knew several people who only came to the gym because they were interested in his brother, but Mingjue refused to even give them a chance as if he’d be breaking a huge moral code. Huaisang often reminded his brother that he wasn’t a lawyer or a doctor or a teacher or something and the only thing that could happen was that someone stopped coming to the gym, but it didn’t do anything.

Instead of having the same conversation for the umpteenth time, Huaisang changed the topic as soon as he sat down. 

“Dage, now that you’re home for three weeks and you don’t have me to keep you company”, Huaisang said, “you must be bored, right?”

Mingjue huffed. Of course he was bored, all he could do all day was sit around, read a book or watch a movie or tv-series. All big fun, when you have the choice to do other things as well. But instead of giving a snappy remark, he just hummed and asked why.

“So, Wei Wuxian and I had the idea to develop this otome game and we still need someone to try the game, and now that you’re stuck at home for so long you’re the perfect candidate!”

“You developed a what with who? Please speak in a language I understand, a-Sang” 

Huaisang laughed and told him to wait a second. He disappeared into the hallway and came back with his computer in his arms. He plopped down close to his big brother and started his computer.

“So, my roommate Wei Wuxian and I had the great idea to make a game together”, Huaisang started to explain, “He does the coding, I draw the characters and backgrounds, the story and conversations we come up with together.”

Mingjue hummed, as Huaisang clicked open an application.

“We don’t have a name for it yet, and we haven’t agreed on the names of the characters, but except for that it’s mostly done” 

SangXian’s wonderous otome game appeared on the screen in a fancy font, with underneath the options to play, load save game and exit. The background seemed to be a sort of slideshow of, what Mingjue guesses are, the in-game locations. 

“The game is an otome game, which is some kind of dating game” Huaisang explained, the cursor hovering over play for a second before he closed the minimized the application and opened a folder that was filled with drawings. “There are several characters you can choose to try and date, all of them have a positive ending, a negative one and a neutral one.” 

Huaisang selected a few images in the folder and opened them. “I’ll introduce you to the characters now” 

First character he showed was a boy with a scowl on his face. He was wearing all black with a purple apron. His hair seemed to be half long, pulled backwards with a purple ribbon. 

“This is our barista”, Huaisang said, “I cannot tell you much more than that and that he clearly likes purple, what do you think?”

“He looks like he’s trouble, but he’s handsome. Probably an interesting person”

Huaisang beamed at that before going to the next drawing. This one showed another handsome boy, this one was dressed in clearly expensive clothing and had quite a cocky posture.

“Our rich boy, a student at the university your character goes to.”

“Hm, looks nice but not exactly my type.”

Huaisang nodded and opened another drawing. This one gave Mingjue a weird feeling immediately and not in a good way. This one was clearly smaller than the rest, he was wearing what seemed to be tights and a big shirt. 

“I don’t like him,” Mingjue grumbled before Huaisang could even say anything about him.

“What has he done to you? You don’t even know anything about him yet!” 

Mingjue shrugged. “I just don’t like him, gives me a weird feeling, bad weird”

“Well, either way, this guy is a dancer. He is close friends with our next character!”

The next character took Mingjue’s breath away and it made him feel ridiculous. This character was dressed in white dungarees splattered with paint. He was tall, muscular, his hair was neatly cut and he has a soft smile on his face with eyes that radiate warmth and love. Everything about him just screamed Mingjue’s type. 

“I knew you would like him”, Huaisang said when he saw the way his brother was staring at the image. “This is our art guy, probably the nicest out of all characters but… well, all I can say is that he’s a special character.” 

Huaisang opened the last image. A cute boy, innocent looking, smiling brightly. The way his hair covered most of his face made him seem shy.

“Last but not least,” Huaisang said cheerfully, “our sweet med student! Again, he goes to the same school, he dreams of becoming a doctor like his sister and is probably one of the sweetest characters in the entire game”

“Looks like a sweet boy indeed”, Mingjue said and sat back on the couch.

“So?” Huaisang asked, “will you try it?”

Mingjue sighed deeply. He wasn’t the guy for sappy romance games like this. He didn’t really play games to be honest. Some candy crush on his phone every now and then, or Mario Kart with Huaisang when he’s home.

“Come on, dage”, Huaisang pouted, “you’re stuck at home anyway! Just try it for a bit, if you don’t like it that’s okay we’ll find someone else!” 

Mingjue cursed at how weak he was for his little brother. He hated that Huaisang knew how weak he was for him, he hated that Huaisang knew exactly how to get him to do something. Huaisang batted his eyelashes at Mingjue a few times and opened the game again.

“Please just try it”, Huaisang whined.

“All right, all right. But I’m not playing that dancer boy’s route, I don’t trust him”, Mingjue grumbled. 

Huaisang jumped up from excitement before hugging his brother shortly and thanking him profusely, after which he went to fetch Mingjue’s computer to install the game. 

“All right, while this is installing you can tell me exactly what happened with your foot”, Huaisang said after starting the installation process. 

“I already told you, a dumbass took weights too heavy for him and dropped them on my foot when I was trying to help him.”

“No, I want the whole story! I want the tea!”

So, Mingjue told his brother the entire story, what wasn’t much more than what he’d already told Huaisang, just a lot more swearing. Then he sent his little brother to the store for some groceries with the promise that Mingjue would try the game while he was gone. So with a sigh, he opened his computer again and started the game.

[3yowi3]

Love Unholyc-Mystic Messenger 2.0

All the info is from here →  https://bit.ly/2rl0kkz

 ※Prettybusy, the game company, owns the credit for all the images that are used in this posting.

IF YOU ARE STILL SWIRMING UNDER THE AGTERMATH OF MYSTIC MESSENGER THIS COULD BE THE RIGHT CHOICE

So I’ve got to know this game through my blog buddy(not here).

The staffs were inspired by Mystic Messenger to make this game, so the system is veerrrryyy similar to that of Mystic Messenger. It has phone calls, and messenger. Moreover, what makes this game special is that we can receive a video call from the characters! You can see how the video call works in the game in Prettybusy YouTube channel (the link is on the very bottom of this posting)

BUT there is one big thing that distinguishes itself from that. 

No need more words, but just CHECK THIS OUT ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓

Uhuh, yeah that’s what I’m talking about  ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

The race of charms and seduction, "Unholyc". They are regarded as unholy because they are so fascinating and dangeroulsy attractive.

This is a brief intro to what you are about to taste. 

First of all I like the fact that the MC and the other characters are set in a condition to meet each other regularly. It just gives me tingles all over. This is what I reeeeeeaaaaaalllly needed in Mystic Messenger. I mean the mere tension between the unreachable MC and the desirable male characters is clearly what makes Mystic Messenger special. But I thought it’s about time to end the platonic love between me(player) and them ^-T I’M MOVING ON BOYS!

Ah...this dude has some eccentric tendencies...

I’m not one of those do S or do M admirers but that put aside I purely like his outlook. So for now I think Hi will be my first to go?

I’m usually obsessed with long-hair dudes but for some reason not much with this guy hmmm....Perhaps because of his attitude? Based on what’s revealed in the official twitter, he seems to be very flirty and playboyish with girls. Dunno much about him yet but for now he’ll be by second, after Hi,I  heh.

Aha, so you are the typical black-haired guy who's almost like a hot icon in otome games, the one who cannot be eliminated lol. Regardless of that he’s not my type tho :p

I like the part of him that he’s a gangsta. I want some actions and thrills here!

I won’t say more about him, but just keep in mind that HE HAS A ROUTE ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

I can’t believe a cute girl like MC is in the middle of a lustful situation.... It really makes me feel bad whenever I see images of her being all seduced and enchanted. Anyways, she’s our lovely MC. 

As you can see the interface and the design is very similar to those of Mystic Messenger. Except for the background design, which seems like what the staffs wanted to characterize as the Love Unholyc style. 

See that? Video call.

There’s more about rewards and exact info about how the funding will go, so please check out the website below.

As for me, still hovering between two funding options. Honestly, I don’t want to be too heavy on my spending to this game just because a lot of things are uncertain. At this point for me what makes this game noticeable is only the relation to Mystic Messenger and contents that is barely on the line of R18, which are some ‘stimulus’ that cannot be easily seen in Korean otome games. 

Yes, the staffs are Korean, it’s a Korean game, the company’s Korean but they are trying to run the game for international fans too.

Also, recently they announced that they added a digital only tire to the package list so go and check it outu :D

Soooo plz fund if you like it! (not many days left!)  →  https://bit.ly/2rl0kkz

Their Twitter  →  https://twitter.com/LoveUnholyc

Their FB  →  https://www.facebook.com/prettybusy.kr

Their YouTube →  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkU0wLA2x6eEz6XoMqykA5Q

[coderealizeheadcanons]

Code: Realize Episode 1 Review

Hello, everyone, this is Mod Cheshire! So as you know, Mod S and I will be reviewing every episode of the Code: Realize Anime, as a way to stimulate the fandom and, hopefully, interact with our lovely followers! The format will be pretty simple: we’ll talk about our likes and our dislikes for each episode as well as our expectations for the next episode. These reviews will probably be pretty long, so they’ll all have a “Keep reading” break.

That being said, let’s begin!

Mod S

Going into the first episode of this anime, I was quite hesitant. It's common knowledge that Otome game anime are usually not up to par with the source material; I had this same fear with Code: Realize. The difference between C:R and most otome anime that came before is that the story of C:R is incredibly dense and full of important nuances that would be sorely missed if forgotten. Rushing through too much of the story of C:R would not behoove the anime itself. And while we have a while yet to wait and see where this anime will take us, I'm more hopeful than I was going into it. 

The first thing that's worthy of my praise is certainly the animation quality. While it's not the most amazing I've seen (I would have wept tears of joy if A-1 Pictures or ufotable had picked up C:R), it's certainly not bad. It's smooth, there wasn't too many awkward faces or movements, and the character models are mostly to my satisfaction. Particularly Lupin's, Cardia's and Victor's. Also, I think they animators did a great job capturing the unique movements of the characters (Cardia's hesitance, Lupin's grace and Impey's silliness).  So far, I give the animations my seal of approval. 

Naturally, the cast is absolutely on point. While the first episode shows only a few of the characters, I look forward to the gradual introductions as they take place. I have full confidence that the cast will reprise their roles with aplomb. I'd like to particularly praise Yuki Kaji's excellent English pronunciation, Showtaro Morikubo's amazing ability to showcase multiple emotions in 30 seconds, and Saori Hayami's terrific grasp of Cardia's character. Admittedly, I was unsure if Saori Hayami could pull off Cardia, but I am much more confident in her acting chops now. She's also got my seal of approval. 

As for the pacing: this one is hard for me to judge. While my gut instinct is that they were moving far too quickly, I'm not saying this as an outsider looking in. I'm saying it as someone who had previously played C:R and remembered the majority of the scenes they happened. Animating every single scene from the visual novel is just impossible to expect (an otome game anime with that kind of budget? you're more likely to see a live unicorn). Will they have more than 12 or 13 episodes though... 

However, I think that the staff made the right choices picking which scenes were important and which ones could be avoided. Most of the scenes that were cut were not crucial to C:R's plot, just added slightly more depth to the beginning of the game. The scenes that were taken out also were related to the choices that the player could make, which certainly means that the story's main focus does not revolve around them. Overall, I'd say I'd approve of this more than I disapprove. 

Lastly, I'd like to praise the staff for doing something I felt like the game did not adequately do: give us detailed insight into Lupin's character. I'm not saying that Lupin was necessarily a bad character in the game, but the majority of his route is focused on Cardia, Finis and Isaac Beckford. Therefore, Lupin's development is rushed in comparison to the rest of the characters. It makes Lupin feel like kind of a Gary Stu, and even a Manic Pixie Dream Boy at times (which oh my god you NEVER see those). 

Yet the one scene where they subtly show that Lupin identifies with Cardia lets me know exactly how it was Lupin fell for her. He found a kindred spirit. I can only hope the fandisc also goes into that as well. Thank you, Code: Realize anime, for giving Lupin the character development I so desperately wanted him to have in just one scene. I hope that this means that there will be more to come for him. 

Now I’ll focus on my concerns: 

Some of this is my own personal opinion, so take it for what you will. I do love the animation in the anime, but I felt like the opening sequence could have been animated a bit better. The scene where Van is jumping from the bomb in the airship race was a bit awkward, and I was sorely disappointed in the animations for his shotguns. Surely it was to save money so that the best animations could go into the anime itself, but it made me feel a bit scared for what kind of budget cuts we're going to see in the future.

 I'm hoping the actual scene itself is well executed, but I have no idea what's coming from this point onward. Hopefully, the animation will stay on par with today's episode, but anything can happen I suppose. 

So now let's talk about what changed. From between Lupin's rescue of Cardia and Cardia arriving at Saint Germain's mansion, there were major differences. Cardia waking up in the car with both Impey and Lupin instead of in the field with Lupin, not having to sneak into London, how they discovered Victor's wanted poster, Victor's introduction as a whole, and the switching of the scene where Cardia exposed her chest to Lupin. Personally, I think it would have been a little silly to not expect things to change, and most of the scenes they trimmed in the first episode don't bother me much. Some I enjoyed, like having the show open with Finis singing London Bridge instead of Impey. 

With the exception of Victor's introduction. I really would have liked to see him interact with Cardia the same way that he did in the visual novel. I think it would have been a better showcasing of Cardia's poison skin than having her be briefly attacked by wolves. That first scene with Victor was just amazing and I'm disappointed they cut it. 

I'm also wary of how they plan to introduce Saint Germain, but I'm hoping that they'll be able to keep some of the mysteriousness of his first interaction with Cardia. 

The ending sequence made me hopeful for some of the most fantastic moments in the game, such as the airship race and the backstories of the characters actually being discussed. I'm a bit wary because I'm uncertain if they will keep the train heist, Victor's showdown with Queen Victoria and how Finis reveals he is also a homunculus. 

Lastly, the pacing of the episode gives me a sinking feeling that the anime is likely to only be 12 or 13 episodes. This really breaks my heart because Code: Realize has such depth to its plot that I really don't think 12 episodes can't do it justice without some major cuts. They are likely to just expand Lupin's route and go into the character's more there. How they will be able to cram all of Saint Germain, Victor, and Van's backstories into 12 or 13 episodes alongside Lupin's route is beyond me. 

In Conclusion: 

I think that the first episode was actually very well done. They managed to include much of the opening in the game without changing too many significant things, save for Victor's introduction. The animation is quite good in comparison to some otome anime that I have seen. I love that the anime is exploring sides of Lupin's character that we missed out in the visual novel too. As for the cast, they're all terrific; I am much more comfortable with Saori Hayami voicing Cardia than I was before. She's doing terrific. 

Despite this, I'm wary of what kind of animation cuts there will be based on the opening sequence. I'm not really afraid they'll change too much, I'm afraid they are going to cut some stuff that I really liked in the visual novel. Victor's introduction is already an example of that. I'm hoping the things that are cut aren't too major, but if there's only going to be 12 or 13 episodes, I just don't think that'll be enough. I give the first episode my seal of approval; I'm hopeful, but we'll have to see how the next episode goes!

Mod Cheshire

I pretty feel entirely the same as Mod S with a few changes here and there. 

I LOVED that opening scene with Finis singing London Bridge (LIKE HOLY SHIT YUKI KAJI HAS AMAZING ENGLISH). It definitely was a tease for viewers who had played the game to see all the CG’s and several other characters in the background of the turning gears. 

I love the animation so far, though the opening sequence (specifically Van’s parts) seem a bit janky. Hopefully, it’ll be like Mod S says and it’s just to make sure they have a full budget for the actual show itself. So far I really enjoy seeing the characters in their casual outfits! Impey’s still allergic to his left sleeve, Victor’s still Too Pure™, and Lupin likes striped shirts (who knew). 

Speaking of the opening seqeunce, I LOVE the song. It’s amazing and I can’t wait until I find a full version~!

The first episode has also sold me on Lupin entirely. I didn’t really like him in the game. I actually would have preferred Saint-G to have been the golden route, not Lupin. Like Mod S said, they focused way too much on Cardia, Finis, and Isaac during his route, leaving very little room to actually develop the romance between Cardia and Lupin in a believable way. Seeing Lupin so animated pretty much proves a theory I’ve had for a long time: Arsene Lupin is a True Anime Boy™.

I also really enjoy how they trimmed off the fat from the game and condensed to be plot orientated. I actually think it works really well and will allow for them to show off the plot. I actually read a comment that said “I can’t believe they cut out Victor’s intro! Having him already be a part of the group ruins his character!” Well...no. If anything it adds to Lupin and Impey’s character. They willingly brought a “terrorist” into their group to help them out. Plus, taking out Victor’s introduction, again, allows the show to focus on the plot. 

ALSO, THEY TOTALLY SHOW US WHAT ISAAC BECKFORD ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE AND HOW DARE HE LOOK LIKE AN OLDER VAN. I WANT TO HATE THE MAN NOT BE ATTRACTED TO HIM.

Ahem.

Now, for my dislikes.

Personally, I don’t really enjoy Cardia’s voice actress. I really dislike how Cardia almost sounds like she’s whispering the whole time, and almost sounds like she's a robot. In my head, Cardia definitely sounded insecure but made sure her voice was heard. I just strongly dislike voices that are like “I’m so....shy....and....insecure....”

I also....kinda have an issue with Saint-G’s animation. I’ve only seen concept art (as well as the PV’s) and he just looks really weird to me. I’m hoping that he looks better and not super weird. Van also looks kinda weird too. His animations in the opening are jagged and awkward. Like...why is he on horseback? Why can’t animators draw people riding horses in a way that doesn’t look awkward? Also, why does Impey look so depressed in the opening!? That’s so unlike him!

Anyway, that’s pretty much it. The show looks promising so far, and I’m hoping that they can add in enough from the separate routes while still focusing on the main plot in 12 episodes. I’m also hopeful that Cardia’s voice will go from weak and wistful to strong and confident. 

All in all, I’m really looking forward to the next episode!

[sassasquashedgrapes]

Another Story: A Glee x Kissed by the Baddest Bidder Cross-over

It’s me again! Your friendly neighborhood, Squashed Grape.  

It’s been a while since I got into the fanfic (or any literal stuff) and decided to do some fan service today.  This is an old post but a goodie.  You see, I’ve been a fan of Glee during the early days and was also a huge Otome player (lol. the closest to player I’ll ever be).  And made this fanfic cross-over of sorts inspired from the Voltage Inc story, Kissed by the Baddest Bidder.  Actually I *might* have switched the names a bit and the plot line is from the intro except for a few tweaks.  Anyway, I just wanna lay it all down there so nobody starts yelling bloody murder.  

After all, wasn’t 50 Shades like some fan service to Twilight, so haters can just move along now, Nothing to see.  

So without much further ado, a short story cross-over for y’all!!

By the way, be prepared for a series of long fanfics of Glee coming at your way. This is only just the beginning of the Hargreave brothers.

click below

Another Story: Kissed By The Baddest Bidder/Glee Fanfic.

I’ve always been a huge fan of the otome game and the delicious notion of having someone used up for bidding, using the Glee characters seemed absolutely too good to resist.  How could I? So shall we? Elian “Ian” Hargreave – Eisuke Ichinomiya Mike Chang – Soryu Oh, the cool mobster Noah Puckerman – Mitsunari Baba, the philandering theif Kurt Hummel – Ota Kisaki , the artist. Lol I know, Ota doesn’t swing that way but I always pegged Ota as a closet anyway. Cooper Anderson – Mamuro Kishi, the lazy detective and of course: Lucy Quinn Fabray – MC

Quinn Fabray is different in this storyline.  I made a parallel universe of sorts, changing a bit of her past to make her come to her present future.  So instead of moving to McKinley High, Lucy Q. Fabray’s father, Russel, dies of a heart attack and thus her mother remarries another man who worked as a hotel concierge manager in one of the most prestigious hotels in New York, the fictional hotel/casino Wyndham, (loosely based on the Waldorf Astoria) which is owned by then the family of Elian Hargreave’s grandfather who eventually takes over the hotel after graduating from high school.  Quinn has grown up in the hotel, pretty much understanding and loving every detail and aspect of it, treating it as if it were her own family since she pretty much lead a lonely life in New York, being a small town girl from Ohio who turned out to grow into a beautiful young woman.  This storyline is inspired by the Otome route of Eisuke Ichinomiya, whom I think was the best storyline for someone like her.  I’m way too biased that I don’t think I want to share Soryu Oh with her, hahaha.  Fast forward to the present, Quinn just graduated from Yale, but is now working he as a chambermaid in the hotel to earn extra cash at the same time pay for her college loans while she looks for a job.  

Prologue: As I feel a trickle of sweat behind my back while being in the middle of the spotlight, I start to wonder as I stare into the crowd facing me “how on earth did I ever come to this?”

12 hours earlier

“Good morning,” I greet cheerfully as I swing open the door in locker room of the female changing hall as if I’ve done so many times over.  I’m working during the summer as a maid at a hotel owned by the Hargreave Group, which is a large company that owns banks, trading companies, locally and overseas.  

“Good morning, Lucy,” greets Marley, one of the maids who also works part-time in the hotel.  I know for a fact that she looks old enough to still be in highschool, but I’ve never bothered to pry into matters like gossip. As long as they keep to their business, I keep to mine.  But despite it, I feel like I could confide in her because she seems so open and nice.

“The VIP convention starts today.  I am super excited,” Marley grins as she mentions one of the annual big events the hotel/casino throws.  

“I’ll bet you’d be way too busy to get excited since you’ll be working at the casino floor,” I grin back thinking how exhausted I’m going to be once this convention is over.  I’ve been living in the Wyndham since I was 15 after my dad died and my mother remarried.  I’d come to love it as if it were my own family and was familiar with its daily routine until 4 years ago when it underwent a massive renovation into becoming the first hotel/casino in New York.  It had been quite a scandal at first, with government officials opposing the idea of bringing “Las Vegas” to the metropolis, but the whole issue died down after a while and for the last two years, the Wyndham, became New York’s first legal casino and hotel.

“Don’t you wish you could work at the IVC?” Marley was referring to the International VIP Convention, one of the newly annual conventions frequented by Hollywood A-list stars, World leaders, socialites and big time businessmen who gathered once a year to play at the casinos and have a go into dabbling in a world of glamour

“Yeah, that would be great.” I agreed quietly.

“Well, that’s the goal of everyone who works here.” Marley sighed as she hunkered on the bench and rested her elbow on her knee as she propped her head on her hand.  “I’ve been dreaming about it ever since I saw it on TV. Seeing movie stars, top athletes, and other super famous people all over the world gathered here in this party.  I even heard Perez Hilton was so pissed that he didn’t get an invite.”  She pursed her lips conspiratorially.

“You know, when I applied for this job a few months ago, I didn’t think I was going to be hired that I thought I was dreaming when I actually did.” Marley grinned happily.  I smiled feeling how infectious her mood was, she was so upbeat by the whole thing, I didn’t want to look like a kill joy so I agreed.

“Oh my god.” She stopped suddenly as if she had thought of something of real importance.  “What if some rich, famous guy falls in love with me at first sight?” I hope he knows you’re barely 18, I mentally think and almost utter it out loud but I stop myself and….

“Haha, keep dreaming.” I just say instead.  

Whew, that was close. Our VIP guests are important, but I also value working for our regular guests, too.  I had just graduated in a Marketing degree at Yale, but with the recession, jobs were scarcely handed and I didn’t feel the need to dabble in doing freebies as an Intern in a big corporation, when I could be earning much more doing it here in Wyndham.  It really isn’t so bad.  I really didn’t care that much about image anyway since moving to New York.  Somehow the anonymity of it all had liberated me from the confines of the shallowness that I had experienced living in Lima, Ohio that I didn’t give a damn anymore.

I thought about the IVC, the International VIP Convention, Wyndham’s largest annual event is today and the international publicity with the media hanging around the area was totally insane. Unlike Marley, I had actually dreaded this more because I knew things were busier and a lot more tense than usual.  My step-father, Charlie was one of the managers of the hotel and was in charge of the VIP guests lounge and had direct connections to the owner, Mr. Elian Hargreave.  I heard a lot about the new owner, how accomplished he was despite his young age. He was featured in Forbes magazine as the most successful businessman under 40 years of age (rumors had it that he couldn’t be more than 30 years old.)  He reminded me of a true-to-life Bruce Wayne, ridiculously handsome in a dark, mysterious way and was always surrounded by beautiful women.  I knew my sister, Fran was crushing on him big time that she even begged Charlie for an introduction, but to no avail.

As we left the locker room and head to the hotel lobby, where a crowd of reporters and onlookers gathered, people whom I’ve only seen on TV or on a movie screen started appearing, strutting as if they were meant to walk down the red carpet and enter the magnificent lobby as if it were from a Hollywood movie scene.

“Oh. My God.” Marley’s mouth literally hung wide open.  “Look who just got out of that limo.”

I crane my neck and look around thinking that she just saw the famous TV actress who was in a popular teen show.  What was her name again?  Elena Davenport?  She was famous for being in this TV show about a love triangle between a vampire and a cyborg.  It was insane how people were shouting her name as if it were part of her entourage. She looked stunning with her black hair and her golden skin that had obviously seen the tropics recently.  She was then accompanied by an equally handsome young man who stood well over six feet tall and had a shock of black brown hair.

“That guy’s always on the VIP list.  They call him the King,” Marley whispers as if we’re in church.

“I thought that was Elvis,” I quipped chuckling at her disgruntled look.  I knew what she meant.  I wasn’t one to get caught up in celebrity gossip, but that King she was referring to was no other than the owner of the Wyndham, Mr. Hargreave.  He gallantly bowed offering his arm to Elena who gave him a dazzling smile as she took his arm.  Hanging on the other side of his arm was also someone famous.  I heard she was the new Broadway superstar and her name was Rachel Berry.  Behind him was another famous model who often graced those ads in Vogue and a famous British reality show actress.  

All the women around him are famous, I think dully as I look down in my frumpy uniform.  For some odd feeling I felt a pang of something that I couldn’t understand wash over me.  Before I had time to even think about it, Marley again interrupted my thoughts by whispering again on my ear.

“He’s been living in the penthouse suite for a while now.” “Of course he does, he owns the hotel.”

“But it costs tens and thousands of dollars to stay there for the night.” Marley argued.

“Maybe it’s a lot more convenient to keep tabs of work here than living on Park Avenue or at the East Side.” I shrugged watching as Mr. Hargreave pays no attention to the huge crowd and walks straight ahead.

I realize that I can’t take my eyes off him.  I’ve heard the how the female hotel staff would gush about how hot he was, but seeing him in the flesh just took my breath away.

“Aaaah!!!  Over here, Elian!!!” one of the women from the mass crowd screams holding a phone camera hoping to get a picture of him.

Suddenly, a group of women, thinking about doing the same thing start running towards him and bump into me and I feel myself being pushed right into the crowd and on to the red carpet.

SMACK!

I feel like I just hit a wall and close my eyes bracing myself for the pain to follow after the impact. Instead I feel a band of steel arms hold me close, as if to steady me from the madness.  I then pry my eyes open and find myself staring into a pair of steel gray blue eyes that were placed like jewels on a handsome chiseled face.

Mr. Hargreave!!

“Aah, I- I’m so sorry,” I stammered, feeling the rush of blood flow straight at my face and into my brain as I continue to look at him, almost mesmerized yet horrified by what had just transpired.  I still feel his arms around me and I could just tell that this multibillionaire really does work out because he’s practically hugging me right now.

“What do you think you’re doing?” a haughty voice belonging to the new Broadway ingénue pipes up beside Mr. Hargreave.  She sounds almost disgusted by the sight of me.  I can see from the corner of my peripheral vision that Elena Davenport was smirking as if amused by what was happening.  God, I didn’t think she was such a bitch until now.

But instead of voicing that sentiment out, I knew I had a job at stake and right now it was totally hanging in the balance.  I had just publicly humiliated myself in front of the owner of the hotel and his guests and was drawing unnecessary attention right now and it was more than I could honestly bear. I swallow and gather myself before bitchy Quinn Fabray comes out and try to mutter an apology again but am cut short by a curt, masculine and surprisingly sexy voice.

“Get out of the way,” Mr. Hargreave says as he suddenly pulls away from me, and pushes me not quite gently aside.

“What?” I mutter in disbelief as I lose my balance and fall flat on my butt to the ground.

Owwwww..

I look at slight disdain at the man who apparently was also my boss, but his muscular, tapered back was the only thing that could see that look on my face as I watch walk further away. He brushes off his suit as if he had just encountered a speck of dust and before I thought he had finally dismissed me, turns his head and shoots me a glare and then suddenly disappears into the casino hall.

I suddenly realize with a shock that I still had that look of displeasure on my face and grimaced as I rubbed my lower back, trying yet again to stead myself as the crowd disappeared into where Mr. Hargreave and his entourage were headed.  Marley quickly comes rushing over to my side.

“Are you okay, Luce?” She asks me, totally concerned as she called me by my nickname.  I haven’t been called Lucy for a while, I had been using Quinn since I had come to New York, but somehow there was a comfort in still being known as Lucy while here in the confines of the Wyndham.

“Yeah, my butt and my pride are fine,” I say.  

“Oh my God.  Mr. Hargreave caught you in his arms.  I am so totally jealous!  Did he smell nice?  Was he really as buff underneath that suit as they say?” Marley was acting like a puppy dog fawning over that jerk.

“I don’t know, I don’t even r-remember,” I lied because I had just mentally scratched Elian Hargreave off as a completely cold, aloof, unfeeling human being.  The nerve of that man!  He didn’t even bother to defend me while I, one of his staff members, was berated by that Broadway bitch Berry.

Hmm.  That had a nice ring to it.  I feel tons better knowing that the girl could have used a plastic surgeon as good as the one who did my nose.  

Come to think of it, Elian Hargreave was actually pretty frightening.  I’ve seen how New Yorkers glare sometimes, but that cold look was totally at subzero levels worthy of the Artic.

I smooth out my clothes and hear the click clack of high heels behind me.

“Just what were you thinking, making a fool out of yourself?” a cold, voice tinged with an Italian accent snapped me back to reality.  “And in front of such important guests and even the owner of this hotel?”

“Miss Thelma, “ I say coolly plastering a smile at one of the hotel managers.  Thelma Caparano has been on my ass since the day I started working at the Wyndham when she found out I graduated with honors on my Marketing degree from Yale.  Perhaps it was that and because I’m Charlie’s kid that she thinks I deserve to be more ill-treated than a worn-out mule from a third world country.  She stands imposingly before me, all dressed up in her expertly tailored uniform as she clacked impatiently on her Prada heels waiting for me to answer her.

“I’m sorry, Ma’am.  It was an accident…”

“You are at fault for not paying attention to what’s going on around you,” she clucked her tongue at me, looking at me disapprovingly under those heavy glasses that framed her would-have-been pretty-if-she-wasn’t-such-a-bitch face.  She was probably a few years older than me, but the harshness of her demeanor just made her look like petulant and almost bratty for a woman in her mid-thirties.

“Aren’t you in charge of the regular guests, Fabray?” She asks with a smirk on her face.  

Oh boy, she does enjoy torturing me.  

“You have no business even being here in the lobby.  Not unless you get promoted to handling the VIP guests.  But you won’t get that chance, would you?  Not even if you begged your stepfather.” She laughed as if she had just thought of that joke and it was funny.

Ugh.  I am totally so close to slapping her but instead I reply setting my gaze downcast hoping that she won’t see me seething as I meekly reply “Yes, Miss Thelma.”

“Well, since you’re here,” she motions to one of her hotel assistants who was following her like a dog who hands over a box as she shoves it towards me. “Go to every floor and drop off these announcement letters while you’re at it.  These are for the guests who wish to avail of the spa promo package we are having in honor of the IVC.”

“Okay,” I say since arguing about doing a herculean task is going to go nowhere anyway since this angry vampire is out for my blood.  She’s always been a bully and since I would never dared complain of this to Charlie even though I could have, I decide I might as well just shut up and deal with it. I turn and nod to Marley, saying my goodbyes and head towards the elevators.  

As I walk by, I see a man, about my age arguing with a young woman about something in front of the elevator. The woman is wearing a dress that looks like something from the recent Fashion Week runway as she throws a mask at the man at the same time spewing a litany of curses in fluent French.

“Connard!!  Baise toi!” she screamed as the man looked back in her as if in shock.  “You lying, cheating scum!  I never want to see you again.”  With that, she gave him a resonant slap in the face for added effect before she walked out of the hotel.

This is awkward.  I turn my attention instead to the mask that looked as if it were something one wore to a masquerade ball.  I suddenly got an image of 50 shades of Grey and find myself  staring at the mask lying on the floor.  I was about to pick it up when the man who was slapped earlier moves quicker than I could and in a blink of an eye was brushing it off as if were the only precious thing that mattered to him.

Wow, his hands were fast like those of a magician.  I turn to look at him and realize that he wasn’t bad looking either.  He was of above average height and was muscularly built, but a bit thicker than Mr. Hargreave.  He also had dark hair and had the most dazzling pair of emerald green eyes I’ve ever seen.  I couldn’t tell what his hair was like underneath that Fedora hat that just made him look like the epitome of 1920’s gangster cool in a modern way.

Fedora Hat sighs dramatically.  “Great, now I don’t have a date.”  He says as if talking to himself then realizes I’m watching him.  When our eyes meet, I quickly look away self-consciously because I didn’t want him to know that I had been caught staring at him.  I try to act cool despite the awkward tension but know that he saw me witness the whole thing.

“You saw that, didn’t you?” He smirks, as if reading my mind.

“Yeah.  I-I’m really sorry.”  I backed away slowly as if avoiding being pounced by some agitated animal.

“Aw, come on. Don’t run away,” Fedora Hat laughs as he gently takes my arm as he leads me towards the elevator, completely ignoring the fact that I’m in the hotel maid’s uniform with a box of undelivered fliers on the other arm. “I’ll explain everything when we get there.”

“S-Sir?”

Before I know it, the man ignores my protests and continues to guide me, half-dragging me into the elevator with him.  We’re alone in the elevator and to be honest, this is the first time I’ve been to the basement area.  I’m surprised that the basment’s elevator looks just as elegant as the regular floor elevators.  It sort of reminded me of going into a secret lair of some evil villain but at the same time being cooped inside a glass bird cage of sorts.  I tried to avert my attention to the man beside me and look instead at the buttons of the elevator as the blinking lights affirmed our descent to the unknown.

“Whew!  I’m lucky I found you,” Fedora Hat grins at me, still holding onto my arm having no intention of letting me go. ��His grip isn’t painful nor in any way gentle, but it’s firm enough to hold me into place.  As if wanting to distract me from thinking of it, he adds “coz there’s no way I could go to the party without a beautiful woman on my arm.  That would be a total buzzkill.”

Buzzkill?  Who says that sort of thing these days?

“Party?  You mean, the IVC?”

“The One and Only. Isn’t it obvious how I’m dressed?” He opens one free arm to show his expensive Italian cut suit.  Definitely Armani now that I got a closer look. And definitely custom made as it fits him perfectly.

“I-I’m sorry.  I didn’t mean that you—“

“Hahaha.  I’m kidding, babe. Man, you’re kinda uptight for a pretty thing.  Were you raised in some Christian Bible thumping school or something?”

“Uh, that’s because I work at this hotel,” I say slowly almost as if trying to hint that I’m still in my maid’s uniform, completely ignoring the fact that he’s actually right about me being Christian.  “So technically, I can’t go with you to the party as your date, sir.”

“What are you talking about? The reason why that woman earlier left was so you could be my date, Lucy.” He smiles in the most seductive, sexiest way possible as he finally noticed the name plate on my uniform.

Whoa, this one’s pretty dangerous.  And a hopeless flirt as well.  I try not to show my fear when grabs my chin and lifts it up to meet his face as he peers down, bringing it closer to mine.  I can feel his breath grazing against me as he looks into my eyes.

“Definitely my type. Angel blonde hair, mesmerizing green eyes, and luscious lips…” he trails on softly as I sort of feel his face coming closer.  He moves way to fast and I try to squirm away, backing off thinking now I understood perfectly why he got dumped in the first place.

DING! Saved by the bell of the basement floor. The elevator arrives at a full stop at the ballroom and Fedora Hat quickly backs off  and casually straightens himself as if nothing of importance was about to take place.  He could even care less whether he kissed me or not.  Jeez.

“Let’s rock and roll, Princess.” He  announces and gives off a broad smile as if putting on a game face.  And contrary to his calm demeanor, he drags me out into the ballroom before I can protest as I’m lead into the glamorous ballroom that reminded me from a scene of a Hollywood movie.

I gaped in awestruck fascination, marveling how I could have possibly missed out the new renovations at the Wyndham.  The renovations had still managed to maintain some of the old architecture, paying detail to preserving its original Art Deco state, but added with contemporary minimalist design, it’s mixture was astounding and beyond words.  I had no means of any background in architecture, but this was like walking into the Hall of Fame on architectural immortality. I was shocked that everyone present were almost nonchalant of the genius behind the design and how lavishly decorated the ballroom was to the point that even the catering was handled in the most A-list of ways.  I turn my attention to the gorgeous Swarovski crystals that were adorning the chandeliers that were hanging from the high ceiling.  

The entire floor was jam-packed with the rich and famous that I wasn’t even sure if I was hallucinating because it was too much sensory overload to be true.  I turn my head and notice Cristian Renaldi, the famous World cup soccer player from Spain to my right.  And that’s the famous Hollywood actress, Julie Moore.  And even the former President of the United States is over there?  I feel like Alice in Wonderland being wrapped around the surrealness of it all being around these celebrities that it takes me a moment to get back to earth and finally notice that Fedora Hat who had dragged me here in the first place was gone.

Huh?  Where’d he go?

Suddenly, I hear a womanly voice from behind me.

“Hey, do you have any champagne?” I turn around and am surprised that it wasn’t a woman, but a young man with an angelic face whose skin was as flawless as fine bone china. He had soft, brown hair and bright blue eyes.  He looked so familiar because his face was on the cover of this month’s issue of People Magazine being tagged as one of the 25the most beautiful People of the World of this year.

“K-Kurt Hummel!!!” I gasp, recognizing the mega hyphenate National artist/ Pulitizer prize winning Children’s Novelist/ Socialite.

“Oh, you know who I am.” He smiles brightly, happy to have been recognized in a sea of famous faces. “Thanks!”

“I-I’m sorry, I’ll look for the champagne now.” I mumble apolitically frantically looking for a bottle of Dom Perignon and Mr. Hummel chuckles behind me, as if thoroughly amused.

“You sure you work here, Alice?”

“P-Pardon?”

“You remind me of Alice in Wonderland when she fell down the rabbit hole and stumbled into the Mad Hatter’s party.” He moves away from me and reaches over the table behind me and lifts a bottle of Moet et Chandon and pours himself a glass.  He then thrusts his newly refilled glass towards me nudging me to take a drink.

“Here. You could use one more than me,” he grins.  I was about to protest but there was something harsh in his eyes telling me not to defy him as I emptied my glass.

“T-Thanks,” I was about to take the bottle and refill his glass for him when he shakes his head and takes the glass from my hands and pours himself another.

“Now, go on to doing whatever it was and I hope you get back home safely, Alice,” was all he says as he raises his champagne glass, giving me a wink of good luck for whatever it was I was about to partake.  He leaves with a wave.

He definitely was spot on about what I was feeling right at that moment.

I should definitely get out of here before I cause any more trouble.

But before I do, another man stops me from my tracks.  He’s over fifty, overweight, and perhaps a bit slightly drunk as he grins at me and grabs my hand. Ugh, he also seems really sleazy. “Aren’t you a pretty one?” He slurs and I inwardly flinch from the smell of alcohol and sweat coming from him.  “You wanna come with me and give me room service? I’ll make it worth your while and give you a big tip afterwards.

Ewww.  His head is shaped like an egg and his pock-marked face is flushed as he looks me up and down.

“I’m sorry, sir but we don’t offer that kind of service here.” I answer politely, knowing that we had been trained beforehand on how to deal with rude perverts like this guest.

He completely ignores me and starts going on how rich he is and how much is net worth is.

To be honest, it wasn’t really much.

He then slips his arm around my waist and is about to pull me towards him when…

“This party just got really trashy.” A familiar masculine voice announced icily.  I turn my head towards my savoir and realize that it’s Mr. Hargreave.  He ignores my gasp of surprise and scowls at the sleaze holding me.

“I’d rather appreciate it, sir, if you kept your attention from the hotel staff and settle instead for the bevy of beauties surrounding you,” Elian Hargreave  grinned sardonically nodding his head towards a group of runway models who flirtly waved back.  And just when I thought he couldn’t intimidate the sleazebag, he looked at me as if I were a piece of trash marring the ambience and added cruelly. “Besides, you could totally do better than THAT.  This one’s hardly a raving beauty.”  

“I-I’m really sorry, Mr. Hargreave, sir!  Pardon me!!!” Sleazebag bows apologetically quickly letting go of me as if he had been burned and kept his distance from me like I was infected with Ebola or something. He furiously wipes away his sweat and runs off.

“T-Thank you, Mr. Hargreave,” I say, totally ignoring the pain that he had brushed me off as a ugly and unattractive.  But then again, men like him are probably used to just dating models that even ingénues were all blasé for him.  

“Let’s go, Elian,” one of the pretty models whom he nodded to a while back approached him and casually hooked her arm around his, totally ignoring me.

“I can’t stand people who don’t know their place,” another one of those long legged giraffes piped in hooking her arm around his other free one as if she were about to die in a desert and he was her oasis.

As if he didn’t even acknowledge my existence and hadn’t even heard me, he turned his back as if nothing had ever happened a few minutes ago before being led away by the Amazonian Brazilian bimbos.  He starts walking still surrounded by women and I’m completely overwhelmed as I watch him walk away.  I suddenly notice a purple handkerchief on the floor behind him.  I remember this being a part of his suit and realize that he dropped it.

Almost without thinking, I picked it up and started going after him.

“Uhm, sir! Excuse me, I think you dropped this—“  I try to chase after Mr. Hargreave but he gets lost in the crowd and I can’t seem to find him.

Oh, wait!  There he is!!

I make my way through the crowd and follow him as he makes an exit to the far end of the ballroom.  

A long, deserted hallway stretches out behind the door that Mr. Hargreave enters.

“Wait.  Where did he go?”

There are several doors on either side of the hallway and I didn’t catch up with him in time to even know which doors did he enter.  However, I hear voices coming from the far end.  But somehow, as I strain to hear from the distance I get the feeling the conversation wasn’t even in English.  I shake my head, thinking that I really have to return this handkerchief back to Mr. Hargreave, I strengthen my resolve and make my way towards the door where the voices were coming from.  I note the door is slightly ajar, which explains why I could hear them.  I peek through the gap and see several briefcases lying on a table surrounded with guns and large sums of money being packed by three Asian looking men dressed in all black discussing where to put the money in perfect Cantonese and before I could see more, I feel a large hand grab me by the shoulder and roughly pulls me away, swinging me around and forces me up against a wall…

Fear and surprise of being caught seeing something I shouldn’t have take over that I feel like I just might have suffered my first heart attack.

But unfortunately, that doesn’t happen.

Instead, my heart starts pounding again in fear as I’m facing a tall, Asian man of slim, yet muscular build with broad shoulders and powerful muscles who is now glaring at me and asks in in slightly cold, yet scarily threatening voice.  His hair is slicked back and even though I know he’s actually quite good looking, I’m paralyzed with fear to hardly even notice.

“What are you doing here?” He demands as he pins me against the wall as his sharp eyes look at me.  

Oh dear, God.

It happened so suddenly my body starts to tremble as I start to realize that maybe he is one of those gun men and those men aren’t just hotel guests.  But Mafia?  Triad?

What on earth should I do?

I breathe and swallow but it’s way too hard to even do so.  Instead I focus on his face and answer.

“I-I- w-w-ork h-he---“ He completely ignores me and says instead, “you’ve got give seconds to walk away, disappear and forget everything you just saw. Got it?  Otherwise, I’d hate to think what would happen to you after.” He also said it in a way that sounded like he was talking to a five-year old.  A not very bright one at that too.

I nod wordlessly over and over, desperate to get away and he immediately lets me go.  I run so fast my legs get tangled up with each other at first and don’t even think of where I’m headed.  I just run to the point of exhaustion and find myself at the basement storage room. I close the door behind me and try to catch my breath, relieved with the fact that I have just barely escaped with my life as I offer a silent prayer and make the sign of the cross in complete gratitude that the scary Asian Mafia guy just let me go.

I ruminate over the thought of how it was possible for the Triad, one of the notorious Asian Mafias could be tied up to an event like the IVC? Were those guys even part of the Triad? Maybe they weren’t even mafia.

Get a hold of yourself, Fabray.  Keep it together.   I have just realized right at this moment I had actually lost the box of flyers I was holding earlier.  I wasn’t sure if I had lost somewhere from that struggle between me and Fedora Hat, or that Mad Hatter encounter with Kurt Hummel, or even with the Middle Aged Sleazebag .  I try again to get my body to function properly as I compose myself thinking over again where I had last left it and realized that it was on the table where I had been with Mr. Hummel.  

Just as I swing the door open, I hear a loud crashing THUD.

The door I just swung had collided into something and I could hear a group of men scream “Watch out!!!”

I see two mean-looking men peeking at the other end of the door looking helplessly as the box they were carrying drops to the ground.

“Shit!  That was the Winged Victorian Angel!”

Oh no.  I remember from the news that this 300 year old museum artifact was meant to be raffled off as the grand prize at the IVC.  It had been shipped all the way from the Louvre in Paris as a gift from the newly elected French President to the United States. The proceeds of the IVC’s funding and the raffle were meant to help the victims of Typhoon Haiyan somewhere in the Philippines.

I quickly open the crate box and find the statue was broken in half and my heart just drops to my stomach in nameless shock.

I am way too shocked to even mutter an apology.  Not only did I just destroy what might have been a National Treasure, millions of homeless Filipino children were going to starve and suffer.

“Hey, this was a very important piece that was going to be auctioned off.”  The slim mean-looking guy barks at me, ignoring my shocked state. Did he just say auctioned?  Didn’t he mean it was going to be raffled?

“How are you gonna pay for this?” Asks the Fat Meanie beside him.

“Uh…..Sorry?”

“You think an apology is gonna cut it?  You owe us, bitch!”  

The men reach out to me and….

 ……………..

 And I find myself being auctioned off.  The host of the eveing had just announce d that the next bid was me, a healthy fit young Caucasian American.

 Is this even legal?  I think as I swallow in fear hearing the bids knock from $2 million to higher.  I got put up in place of that Winged Victory Angel.

The mere fact that someone just started the bid off at $2 million was unreal.

I could barely make through the crowd as everyone was wearing masks similar to the masquerade mask Fedora Hat had with him when his date dumped him.  But somehow I felt with a sinking dread that the person who placed the initial bid was the Middle Aged Creep from before.  Oh crap, is he really going to buy me?  I definitely do NOT want that at all.

“$2 million, going once……going twice……”

I heard the announcer say that I’d be a slave, or a toy, or……God knows.  This is horrible.  I try to shake myself off this nightmare, but I know what I’m going through right now was just as real as everything that partook 12 hours ago.

Oh God, how did I get to this?  I fall to my knees, hang my head in shame as I feel the tears well in my eyes start to overflow.

I start praying hoping that Charlie, or my Mom or Fran could find me before it’s too late…..

Just then….

The auction hall suddenly buzzes with commotion as the announcer stops from closing the deal.

“Seat number 100 with a bid for $20 million cash.”

The crowd is drawn into complete silence.  

I peer through the gates to look for 100, but whoever was bidding was not in the crowd.  All I could do was stare up at the sum of the winning bid, completely dumbfounded as a  bell sounds, calling the auction to a close.

“Sold to Seat Number 100 for $20 million.  Thank you!!”

Someone bought me for twenty million US dollars?

My cage is carried over to the edge of the stage.  As I get off, I’m greeted by two masked men.  They weren’t the mean jerks from earlier but something about them looks vaguely familiar.  One of them looked to be wearing a Fedora Hat.

Fedora Hat bought me? Before I even get the chance to ask, Fedora Hat in the mask grabs my arm and says” This way….”

Wait, what the heck am I being so nervous for?  At least it’s Fedora Hat who bought me and not that Middle Aged Creep.  But where are they going to take me now?

And who bought me?

I feel totally numb from this crazy situation that I don’t even notice that I’m brought up into the penthouse.

I gasp in marvel looking at my surroundings, knowing that out of all the hotel employees, only Charlie and a few other managers were ever allowed to come up here.

Wait, speaking of Charlie, does he even know about those weird auctions happening at the basement?

“We brought her, boss.” Fedora Hat announces to the man in the immaculate tux seated on one of the elegant sofas.  Like Fedora Hat and the other man,  he was also wearing a mask, but something about him looked made me sense that I’ve also encountered this man before.  Even the other man seated beside him also with a shock of black hair was also wearing a mask also seemed vaguely familiar.

“Wait.  You’re----“

“We bought you,” Mr. Hargreave says indifferently, removing his mask as if he didn’t even hear what I was about to say.  The other man beside him followed suit.

“Guess we did end up seeing each other again,” the Asian Mafia guy remarks in the same casual, yet cold tone.

“You know this woman, Mike?” Hargreave raises his eyebrow almost as if in disbelief.

“You can say that.” He shrugs, not really giving a toss.

“Wait.  You bought me?  In that auction”  I stammer, trying to still make sense of it all.

“He means WE won you, Alice.” Kurt Hummel corrects as I turn around in disbelief as he removes his mask as well.

“For $20 million, Princess. The boss must have it bad.” Fedora Hat grins as he casually throws his mask and lays it on the next empty sofa.

“M-Mr. Hummel?” I squeak, not sure if I was asking if Fedora Hat was referring him as ‘the boss’ or if I was just asking a reaffirmation that I knew at least another familiar but friendly face.

“Pffft!!! She doesn’t even know you’re name, Puck.”  Kurt laughs.

“That because I didn’t have the time to tell her,” the man named Puck crosses his arms as if he were a pouting kid who wasn’t included in a game of tag.

“Isn’t this some form of human trafficking?  I shouldn’t have even been up for that stupid auction in the first place.”

“Hey, anything and everything’s for sale at that auction.” Puck grins matter-of-factly, completely oblivious to the fact that I had stated it being against my own free will.

“Absolutely,” Kurt agrees. “You can buy almost anything there. Like stolen art, government secrets, and even hire a hitman!”

“That was last year, wasn’t it?” Puck asked as I noticed that he and Kurt were the only chatty ones in the group while the other two men watched silently.

“Anyway, this was the first time anyone was sold off in the manner of fashion you had earlier,” Kurt says tilting his head as if trying to understand what was really going on. “You must have done something really bad to put yourself up there, huh?”

“Well…….I accidentally broke the Winged Victory Angel….” My voice trails off and I realized that something wasn’t right here.  Wait a minute, weren’t they just talking about selling black market things in a legal casino that by the way just happens to be in a highly publicized area? Was this even legal at all?  “Who in the world would approve of these things?   Do the police even know?”

“Well, to answer question number one.  I did approve of it.” Mr. Hargreave says as if bored by this whole conversation.

“What?”

“If it’s worth anything, it’s here.” Hargreave scoffs and laughs coldly.

“Reckless as always,” Mike shakes his head.  “This woman isn’t even worth anything.”

“Think about it for a moment,” Hargreave looks at me up and down as he folds his arms looking at me as if he were the predator toying with his prey.  “Won’t it be fun coming up with ways to use her?”

“What gives you the right to decide that?”  I ask exasperated.

“Who gave you permission to speak?” Hargreave asks coldly, merely raising an eyebrow.

“Huh?”

“Not another word unless I. SAY. SO.” Hargreave says, savoring the last three words, enunciating them slowly as if threatening me to not disobey him.

“If you’ve got a problem, we could always send you back to be auctioned off.” Mike sneers as if finding this even more amusing.

These guys are so scary. I’d rather die first than be sold off again.

I shake my head looking at both men, pleading them that I won’t disobey.

“Come on Boss……Mike……You two should be nice to the girls,” Puck quips, trying to lighten the mood, but honestly it fell a bit flat.  Not that I’d feel better either way.

“We need to figure out who gets to keep her,” Kurt says, as if now he’s the one who was bored by the whole turn of the conversation.  Though he acts as if he wants everything finalized, I get the feeling that he’s not entirely happy with the idea of having me for a slave.  In fact, he looks rather…….reluctant.   I’ve heard rumors that Mr. Hummel was gay, but I didn’t think now would have been the best times to actually confirm that.  So instead I ask the second question that’s been nagging me.

“What do you mean, who gets to keep me?  Didn’t you all buy me?”

“Yes, that’s true. But that’s really not your concern now.” Puck says.  “If I were you, I’d choose me.  I’m the only good guy here, so you can rest easy.”

“Says the world-famous thief and con-artist,” Elian Hargreave snorts derisively.

“Now, now Elian, you’re just trying to make Puck look bad.” Kurt says as if coming to his friends defense. “You’ve already got tons of groupies, why don’t you just play with one of them and let the rest of us have our fun?”

And to think I thought Kurt Hummel was safe because I assumed he was gay.

Guess again, batman.

“Mike Chang’s the one who could have his pick,” Hargreave threw a smirk towards the cool Asian mobster guy’s direction.  “Women would do anything to be the lover of a Hong Kong mobster.”

So he really was part of the Mafia.

Who ARE these people? I’m speechless but I try to pull myself together and try to shake some last-minute common sense in them.

“Human trafficking IS illegal, you know.  I’m going to report this to the police and I don’t care who you are.”

“You see a cop anywhere?” Elian Hargreave throws his head as if calling out to no one in particular. I follow his gaze and see a worn-out looking man standing by the window smoking a cigarette.  He looks to be the older of the bunch, probably around 35 in age. Rather good-looking, in fact he sort of reminds me of that guy who plays a thief on TV except that he looks disheveled and hasn’t shaved in a week.

“Damn it, don’t just blow my cover like that,” he groans as if he didn’t even want to be a part of this conversation.

“Better now than later, right Detective Cooper?” Kurt giggles as if enjoying himself.

“Shut up, Hummel.”

“Oh, don’t be so mean. Just because I’m dating your brother doesn’t mean you have to be so rude.”

“Wait, you’re a cop?” I ask incredulously, ignoring the fact that Kurt Hummel just confirmed he was openly gay.

“Yup.”  Apparently, the Detective spoke the fewest words possible.

I seriously CAN NOT believe that even the police are in on this.

“Well, it looks like we’re not going to reach a decision any time soon.” Kurt announces, really emphasizing on the obvious.

“Well Boss, at times like these….” Puck begins but Elian Hargreave cuts him off immediately.

“Right. I don’t want to waste anymore time.” Hargreave nods and stands up with Mike Chang following suit. All the men except for the Detective stand up and saunter over to me with Mr. Hargreave standing in the center of the group with his arms crossed looking down at me with cold eyes.

“Make a decision,” he says. “I’ll let you choose who buys you.”

---END---

Elian Hargreave.  Be ready to hear more of another Hargreave, Elian was just the prototype of my OC in the next series of fanfics.

[spiralatlas]

Pax 2017 Panels day 1

Today was an unrivaled success. I didn’t break anything.

Western Dating Sims: Beyond Tsunderdome

Are we having fun: Playing games critically

The State of Queer in games

Western Dating Sims: Beyond Tsunderdome

Barbara Kerr https://ms45.itch.io/ Jack Crnjanin Pritika Sachdev Cassiel Kelner localiser, translates from Japanese to English Shakari former insomniac now indie Jess Zammit games critic Queerly represent me

Not a competition between Western and Japanese dating sims, both are good. But there are trends.(The panel talked a bit about Japanese games too anyway)

Main difference: more established genre in Japan, less accepted in the West.

Basic framework: generic main character. Selection of different kinds of love interests, often very tropey. Situations range from mundane to fantastical.

Kenka Bancho Otome  Dating sim where you are crossdressing as your brother at a fighting school and have to beat the boys to get them to respect. (Not available in English but checking the spelling lead me to an anime adaptation on Crunchyroll, no idea if it’s any good)

Often don't have much family, no mention of that background.

Freshman and Sophomore cute have f/f. (Couldn’t find links for these, sadly)

Saying exactly what somebody wants to hear until they kiss you- is that bad?

Everyone showered DAO characters with gifts.

Desire in the west to mirror the complexity of real relationships.

Examples mentioned: Cute Demon Crashers, Lady Killer In A Bind.

Strategic dating is good:

predictable

choose a character you will definitely like

"Game-Like"

clear differentiation between characters

 learn how to interact with people

Kindness Coins: dating sims are safe. I can't be hurt, if I get scared I can shut it down. Safe space. Explore sex, relationships, communication.

Counterpoint: Strategic dating is bad:

predictable

replicates shitty real life behaviour "I was nice to you, you should date me", like blaming FPS for violence

Not much fun for the developer

Complex games justify complex mechanics

Tusks: gay orc dating sim. Can enable NPC autonomy. harder than he expected.

Queer relationships (Queer and gay used as synonyms a lot this panel :/) Producing your own games allows you to reflect yourself Coming Out On Top: straight dev, lots of consultation. A bit tropey in parts but not too bad. Tusks: complex variables & approval w queer orcs Lady Killer In A Bind BDSM safety warnings in loading screens The Crown and The Flame it's good to be the queen. Pixelberry just lets you bang anybody. Kind of have to pay to follow the f/f path fully in some games.

Further recs:

Astoria Fate's Kiss: greek gods and mythological figures. Equal partnership with Hades. Medusa's story is full of queer characters, often you feel like the only queer character in a game, normalises it. Alex is non binary.

Brooktown High cheesy typical highschool game. Can be a boy or girl but have to be m/f. A bit dated, so bad that it's good. PSP game.

Pixelberry Choices: can date m or f, choose stuff about PC.

Dream Daddy is a very straight gay game but fun.

Date or Die.  

A game about dating Japanese warlords that may or may not be Destiny’s Princess

The Arcana

Paris the City of Love

Fire Emblem: Fates

Great Personality

There was a liveplay of part of Dream Daddy. The audience voted overhwhelmingly to talk to Damien first.

Are we having fun: Playing games critically

Rami Ismail: @tha_rami Alayna Cole: @AlynaMCole Dakoda Barker: @JiroJames David Hollingworth: @CPTHollingworth Jess Zammit: zammitjess

Distinction between playing for work and fun?

We do this because we like games, except for the games we do in fact hate.

Rami: Started making games before he started playing, modding code in simple ways in QBASIC (this is also how I got started).

Alayna: Being paid in neocoins to make people's profiles. Didn't realise until after highschool that coding skills could be used to make games.

(And then I stopped keeping track of who said what)

Took a while to realise it could actually be a job.

Having been a critic changes the experience, doesn't make it less fun just different. Same with reading or watching tv when you're a writer.

Yonder the cloud catcher chronicles: playing to review took away from her enjoyment because she had to get a review done quickly when it's supposed to be played in a slow, relaxing way.

As a creator he’s looking for shortcuts and tricks. Walks back and forth to test out where he thinks a loading point is. "Did you see that cool action scene?" vs "Did you see that cool slow zoom??"

Played intro area of Mario Odyssey. This is so good I’m angry, time to pack up the games industry.

"I wish I could do that"

Used to be a rule never to give 10/10. Now they do it if they just really love a game.

Have to put a game down to play the next one, it’s frustrating.

Criticism doesn't have to be finding flaws but can be figuring out how it works. Creator’s job is to trick the player into believing that the world of the game is real and the plot is important.

What does it mean to you to play games critically?

Looking at the game means looking at the creator. What are they trying to do or say? How do they execute it? Even AAA games have a group of humans behind them.

Rami cheerfully ruined games for everyone eg FIFA goalies perform worst at the end to give more last minute wins. Every game with percentages is lying. If you are told it's 50% accuracy people expect not to lose more than one time in a row. Humans think stuff is "fair" when it's in their favour.

"It's a platformer where you shoot things...about love." How is that mechanic making you feel love?

Bad games can be informative. Earth Defense Force. Defending cities from giant ants. "I want ants. 1000!" "That can't work with the frame rate" "AND LASERS."

Every bit of a game is controlled. Someone chose every detail to be the way it is. Ask why it is the way it is.

Good to question the choices people see as default. "Did you notice every character is a white dude?" Things that are considered important vs things that are just made "the default"

Is there a conflict as both critic and developer? Even the positive feedback made him feel bad, he just focused on any negative aspect. Conscious as a reviewer of not attacking the developer themselves. Still write spiteful humourous reviews, but avoid attacking developer, know there are things they can do better.

Giving feedback is hard. Rather than questioning intent, help them achieve their intent better.

By the time you get most negative feedback, you know about the flaws, have heard about it all before. Let people be angry for three weeks, then fix. Half the time they end up fine with it.

People who play a game a lot will say it's too easy, if you listen to them you’ll make a game that puts off new players.

A player might say "this weapon is too strong" but they mean "the boss is too easy" or "you get the weapon too early". Listen, but not too hard.

Multiplayer game, teams supposed to be balanced, but one team kept winning. Turned out one had louder guns, made them more aggressive so they won.  FEEDBACK IS HARD.

Who you are giving the feedback to makes a big difference. A student, a friend, a developer you want to help, asked to write a snarky review.

Games CAN be fun, but expecting them to be JUST that is reductive. Games can let you feel something, find catharsis.

We are affected by everything we engage with.

Games are part of a wider industry. Pays peoples wages, needs to be looked at critically.

Even if it's just fun for you, someone else might have a different experience from the same game. I won't tell you what games are for you and you don’t tell me what games are for me.

If you're at PAX you spent money to be here, you care.

"just" for fun implies “fun” is not a great value.

Knowing his game helped someone in hospital deal with pain.

If you want to be a good game maker, play lots of games and see how they're made. Keeping a journal of every game he plays.

If you are playing a game and feel something, figure out why.

When giving a student a game, give them a challenge like "explain X to me", so they have guidance, a direction to go in.

Thinking critically in a fun way: fun to write reviews when you're angry. Critical isn't negative, just more active.

You can't force players to engage in any specific way, just make the game and let them do their thing.

Some players will get really angry anyway so just make your game.

Hype can work against you as a reviewer, makes it hard to be objective if the game disappointed you. Can also be hard to say you loved a game if everyone else hated it.

Balance frustration with a sense of achievement. Frustration is a tool, as is a grind. The “random” drops aren’t entirely random: if you haven't gotten anything good in a while it'll give you something nice, and if you get a good drop too early it gets held back. Testing, see how people feel. If people aren't complaining you're doing something wrong. If everyone complains about all classes it's balanced.

Nanojam 3.0: Wacky Live Game Design

Jason Imms, Rami Ismail, Paul Verhoeven, Leonie Yue, Maize Wallin, Lucy Morris

So a little before this started my body went NOPE NOPE NAP TIME, and while I did manage to drag myself in near the end I wasn’t up to taking notes. I had a great time though, it was hilarious. The panel got given silly ideas for games and brainstormed them together, while an artist drew illustrations.

The State of Queer in games

Ashton McAllen @acegiak Saf Davidson @wanderlustin Charlie Francis kennedy @CharliethGfish Alayna Cole @alynamcole queerly represent me Jess Zammit @zammitjess David Hollingworth @cpthollingworth

What have the panelists played in 2017 that was really good queer rep:

Horizon Zero Dawn subtle, sidequests, feels very natural

Tacoma lesbian couple part of the main cast. Very cute, positive and real.

Miss Fisher's Murder Mystery has cute background f/f couple.

Life is Strange Before the Storm isn't very gay yet but is going to be.

Mighty Games added queer couple to the background of Charming Rooms, support for marriage equality in update in Shooty Skies. Good place to work, big "Vote Yes" sign on the window.

Dream Daddy: lets you choose your previous partner and how child was born, cool as an adopted person. (Also makes it easier to play trans character)

Pyre: choose pronouns

Lady Killer In A Bind lets you skip sex scenes, has an option in the menu you can change at any time. 

Night in the Woods. Background m/m couple.

Little moments that people enjoyed:

Heartstruck app dating sim (you ate the daughter of a president) LI actually SAYS she is bi. (not sure if the same as Lovestruck?)

Hacknet Labyrinths: Incidental queer content is good, rather than PLOT TWIST THEY'RE TRANS.

Criminal Case Pacific Bay: Background f/f in a hidden object game.

Recs from audience:

Overwatch made Tracer a lesbian, but only in extended content. In that case not so bad because of the nature of the game. All back stories are extended content (compare to harry Potter). She has a line in the game where she mentions her girlfriend.

Tides of Torment Numenara: 2 body types and 3 pronouns.

Stumbling blocks and salt:

Mass Effect Andromeda: had trans character tell you her deadname. At least they fixed it.

Where are the explicitly ace and bi characters??

Lost phone turns out to be owned by trans woman, feels really vouyeuristic, inspiration porn. No agency or voice.

Why isn't there more incidental queerness??? So easy!!

Don't rec stuff to us JUST because it's queer if it's not something we'd enjoy. 

Only representation is aliens and robots.

Even in most games with incidental queerness it's a tiny drop in a sea of heteronormativity.

South Park lets you pick your gender etc and you get attacked for whatever it is. The fact it happens to cis people won't make it less awful for trans characters. Game designers need to talk to people with diverse POVs and have diverse teams.

Why not 3 body types, or sliders? Saints Row is the bar.

Encountered none as a reviewer of AAA games over 2017 (was playing as a dude in Mass Effect Andromeda and got bored before encountering any queer content)

Can make Shelob a sexy woman but not add queerness to Tolkein??

Annoyed that it's SO notable that a character has a gender neutral pronoun option.

As a trans person I am escaping my shitty life as a trans person, I don't need that in a game.

List of demands:

Gender neutral pronoun options if there’s a gender/pronoun choice. Charlie will help you.

Bisexual anything.

Asexual humans.

Robots having sex.

Incidental queers.

Explicitly non binary characters, not necessarily androgynous.

[miniallumgames]

Mini’s First Game Review

Game: Tennis no Ouji-sama: Motto Gakuensai no Ouji-sama: More Sweet Edition Platform: Nintendo DS Genre: Otome/Dating Sim

Patch: https://sites.google.com/site/otomeundercover/otome-projects/gakupuri-ds

  Mini’s rating: 6/10 General Review (non-spoilers and sorta long) :

So I played this game a few years ago and spent a good two weeks on it. I played it with the english patch if anyone is interested in the patch there’s a link below the picture. I honestly didn’t know what to expect from a Prince of Tennis dating sim except hey I found Ryoma Echizen cute ten years ago, maybe those feelings haven’t changed. I decided to do this one for the first game review because all the routes are pretty quick and it’ll sorta set the tone for the kind of reviewer I am.   The premise of the game is that King Keigo Atobe rented an entire huge venue and wanted to do a school festival. So a lot of the schools and characters from the anime/manga show up. Atobe set the whole thing up to be a competition for all the schools to show whose stand/performance/any school festival thing is best. He offers some cool prizes to net every sucker in. It’s your job as committee member to keep everything organized for your school. If no one has played one of these visual novel games on a DS, you have to turn your screen so it looks kind of like a book which is kinda cool.

  The protagonist is pretty shoujo. Depending on which character you choose, the protagonist will fall in love first or the guy will. It’s pretty obvious on the guy, who will do what. I’m not sure what more to say about her. She’s rather likable and bland sometimes, but she does have a backbone. She’s pretty sensible at times too, like not going out with a character who’s been missing for the majority of his route (looking at a certain guy).

So the cool thing about this game is that it’s fully voice acted and it can actually have the character’s say your protagonist’s name, but the delivery can seem kinda off. Especially in the confession scenes, when their voice acting is so smooth and then your name in a really casual tone comes up, it breaks any sense of immersion. The audio kinda sucks, but it’s rather quick to get used to. I think that it’ll probably sound better on an emulator?

Mechanics wise, it’s pretty simple. I’ll even give you a rundown of how the game works. You start off choosing the school you want to attend (it will show all the options of guys and a pretty cute uniform), naming your character, and choosing the pronunciation for your character’s name, pretty much all jap names. So in the beginning, there will be a pretty long intro that you can go into the settings menu and skip or press the right trigger, but I recommend to at least watch one per school because you should understand some of the plot(?).

To win at the game, you stalk a guy 3 times a day to try to talk to him and there’s several different topics. At first they’ll all be busy, meaning they’re not close to you yet and so just keep stalking until they want to talk. They all have a heart meter that will go up if you talk to them or stumble upon an event. The events are super important because they’ll net you the most hearts and if you miss one, you won’t have enough hearts in your meter to get the next event, ending the guy’s route pretty early on. Choose the answer that nets the most hearts because that’s generally the right one.

The days to watch out for are 8/25, 8/28, and 8/31. (They’re more like checkpoints if anything) 

So 8/25 isn’t really set in stone, but you should have the guy ask for your number by this date or you need to really go for those hearts before the next date. 

8/28 is the first date and the guy will call you the night before, so he better have your number. You need the first date to go on the second date. 

8/31 is when you max out on hearts if you haven’t already. After that you’re mostly in the clear. One warning is don’t talk to another guy around your main guy if he gets jealous after 8/31. This can ruin the whole thing and you’ll get the bad ending, which is the normal ending if you didn’t romance anyone.

I only managed to mess up one time so good on me and in the spoilers, I’ll review every guy’s route.

(There’s a lot of them so… I have my work cut out for me.)

Because there are over 30 guys and so I will try to review them one at a time or by school. I won’t lie some guys definitely better treatment than others. Some of the routes are so disappointing while others are really good, but that’s to be expected from a game with over 30 guys. 

My final thoughts for this game is that it’s just fun. I don’t recommend it if you are really in the mood for serious plot and dramatic tennis play. This is basically just fluff put on a DS game with precious tennis boys put on it. It’s just a feel good game and what I love about it is that it knows what it is. It’s just there for romance geeks who love shoujo events. Mechanics wise, it’s unimpressive, but simple enough. The UI works and there’s nothing complicated about it. Can the writing be better, hell yes, but is it offensive, no. So if you just want a romantic cultural festival simulation with the guys from Prince of Tennis then get the game.

[furederiko]

After a brief detour through Shanghai, London, and Berlin, it's time to land on Dai Teikoku Gekijou once again. The stage is set for our main cast to take the spotlight! Furthermore, these 5 songs (Track 7 to 11), are representative of each character's personality, traits, or even backstory (so... SPOILER alert?). Basically, the meat of this album. You'll likely hear these tunes in full once you've successfully secured their solo endings, right? And throughout, the BGM version usually accompanies them during the playthrough. Let the song show begins!

Otome Nandesu yo (I'm a Maiden) by. Sakura Amamiya (Ayane Sakura)

First on the lineup, is the leading lady herself, Sakura. And, I'm not sure how to put it, but from a purely subjective viewpoint, it's my LEAST favorite of this set. Elise left a big shoe to fill following her one-woman Opera. And Sakura just couldn't keep it together, that we had to step down into an idol-mode or some sort. Sorry, no offense to idol fans out there! Different people, different tastes, and my idol phase had gone over the rainbow. If I have to be honest, I only heard the short MV I posted above (first one released) only a few times, before forgetting about it completely. I can't really understand why. Perhaps, it sounded generic? Sakura Shinguuji's image songs weren't a stand out in "Sakura Taisen" and "Sakura Taisen 2" either. Nevertheless, I enjoyed both "Sakura" and "Haru ga Kuru". I have even recorded my own covers for those two songs! They told the tale of naivety and sincerity, of a country girl who went to the big city and burdened with the fate to be a hero. Comparing those to New Sakura's solo is unnecessarily unfair, but it also can't be helped. What is the message of this song? It's about a girl who reunites with her childhood friend (Captain Seijuurou, who else). But she's no longer fond of the idea of him seeing her as a younger sister figure. But she couldn't say it, because *drumrolls*, she's now a maiden. My memory is fuzzy, but I believe Kouhei Tanaka-sensei had already confirmed that this is, in fact, an "Imouto" song. Hence the reason why my interest is not that high. Fortunately, the song took a delightful tone the moment that harmonica came along (which was after the first chorus, on the 1:30 mark). I actually DID enjoy it more because of it. I also liked the bridge part, and how the final result sounded less like a pop song. But that final line? Why did it feel needy and/or desperate? *sigh* Oh well, at least Sakura already did wonders with "Shin GEKITEI". I admit Part 3 doesn't really start off on the right foot. But worry not! It definitely gets better...

Onna!! Matsuri no Kokoro Iki (Woman!! The Spirit of the Festival) by. Hatsuho Shinonome (Maaya Uchida)

Time to get fired up again! And seriously, I dare you not to shake your body or smile as soon as this song begins. Because you certainly would! On a glance, this sounded and showed the traces of being the Kanna Kirishima's style of the new generation. But with one obvious twist: It's... AWESOME!!! Kanna is a good character, but her solo numbers rarely appealed to my taste. Suffice to say, this song took the best parts of her numbers and blended it into one spot. I've always loved this song ever since the MV came out. And this full, almost-5-minutes, version with extra arrangements just sounded... MINDBLOWING. One would argue that a bulk of this song was instrumental, with Maaya Uchida as the Matsuri's (Festival) Miko shouting her commanding cues. That is undeniably true. But listen closely, and you'll get why I or anyone would dig this. If you have been keeping up with me, you'll know that traditional tunes from various countries fascinate me. So it should come natural that I'm a sucker to festival songs like this. Especially with that mix of heavy metal rock guitar building up towards the dynamic duo of the energizing Taiko beat and an iconic whistling of Shakuhachi that added the authenticity of things. Wagakki Band, anyone? Aaaaaahhhhh... and Kouhei-sensei just HAD to slip in that speedy CRAZY-sounding piano bit! *applause* Just like Lancelot's song, this made me feel like I was being transported to Tokyo or Kyoto, attending and witnessing an actual Summer celebration. Uchida, a good singer, didn't perform this in her smooth vocal style. But she shouldn't! This is something you sing at ease while plainly having fun. Being all out and letting loose is basically the key! For the first time in Sakura Taisen's music history, I've bumped into a song that I simply don't want to sing along. Instead, I would DIE for the chance to participate in that Taiko play. Oh my, I need to see this in a live performance. You TOTALLY need to hear this! And dance along if you will... PS: If there's any gripe about this, it's when Hatsuho and the background voices are yelling "Oisa!" (literally means "Hey!"?). It tends to sound "Oisa, Osa, Usa, USO, USO, USO!". "Uso" means "Lies", and ends up giving it a misogynist feel by accident. The message of this song is that a woman is the spirit of the festival. Girl power! Feminism! But then there's these choir of ALL MALE that seemingly shouts "Lies, Lies, Lies!". That's pretty contradictory, eh? I know I'm totally making too much of a big deal out of this, but it honestly bugs me out...

Ninja Azami (Azami the Ninja) by. Azami Mochizuki (Hibiku Yamamura)

We haven't left Japan, as indicated by another tune of Shakuhachi and Koto, preparing us for the next performer. It's a familiar tune that many have heard in "Naruto", "Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger", or other feudal Japan-themed series. And the title had already said it all. This is the biographical description of Azami, as Shin Hanagumi's resident ninja-in-training. But as soon as it entered the verse (as you could hear in the MV), the sensation changed pretty significantly. No longer a serious Shinobi song, it morphed into the franchise's usual playful little girl song. Yes, even though Azami is technically older than Iris Chateaubriand, Coquelicot or Rikaritta Aries! She mentioned her hobby on practicing the various ninja scrolls, and even her love to eat snacks like Manjuu during breaks. Yare yare... With just 3:28 minutes, this is the second shortest song after "Shin GEKITEI". Obviously, the tempo does play a role in that. Hibiku Yamamura is a Sakura Taisen fan, yet she had the shortest solo number in the album. Somewhat ironic, isn't it? Nonetheless, she did a fantastic job. In fact, her unique voice remains consistent throughout the album, and that's worthy to be praised. I liked the traditional Japanese feel in this, but it also had too many speaking lines for my taste. Still, I'll gladly take this bouncy and head-bopping fun tune over Sakura's anytime. PS: Both Yamamura and Ana's VA made guests appearances more than once during the monthly Teigeki Report, which apparently will still going next year (probably until the TV series airs?). So you can hear them sharing personal experiences and stories on those videos. It's insightful, that's for sure!

Kaereru Basho (A Place to Return to) by. Anastasia Palma (Ayaka Fukuhara)

Goodness! I've been itching to arrive to this song. A good song is one that tells a story. Just like the previous songs, this one does the same, but with a deeper meaning and values. Ana is most definitely the "sexy Onee-san" archetype of this game, complete with having a curvaceous figure (reminds me of Rangiku in "BLEACH", wait a sec...). But personality-wise, the Greek lady gave off this mysterious, unpredictable vibe. She's like a mix of mature Maria Tachibana, with a vibe of Glycine Bleumer and Soletta Orihime's European presence, but with a cloudy past of Hanabi Kitaouji, and the hidden sides of Reni Milchstrasse or Subaru Kujou. If I had to describe it in one word, she's puzzling. However, there's one trait that she's been constantly identified with: she's an actress. It thoroughly commanded the message of the lyrics. But I digress. Was the whole song really all about Ana's passion for acting? There seemed to be more than meet the eye. From what I gather, there's an underlying hint of a journey of sadness, past events or eras that had emerged and faded, beloved people that had come and gone. In short, she basically acted her way through the ups and downs of her life. A coping mechanism, perhaps? Laughing away loneliness, a facade of her true emotions. And what did she mean by "A Place to Return to"? Was it the stage, or acting, or just like many of previous Sakura Taisen's heroine: someone to go home to? Or someone who can finally discover and understand her real self? I need to either play the game or watch the TV series to confirm that. Now that I'm older (and wiser? Naaaah), this is my idea of a good song. It asks you to listen, pay attention, and also feel challenged to try to figure it out. This was the longest Shin Hanagumi and solo song of the album. You'll understand why it needed to be that long to be good. The moment that alluring piano intro kicked in, and the violin started to seep in, it's classy and elegant as hell. Ayaka Fukuhara stated that this was a challenge to sing, and indeed it is. It should be. Even though the vocal range wasn't as demanding as Elise's opera, the pitch work was exceptional! She gradually went from a lower tone to higher and higher. It sounded like the aura of the room changed every time another verse began (due to the modulation, as well as the flow of passion and emotions), seemingly depicting Ana's many masks. And those sharp notes? Oh my, oh my, OH MY!!! No wonder Subaru's VA, Mie Sonozaki (who is a prolific singer herself) congratulated Fukuhara on doing such a fine job. This is another highlight of the album for me and my favorite Shin Hanagumi character song by far. Now, where can I get the off-vocal version? Because I totally want to try singing this song... PS: Similar to Elise, voice-wise, Ana is one of my favorites due to her range and distinct pronunciation style. She can go mezzo-soprano and heavy, but also high and soprano. I strongly enjoyed that versatility is utilized wonderfully in this song.

Rondo (Round Dance) by. Clarissa Snowflake (Saori Hayami)

You're watching a European-based fairy tale romance. What happens at the end, when the one true love has been found and all evil that stands in the way has perished? They hold a gala, where everyone waltzes into a happily ever after... That is the core of this whole song, a composition that Kouhei-sensei described it as feeling "like a movie". As a character, Claris fancies herself reading books (nerd alert! Hahaha), and I think many of her scenes in the game takes place in the library. But she also writes stories and loves to fantasize about a paradise filled with mermaids and magical elements. Perhaps because she alone wields a magic book. And her dream is to dance with someone while surrounded by those things. Those are the essence of the simple but poetic lyrics. I admit, when I first heard it, I was taken aback by the decision to putting this track as the final Hanagumi song. But now it makes perfect sense. It easily serves as a calm and astonishingly perfect capper to a series of solo songs, a grand celebration to conclude a colorful parade. My knowledge of reed or woodwind instruments is poor, so I couldn't tell if it was an Ocarina or another type that played in the intro. I'm not sure if that's native to Luxembourg too. One thing for sure, the medieval melody would naturally pierce through your soul, until that graceful combo of Lute or acoustic guitar (again, sorry if I'm bad at names) and harp soothed you into a more familiar space. Then suddenly, the song changed tone halfway through and turned into full folk song mode. Yes, the Kouhei-sensei style I told you before. Someone on Youtube mentioned that this reminded him/her of Disney's "Tangled". Well, I can attest that the catchy interlude was very true to that notion. To think that this song arrived while "Frozen 2" is still playing. Such a great coincidence! Saori Hayami is a great singer, known for her gorgeous legato siren-like vocals. Just like Ana (oh hey, fellow non-Japanese Shin Hanagumi), I'm beyond happy that this song fully made use of her unique charm. Especially once it got into that royal ballroom dance chorus, reminiscent of Orihime's image song. It didn't take long for me to imagine Claris as the protagonist, dancing with her prince (or princess, if that's her thing. Right, Hallmark?) in a grand finale of her fictional story. Speaking of which, I'm still confused as to why Hayami's name is always placed at the end. Even though the promotions clearly showed that Claris is one of the first members of the team. Could it be that she's a "special cast member" type, like in Hollywood movies? That would make sense... Another highlight of the album, another personal favorite (that I've been humming and singing unconsciously on repeat), this clocked as the second-longest solo of the album. But just like the previous number, I doubt anyone would complain. You only need to close your eyes and just start swaying left to right, back, and front. Take your beloved person's hand, embrace him/her tightly, and just follow the musical flow. Dance the day or night away, with much joy and passion! PS: The official MV wrote the title as "RONDE". I still go with "RONDO" because pretty sure that's a typo, considering even the French (one of Luxembourg's official language) equivalent is "RONDEAU". Rondo itself is a musical form that refers to a theme that keeps coming back around. But in Japanese, the kanji can also be read as "RINBU" which means "Round Dance".

Next: the final part of the review, featuring voices old and new, and my overall impression...

Video is available on SEGA Official Youtube Channel. "Shin Sakura Taisen" is produced by SEGA, and RED Entertainment. Credits and copyrights belong to their respective owners.

[pangzi]

Otome Gay [Nielan] - Chapter 4

word count: 3842 other chapters:  INTRO - Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 [AO3]

Since that Saturday, they messaged each other every single day, their date had been mentioned several times, but no actual plans had been made yet. Both of their lives being a bit too busy at the moment now that Mingjue was back to work.

As usual by now, Mingjue woke up to a good morning text from Xichen, followed by several voice messages telling him about something that happened in his early morning class. These messages proving to be way more effective in getting rid of Mingjue’s morning moods than any coffee ever.

So, Mingjue got up with a smile and decided to get his daily cup of coffee outside for once. He wouldn’t have to be at the Gym until the afternoon so he had all the time in the world to get a nice breakfast at the place he always used to take Huaisang. As he got his order, the pancakes Huaisang always chose, he realised he missed his brother again. So, as good big brothers do, he sent him a picture of his breakfast to make him jealous. He was just about to dig in when someone stopped in front of his table.

“Is this spot taken?” At the sound of that voice not coming out of his phone for once, Mingjue jumped up, spilling some of his coffee and dropping his cutlery.

“Xichen”, he gasped, reaching for a napkin to wipe away what he spilled.

“I didn’t mean to startle you! I’m so sorry”

Mingjue gave him a sheepish smile and gestured for him to sit down. “Don’t worry about it. Please, join me”

Xichen sat down in front of him, quietly scanning the QR code on the table to place his order. “It’s nice to see you again, Mingjue”, he whispered. “I’m so sorry I startled you, though! I should buy you a new coffee”

“No, no, Xichen please, you really don’t have to! Barely anything spilled!” Mingjue reassured him. “I’m very glad to see you again, as well, I just didn’t expect to see you around here.”

Xichen smiled at him and Mingjue’s heart warmed immediately, he couldn’t help but smile back. “Do you live around here?” Xichen asked.

Mingjue nodded. “About a five minute walk from here”

“Ah, how lucky! I live a few subway stops away, a pity truly, I love this place!” Xichen replied.

A waitress brought Xichen his food, he had ordered the same as Mingjue, who had almost forgotten about his own breakfast waiting in front of him. They ate in silence.

“Huaisang really likes this place too”, Mingjue said after finishing his plate. “I used to take him here all the time”

“Your brother has great taste in restaurants”, Xichen said. “Do you like it just as much, or do you prefer somewhere else?”

Mingjue thought about it, he really liked this place but never felt like coming here without Huaisang until today. “Actually”, he hummed, “I prefer to grab my breakfast at the little baozi shop at the end of my street. I will show you one day!”

Xichen nodded enthusiastically. “Please, I love baozi”, he chirped, “What brought you here today, though? Were they out of baozi already?”

Mingjue shrugged. He hadn’t even thought of getting baozi today, he had decided that he would come here as soon as he woke up. “No, I just felt like coming here today. Maybe it’s because I miss my brother and felt like making him jealous with his favourite food”

“Or maybe it was fate that brought us here together”, Xichen joked with a wink.

“Maybe it was”, Mingjue murmured. His phone buzzed in his pocket. Then it buzzed again, and again. Which could only mean one thing: Huaisang was messaging him. Xichen noticed the buzzing too, motioning that it was okay for Mingjue to check while he finished his breakfast.

As Mingjue could have expected from his brother, he had sent several voice messages, ranging from three to thirty seconds. Huaisang always did this, while he knew his brother preferred written messages. Except from Xichen, he didn’t mind getting voice messages from him, but Huaisang didn’t have to know that. He sent Huaisang a quick message to type what he had to say, but in reply he just got a very sad selfie and another voice message. Mingjue sighed and put his phone away again, to find Xichen staring at him with his chin in his hand. Immediately a blush crept up his neck.

“Was he upset that you’re here without him?” Xichen asked.

“I wouldn’t know, the brat just sent me some voice messages and refused to type what he had to say when I said I couldn’t listen to them now”

Xichen smiled, taking a sip of his coffee. “You aren’t the type to send voice messages yourself, are you?”

“I prefer typing and reading messages” Mingjue admitted.

“Oh”, Xichen suddenly looked upset, stirring his cup of coffee and playing with a napkin in the center of the table suddenly very interesting. “I’m sorry I will keep that in mind in the future”

Immediately, Mingjue’s stomach dropped. “No”, he said, grabbing Xichen’s hand, giving it a soft squeeze. “Please, don’t stop sending me voice messages, I enjoy hearing your voice”, he admitted before pulling his hand away shyly. “Huaisang just sends ten voice messages for something he could have told me in a text message with ten words.”

“Okay”, Xichen uttered., “Then I will not stop, but I will make sure to not ramble like Huaisang”

Please ramble, Mingjue wanted to say. But Xichen saw the time and suddenly scrambled up, apologizing profusely for suddenly having to leave like this.

“I’m late for a meeting, I’m so sorry Mingjue I will message you, we should meet again soon”

“It better be a voice message”, Mingjue joked, “See you soon, Xichen”

After that morning, Mingjue kept bumping into Xichen everywhere. They’d met in the grocery store, at a coffee shop, on Mingjue’s morning run, on the subway… Suddenly Xichen seemed everywhere and Mingjue wasn’t sure he could handle it. Everywhere he went now, he had his eye out for his embarrassing crush, slightly disappointed whenever he wouldn’t find him.

No matter how often they met, how often they texted or called each other, no date was planned still. It wasn’t that he was too afraid to ask Xichen out, he was just always too busy being around Xichen, getting his attention, that he just forgot to ask and then when they’d part ways or the conversation ended it felt too late to ask. Every time he told himself that next time, next time he would ask Xichen out.

His free time that wasn’t occupied by thinking about or talking to Xichen, he still spent playing Huaisang’s otome game. He had gotten slightly further, he had unlocked the negative ending a while ago. He assumed this was why Xichen’s character was so special, because it was so hard to get anything but the neutral ending. He had asked Huaisang for help several times, but every single time he’d just get the answers ‘Oh dage’ or ‘please just give up’. But Nie Mingjue was not a quitter, he would get Lan Xichen to go out with him both in the game and in real life.

Huaisang video called him while he was cooking dinner and chattered on about everything that had happened the past few days until Mingjue had finished his dinner, after which he made sure his big brother told him just as much about his life. Getting all the details on the progress he’d made with Xichen.

“You still haven’t gone on an actual, official date?” Huaisang gasped. “Dage, I cannot believe this, it’s been two weeks!”

Mingjue hid his face in his hands in shame. “I know, Huaisang, I know! You don’t have to rub it in”

“Ask him to come to my birthday party”, Huaisang said. That was actually a good idea, although Huaisang being there to stick his nose in his business wasn’t ideal but at least it would be a slightly comfortable situation with people they both knew. “It’s this Friday at Wei Wuxian’s house, I will send you the address after the call. It’s going to be great, dage! I cannot wait to see you!”

As promised, Huaisang shared the location with him immediately after they hung up. and  reminded him to ask Xichen. After doing the dishes, he promised both his brother and himself. Xichen seemed to think about that differently, though. Mingjue was about to wash his first dish when he received another voice call. He placed his phone behind the sink, so Xichen could see him, before answering.

“I’m not disturbing you, am I?” Xichen asked as soon as the video call connected.

“Of course not, just doing the dishes. How was your day, Xichen?” Mingjue replied.

“Not too eventful, spent most of my day at an event about modern art and then had dinner with my uncle. How was your day?”

“About the same, had some difficult clients today but nothing I can’t handle. Huaisang called during dinner, talked my ear off before making sure he knew every piece of gossip out of my life” Mingjue hesitated, this was his chance. “Xichen?”

“Mn.”

“Do you want to go to Huaisang’s birthday party with me this Friday?” Mingjue asked, “As my date.”

Xichen stayed quiet for a while, which made Mingjue’s stomach churn. He put the poor plate he’d been scrubbing to death aside, taking another one.

“I understand if you don’t want to”, Mingjue rambled, “Some of your students might be there and I get it if you do-”

“I’d love to go with you, Mingjue”, Xichen interrupted him, “I don’t think any of my students will be surprised seeing me there with you”

“Oh, okay”, Mingjue gulped, “Should I pick you up then?”

Xichen nodded. “That would be nice. I will send you my address.”

“I know it’s not the perfect first date”, Mingjue mumbled.

Xichen stopped him before he could say anything else. “It’s a date with you, that’s more than I could dare to dream of already”

With that date in mind, Mingjue went into the next day with a big smile on his face. Fueled, of course, by Xichen’s messages as well. Zonghui immediately noticed his boss’ exceptionally good mood as he walked into the gym that morning. He knew it probably had something to do with Xichen, but he couldn’t help but tease.

“Excited about our date tonight, boss?”

Mingjue huffed. “Always”, he mocked. There was a carnival in town and he’d promised Zonghui they’d go there together a while ago. His mind had been so set on Xichen lately, he was glad Zonghui had reminded him. He felt bad that he’d almost forgotten about an appointment with his best friend because of a man, not that Zonghui would ever allow him to forget anything.

“Huaisang said he’s coming too”, Zonghui said, following Mingjue towards his office. “Is that why you’re so happy? Can’t wait to see your brother again?”

“He is? He didn’t mention anything yesterday” Mingjue frowned, since when did Zonghui know more about his brother’s plans than he did.

Zonghui sat down across from Mingjue at his desk. “Then what has you humming like this? Have you finally asked that guy out?” Mingjue nodded, logging into his computer and grabbing some paperwork. He didn’t even try to tell Zonghui to go, his need for gossip could be as bad as Huaisang’s sometimes. He wouldn’t leave until he got everything he wanted or it was time for his first client of the day.

“Mingjue!” Zonghui exclaimed, jumping up in excitement. “That’s great! Where are you taking him?”

Mingjue sighed and let himself fall back into his chair. “Huaisang’s birthday” Zonghui cocked up a very judgemental eyebrow. “I know, I know! I should have taken him to some nice restaurant on our first real date, then on a nice walk afterwards… But it felt right at the moment, and he said yes!”

“You could’ve just as well asked him to come tonight then”, Zonghui remarked.

Mingjue almost laughed at that. “He already knows Huaisang, that’s more than enough access to embarrassing information about me than he should have at this moment.”

“But only I can tell him about your embarrassing dating stories, or about that one time you sneezed on the treadmill on a busy day and fell in front of a busy gym. That’s a nice one too!”

“Isn’t your first client coming in soon, go do your job”, Mingjue ordered, which just made Zonghui laugh. Still, he got up and left, leaving Mingjue alone for the rest of the day.

They were supposed to meet Huaisang and his friends at the entrance of the carnival, but as expected, they quickly received a message from Huaisang that they’d be late. Mingjue and Zonghui strolled around for a bit. Playing some games against each other, leaving the rides for when the rest had arrived, knowing Huaisang would probably want to ride all of them.

An hour and a half after they were supposed to meet, they finally received a message from Huaisang that they were almost there. So the duo made their way back to the entrance to wait for them. They should have known by now that ‘almost there’ coming from Huaisang means more than just a few minutes. So they just waited…

They had been standing around for a good ten minutes when Zonghui decided to get some snacks for the two of them. He had only left for a few minutes when Mingjue saw that familiar face that made his knees weak every time, walking towards them. He was there with the dancer boy, which he had learned was called Meng Yao and was Xichen’s best friend in real life too. Xichen didn’t see him until they had nearly passed him, but as soon as he did he stopped in his tracks and smiled at him.

“Hey”, Mingjue said.

“Hey” Xichen pulled his friend towards Mingjue, who got the chills at the glare the boy gave him before his expression changed to a polite smile.

Zonghui joined them as well, throwing his arm around Mingjue’s shoulder after giving him his hotdog. Xichen’s face fell immediately and Mingjue shrugged off the arm in a panic.

“Zonghui”, Mingjue said, “This is Xichen. Xichen, this is my best friend Zonghui” They shook hands before Xichen introduced them to Meng Yao officially.

“I’ve heard a lot about you”, Meng Yao said, shaking Mingjue’s hand. Xichen blushed at that, elbowing his friend softly.

Zonghui opened his mouth, probably to say something to embarrass Mingjue as well, but he got interrupted by Mingjue being jumped. Huaisang had jumped on Mingjue’s back, who had just immediately grabbed his legs out of sheer habit.

“See, I told you he would!” Huaisang laughed, grabbing his brother’s shoulders a bit tighter in a hug before hopping down and moving to Zonghui to do their weird handshake after which Zonghui got him in a headlock and rubbed his head until Huaisang stopped struggling at the sight of Xichen.

“Xichen”, he squealed, “I didn’t know you were coming too, did dage invite you?”

Xichen shook his head kindly. “No, A-Yao and I decided only today we’d come here. Bumping into your brother was just a wonderful coincidence”

“You should join us, Xichen-ge. We convinced Wangji to come too, it’s going to be great!”

Xichen looked at Mingjue hesitantly for a moment, before looking at Meng Yao who just rolled his eyes and nodded, before agreeing.

Huaisang pulled them all towards the first ride excitedly, Mingjue walking next to Xichen in silence, listening to him talk to his brother. It was a short conversation, as Wuxian claimed Wangji’s attention again as soon as he could. Huaisang had separated Meng Yao from Xichen as soon as he could, chattering his ear off the way only Huaisang could.

“Do you like rollercoasters?”, Xichen asked, looking at gigantic ride they were walking towards.

Mingjue shrugged. “They’re fun, but I prefer the games, I only ride the rollercoasters because Huaisang likes them so much. Do you like them?”

Xichen shook his head, Mingjue noticed he got paler and paler the closer they got to the ride. “I hate them, they’re too fast and I always get sick” Still, Xichen followed everyone to the ticket booth. Huaisang started counting everyone so he could buy tickets for everyone. Xichen reached for his wallet. He looked like he was about to pass out from fear, hands shaking like crazy. Mingjue couldn’t believe he was still about to pay for a ticket for something he wouldn’t enjoy. He grabbed Xichen’s wrist stop him, waving at Huaisang.

“A-Sang, Xichen and I are going to go pass on this one.” Huaisang pouted as he heard that, opening his mouth to complain. “My stomach doesn’t agree with the hotdog I just had, Xichen and I will go play some games over there instead! Have fun, text us when you’re about to get on”, Mingjue said and immediately started pulling Xichen away, not giving Huaisang any chance to try and change their minds.

Already holding Xichen’s wrist as he lead them through the crowd, Mingjue decided to take a chance and grab his hand. Xichen just squeezed his hand softly in response, intertwining their fingers.

“Thank you”, he said.

“For holding your hand?” Mingjue blurted out.

Xichen laughed, squeezing his hand once more. “And for not letting me get on that ride and regretting it for the rest of the evening.”

“Maybe I just wanted to get you to myself, and you gave me the perfect reason”, Mingjue joked.

“Maybe I’m not scared of rollercoasters at all, but I made it up so you would rescue me and then I’d have you all for myself”, Xichen argued.

“I thought you were raised not to tell lies”, Mingjue retorted.

Xichen laughed, pulling Mingjue towards a game. “You got me there”

They played a few games together, saving up a nice amount of tickets pretty fast. On their way towards the fifth game they wanted to play, they passed the prize booth and Xichen’s eye seemed to be caught by a big tiger plushie. The way he looked at it, Mingjue knew he had to win it for him. It was twice the tickets they had now and Huaisang still hadn’t called which meant they were still in the line so he had some time.

They were still a few tickets short when they joined the rest again, who were recovering from apparently not one but two rollercoaster rides, courtesy of Huaisang who convinced everyone not to bother his brother and his date. When they joined the others, very suddenly, Xichen let his hand fall out of Mingjue’s, who tried not to think anything too bad about it. Instead, he focused on getting that plushie for Xichen again.

Suddenly he realized he spent nearly an hour playing games with Zonghui before they joined the rest, but he had promised Zonghui all the tickets they won as Mingjue usually doesn’t use them anyway. He pulled Zonghui aside, who seemed pained at losing such a big amount of prize tickets but as Mingjue helped him win them, he let go of them anyway.

Together with Zonghui he disappeared to the prize booth. Mingjue knew it was ridiculous, but he wanted the best one for Xichen, so he inspected three different toy tigers before choosing the best one. In the meantime, Zonghui debated whether or not to get some toy sword, or to save up some more to get a different toy sword, eventually deciding to wait. Joining the others again a bit later, Xichen was nowhere to be found.

“Where’s Xichen?” Mingjue asked immediately.

“They just left”, Wuxian replied, “He wanted to say goodbye but you were nowhere to be found, so the little one said they should just leave” Shit, they should’ve been faster. Xichen always went to bed early, even when he went out, Mingjue should’ve remembered that.

“I think you can still catch them”, Huaisang noted, “They left right before you guys came back” Mingjue didn’t move fast enough for Huaisang’s liking, who got up and decided to push his brother in the correct direction. “Quick, quick! Go give him the plushie you big sap”

Huaisang calling him a sap kind of made him second guess the plushie, but it was too late to back out now. He made his way towards the entrance as fast as he could through the crowd. When he got there, he almost immediately lost hope in still finding Xichen, there were so many people everywhere, the chance of finding him if he was still here was slim. He hugged the plushie close to his chest and took a deep breath. He decided to wait near the exit for a while, hoping Xichen hadn’t left just yet.

Luck seemed to be on his side tonight, as only a few minutes later he saw a familiar face once again. Xichen looked a bit distraught and Mingjue didn’t like it one bit. Whatever Meng Yao was telling him didn’t seem to help one bit either.

“Xichen!” Mingjue called, waving at him before making his way to them. Xichen looked surprised to see him, a slightly sad smile on his face. He didn’t say anything when Mingjue joined them. “I went to get this for you, I saw you looking at it before so I thought- Anyway when I came back you were gone”, Mingjue rambled, “I’m glad I still caught you, I’m sorry I disappeared.” In the corner of his eye, he saw Meng Yao roll his eyes, but Mingjue ignored it, handing Xichen the plushie who hesitantly took it from him.

“Thank you”, Xichen whispered, wrapping his arms around the plushie tightly.

Mingjue felt very uneasy, a wave of doubts overcoming him right at that moment. Xichen didn’t like it, it was a stupid thing to do. He should’ve just stayed with them, but no instead he had to leave and ruin everything.

“We should go”, Meng Yao said, “Xichen is tired.” His tone didn’t help at all, he sounded furious, which only made it clearer to Mingjue that he had indeed fucked up, so he just nodded and smiled at them. Mingjue moved aside so they could go to the exit but before he could, Xichen grabbed his arm and pressed a soft kiss to Mingjue’s cheek.

“See you soon, Mingjue. I love the tiger”, he said and left.

Mingjue didn’t know how to feel. Part of him felt relieved and slightly ecstatic about Xichen kissing his cheek, but he also still felt uneasy about Meng Yao’s hostility towards him and especially about how upset Xichen looked. His doubts only lifted slightly more when an hour later, he received a good night text combined with a selfie of a very sleepy Xichen in bed, the tiger plushie wrapped tightly in his arms.