#a date with denial VN

[letmeremindyouvn]

@catskets recently held a 72 hour Murderboy Mayhem game jam. I was not able to complete the game in time, but I still finished and published it, so here it is. ^^

Plot: You wake up and find yourself on a romantic dinner date with a mysterious man, who introduces himself as Zecharias. You have no memory of ever meeting this man, or agreeing to go on a date with him. You have to figure out what's going on before it's too late.

This game acts as a spinoff for my other games: Let Me Remind You and Be My Muse. It features the same yandere love interest as both games: Zecharias, but takes place at a different time.

This is my first completed game. :D I'm so happy I finished it.

Content:

4.2k words

3 endings

WARNINGS:

This game contains blood and fictional depictions of corpses. It also features a character that manipulates the player. Viewer discretion is advised.

[espoirduvide]

Zecharias from the game "Be My Muse"

Here are the other games - https://batter-sempai.itch.io/

Here is when I first met Zechy - https://youtu.be/XTe5R4q1xBQ

[letmeremindyouvn]

Ohhhh!! :D Thank you so much for the review!

I'm so happy you enjoyed it. ^^ I love your observations and theories here as well.

The only thing I can reveal now is that the MC in A Date with Denial is indeed different from the one in Be My Muse. And the MCs in Let Me Remind You will be different too. Zecharias has lived a long time and has made many attempts to get a muse.

Thanks again. ^^

A Date with Denial (Visual Novel)

Created by: Batter_Sempai (Axolittle)

Genre: Horror

I was actually pretty excited to see this game when it came out since I enjoyed Be My Muse quite a lot. This one is more self contained and a bit of a spin off of Be My Muse, but the concept of having a date with a yandere character is always rather fun and even more so with a memory altering being. This was another game made for the #72HourMurderboyMayhem. If you are curious about Zecharias, you can get more information at @letmeremindyouvn.

The story starts with the main character waking up at a dining table with Zecharias. They don't seem to remember what's going on, but he assures them that they simply fell asleep after having the date after introducing himself. From there Zecharias will offer food and the two of them talk about things and ask questions.

Simply going along with everything will cause the MC to simply deny the strange feeling they have and continue the date with Zecharias.

Looking around, the MC will realize some details, their favorite food being served, Zecharias drinking wine, the fact that his plate is completely empty. Zecharias may express sadness for the fact that they have forgotten that they were his muse, possibly because he accidentally caused their memories to fade. He also may show a painting that he painted of them (seeming from the Be My Muse game, as that also ends with the player being painted) explaining that after he had painted them, he had invited them out to dinner.

At some point, Zecharias will offer and then retrieve a drink of the MC's choice, from where they can look around the venue or wait for him. If the MC looks around, they'll notice that nobody is here, not even the staff, the water outside has no signs of sea life or anything and a soft distant singing, that can mesmerize them. If the MC is able to look at the painting, they will start to recall what happened. They remember they were there with three other people and entered an old building. Zecharias eventually returns to give them their drink. They start to ask questions to Zecharias.

If they aren't quite aware enough, they will start to realize the differences in what Zecharias tells them, but he will instead wipe their memory, causing them to essentially start over from the beginning of the game.

If they are aware enough, they recall differences, like the fact they had a backpack, the fact that his plate is completely clean, the fact that the water itself has no fish (despite it being an aquarium) and the fact that they were with other people before they met Zecharias. After this Zecharias breaks his wine glass in anger, and the MC starts to run out of the venue. They eventually reach a part of the hall where they see the bodies of their four other people that were with them while going into the abandoned building. They recall that their friends, now lifeless, liked to hang out in abandoned buildings to go camping until they ended up finding him, with him stating that he wanted to have one of them as a muse. Helpless, they are captured once again by Zecharias.

There was a bit of an issue reaching the first ending of Denial since I could never reach it (this has since be fixed, but I had to cheat in the code to get that ending) as well as a bit of black glitching after I changed stuff in the code, but other than that, the game ran pretty smoothly. I do like that it uses more piano/classical music like in the first one, and when Zecharias breaks down a bit there's a bit of ominous sound layered on top of it.

Anyways, as I said, it's always fun seeing game that have a dating mechanic with a yandere, because we don't always get to see them in that setting, often yandere vns focus more on the actual development of being in a relationship with a yandere (or otherwise running away from them). In this case, we not only get to hang out with Zecharias, but also see his powers of memory, first wiping the MC as well as alternating/gaslighting them so that he can continue keeping them as his muse. His powers are always kind of fun because it makes it a lot harder to find out what is real or not, and what kind of lies Zecharias is feeding us. In this case it often is pretty obvious when the MC is able to notice it, from the clean plate to the fact that there's no fishes inside of the aquarium, but because they're under the influence of Zecharias's memory numbing ability, its a lot harder for them to focus. I am curious about the singing though, since we hear it even when Zecharias is present (at least from what I can tell), but I would assume his singing does have a bit of a sleeping effect on people. As for how the two met, it is curious that Zecharias was kind of just inside of an abandoned building. It's implied that the entire date set up was something that he created (as we know he can create things from thin air), but has forgotten specific aspects like the fish or staff (or possibly that he can't actually conjure living things, but who knows). Why he ended up choosing the MC and then slaughtering the rest is unknown, but probably as a yandere he didn't want them being around his muse. Since this is a spin off though, the MC in this world is not the same as the one in Be My Muse, though it does beg the question if he's the type to jump between different muses or if this was just done for game purposes. My bet is on the latter, since this is a one off game, but who really knows. The horror of revealing that something is seriously wrong is pretty intriguing though and looping the player's memory over and over again is a rather tragic ending where they are just stuck there until they either find out what's going on or simply accept it.

Overall, I think Batter did a good job with this game. It's simple and lets us know more about Zecharias as a character while also exploring more of his powers, and what kinds of horrors that Zecharias's darling will have to face in the future. Really fun!

[snowthatareblack]

not me bawling my eyes out and sobbing when i got the second ending despondent/Full Bad Ending, my heart couldn't handle the heartbreak

[tarableart]

Recently a friend of mine ( @letmeremindyouvn ) has been working on a visual novel, and in support of her efforts I have painted the mysterious antagonist of her game series, Zecharias. If you like dark spooky mysteries, liminal spaces, references to Greek mythology, and charming dangerous men- then give her games a look!

Be My Muse- https://batter-sempai.itch.io/be-my-muse

A Date With Denial- https://batter-sempai.itch.io/a-date-with-denial

[robobarbie]

Sorry I’m really late to finding out about the new game but who are the LI in it?

I dont have any formal stuff for promo materials yet since I'm focused on making the actual game atm, but here's a rundown!

TITLE:

Adonia AI

PLOT:

You come to work as a temp employee at a controversial AI startup in Silicon Valley that specializes in making AI of dead people. Over the course of 2 weeks, you build friendships, make enemies, fall in love, and learn what it means to be truly "happy." This story will probably resonate with those who struggle with burnout, loss of passion, corporate sludge, death, and fears about depersonalization in a world of AI.

GAMEPLAY:

A computer sim mixed with some traditional vn elements -- all conversations, very little prose in the robobarbie tradition. Bit of a job simulator (yes you have to work) (CRINGE). There's little bonuses and an entire cross-route secret story you can unlock if you know where to look. The content warnings on this game are going to be incredible, for a variety of reasons.

LOVE INTERESTS:

Felix. 35yo, 6'2" (idk), white. A data scientist who is rather protective of his younger brother and not eager to have his schedule interrupted. He's got a bone to pick with god for waking him up every morning and takes his coffee black.

Jerri. 29, 5'6", viet. A software engineer who seems perpetually exhausted (yet in denial about it). She has some secrets she'd be willing to share with you -- if you can beat her in a game of chance.

Note: this picture is a clip of me fighting against christ the lord to make her not look like an oompa loompa. I demand she have green hair. She WILL have green hair. You can TAKE her GREEN HAIR off my COLD, MAGGOT FILLED-

Sungho. 27, 6'4", korean. The optimistic and energetic marketer with a seemingly endless supply of creatine. You can find him at 6am either pumping iron or complimenting milfs coming out of spin class.

Major. 40, 6'5", black. The executive who will make this company succeed at any cost. There's a rumor that he started Adonia in order to try to talk to someone he loves one last time. Wonder if that worked out.

Note: he recently got hair. I am a bald truther tho til I die.

ANYWAY

That's what it's all about. The 2 routes currently in development are Jerri's and Felix's. After that, it'll be into Major and Sungho (tho they won't take very long after Jerri/Felix are done). It's coming out in 2023 for PC and mobile (mobile will be a couple months after PC) -- release date will be posted when the game is sent to QA testers for their final check, whenever that happens.

Excited for you to meet them next year!

[letmeremindyouvn]

Sorry for the late reply. ;w;

Thank you so much for playing my game!! 💜🥰 I'm glad you enjoyed it.

It's Monday!

I hope you're all ready to go on a date with a mysterious man... who you don't actually remember saying yes to.

[fastnfurrious]

Yo but Echo is such a good VN in how it subverts the whole "dating sim" thing. Like it exists in a medium designed primarily for escapist romance/horniess but like only one ending involves the potential of a future relationship with the character you set out to date.

Throughout Leo's route he's shown to be violent and obsessive and his good ending involves you leaving him because even if he's going to get better, he needs to do that away from you.

TJ's route is obviously horrific and the romance blending into horror and showing how the possessive mentality around dating sim characters can be taken to a logical extreme.

Carl's good route has positive romance in it, but the epilogue describing how it didn't really last once they left Echo felt very real, even if they stayed friends.

Jenna is the only character who you can actually keep a relationship with, and even then you're basically starting from scratch after leaving Echo and going on a first date.

This game is a great deconstruction of dating sims and it's denial of the players wants, in favour of healthier more realistic relationships is amazing. (and when they do give the player what they "want" it's viscously twisted and horrifying)

Seriously, play Echo if you have any interest in horror VNs, it's so worth it.

[junhoontrash]

jun ships as fanfiction tropes? :D

JunCheol: Mafia/Gang AU where SC is a newly appointed boss of the most notorious group within the district, meanwhile JN just started police academy  and is having second thoughts on his career choice, the two have an accidental meeting on a park bench where SC cheers JN up by listening to his troubles and empathizing with him. Years later, JN (now a detective) is assigned to track down SC, and the real story starts from there. I also like the semi-scandalous employer vs employee trope for these two.

JunHan: Bartender AU where JH works at a bar JN visits almost every weekend, the latter would always complain to JH about how he never has any luck in love, and the bartender would listen to him whine for hours but never really giving any response. After all, JH was the one responsible for JN’s “lack” of suitors, but he doesn’t need to know that. A lot of pining, secret admirer elements.

JunShua: JS is the senior with the pretty eyes and laugh that JN has a secret crush on but has never even spoken a word to, though not from lack of trying on their mutual friends’ part. It’s just that JN always ends up panicking and running away. One morning after a party, JN finds himself waking up in JS’s apartment and the older acts completely nonchalant while making eggs for breakfast. Mutual pining/crushing; the cool senpai isn’t actually cool; dorks in love; college to LDR to domestic AU.

SoonHui: GROWING UP TOGETHER AU. Or, reunited childhood friends AU. Kid crushes blooming into first love. The two are childhood neighbors and attended the same school all throughout kindergarten-middle school years, but then JN moves away. They never lost contact though, and JN reveals that he applied and got into the same university as HS. Thrilled, HS goes pick up JN at the airport and they have a “how tf did he get even prettier” moment. Aren’t even dating but act like a married couple; denial of feelings because “we’ve known each other since forever, I’ve seen him pee his pants ffs” “ewww that’s like dating my own brother haha. ha.” -> “see?! he doesn’t even feel the same way so what’s the point”; their friends are very done and so is the writer; some minor angst from the two drifting apart at some point, whether it be from the previously stated misunderstanding or the actual distance playing its part.

WonHui: Probably an overstated AU for these two but cat cafe :’D Or, “I’ve been feeding this stray for a while but turns out it was your cat all along and now I demand partial custody” AU. Minor enemies to lovers; gasp and they were roommates; domestic fluff. I don’t know why, but fake marriage AU also seems fitting for them.

JunHoon: WZ is writing a musical and goes into a slump, chances upon some angelic singing accompanied by beautiful piano playing and BAM there’s his muse. But after finishing the whole thing, no one from auditions catches his eye for the piano angel role and he knew that there was only one thing to do- he had to find the original piano angel. Even after finding JN though, the latter refuses to take the role out of shyness, but WZ is insistent on letting the whole school hear and see how wonderful his newfound muse was. WZ accidentally says some embarrassing things (ex: praising JN’s singing and literally calling it angelic in front of their whole friend group; “I don’t want just anyone, I want you”) but JN’s the one getting shy while WZ’s oblivious; JN is an acting major but isn’t confident with singing in public; musicals are stressful omg; love between two oblivious fools that drive all their friends crazy; Cinderella elements.

JunHao: Romance between an assassin and bodyguard; established relationship, but neither knows about the other’s “side job” until they meet in action. “We are having a serious talk when we get home- will you stop trying to stab me?” “I would if you’d just let me get to that guy behind you” “oh so now it’s my fault?” “Is this about the dishes again” “It was clearly your turn-”; questionable domestic content; romeo and juliet elements; lovers to enemies but also still lovers.

JunGyu: Love-at-first-bite; MG is the owner of a small place JN likes to order takeout from, and JN always jokes about how he’d only date someone if they could replicate his favorite dish from their menu to stop his friends from trying to set him up. One day, a mutual friend has a housewarming party and MG brings homemade food, which JN immediately recognizes and proposes right on the spot, yes, in the middle of their friend’s house, in front of everyone. MG turns him down, but JN starts actually eating at his place instead of ordering takeout, and MG just treats him as background noise for a while but then starts to secretly fall for his small cute quirks. Some jealousy ensues when JN eventually gives in and lets his friend set up a blind date, having accepted that MG wasn’t interested. They decided to meet at MG’s place because JN had grown a bit too attached to his food, and MG gets, well, extremely distracted.

SeokHui: Coffee shop AU where JN goes to a coffee shop every morning just to catch that one cute server’s shift. One day, he saw that the place was hiring and immediately jumped at the opportunity... except the spot that opened was DK’s. Luckily for him, his first customer turned out to be none other than the former server himself, and their routine continued with their roles reversed. At some point, DK confesses through dedicating a love song to JN during an open mic at the coffee shop, and JN finally confesses... that he was actually more of a tea person jk.

JunKwan: SK is JN’s personal Cupid who is incredibly concerned over the fact that JN seems to show no interest in pursuing romance, which is an issue because if JN never finds love, SK would be stuck on this assignment forever. Well, it’s not like JN is doing it on purpose to keep him here... right?

JunSol: “We promised to marry each other as kids and now that we’re all grown you’ve probably forgotten but I’m still waiting for that ring”; after hearing the news that his childhood friend, JN, was engaged, VN had to force himself to accept the fact that the older would never see him as more than a younger brother; “but Hansol, aren’t you my fiancé?”

ChanHui: DN is a matchmaker known for his 100% success rate, so when his friend from college, JN, asked for his help, he shouldn’t be any less confident about it. But for whatever reason, he just feels this overwhelming urge to set JN up with the worst match possible and ruin his record, and it totally wasn’t because he’s had a crush on him since sophomore year, no way, he was over that. Or at least he should be. Lots of misunderstandings in which JN actually got along with his date but both agreed they’d be better off as friends; DN didn’t know the second part and was shocked to hear that they’d be going on a “second date”; the moral of the story is- DN couldn’t be bad at his job even if he tried.

[pettyotome]

Mystic Messenger Another Story: V Route Review

Spoilers undercut. Proceed with caution. :)

Okay! So I freaking loved just about everything in this route. It’s incredibly story packed with SO MUCH NEW CONTENT that was totally worth 300 HG. From the talented voice acting, new twists, and getting to know the characters-- Cheritz does not disappoint with this one! Don’t get me wrong, this route wasn’t perfect. There were a few things that fell below my expectations, but overall this route was wonderfully written and I’m replaying this shit after this review.

Prologue: So the introduction for this was very unique, same concept, but with a creative twist. When Unknown messages you for the first time, it actually feels like he’s breaking the fourth wall-- but technically he isn’t. I’ll get to that in a bit! He basically tells you to download the app under the pretense that you’ll be playing a dating sim-- but none of the character’s we’ve known up until this point are real. The MC in this route thinks they are AIs. Unknown’s characterization in this route is so different from the main stories because he’s actually much more tolerable. It honestly feels like they’re not the same person, I didn’t even care for Saeran up until this route so I really liked spending a lot of this route with him. 

Common Route: Day’s 1-4 are just heaven and hell all mixed together, on one hand you’re trying to make the game branch for V’s route so that you can get a happy ending, but on another hand-- Saeran, known as “Ray” takes you to this place to go play the game, and he is being such a huge sweetheart. I just wondered WHY would Cheritz make Ray act this was knowing that we’re supposed to pursue V!! It broke my heart bc I love the both of them. Through these days, you can see that V is the fastest one to accept you. Mostly because you dropped Rika’s name but still. V hopes the best from you and desperately wants you to be someone he can trust, so he starts showing up a lot more because of you, and you can also see that he sort of opens up, it’s very beautiful to see. And then there’s Ray, who gets attached to you a little too quickly here but he’s always caring about your well being. But don’t get too comfortable. Remember when I said he didn’t technically break the fourth wall earlier..? Well, as you go deeper into this route, the MC starts to feel that these characters are so real that it’s not even funny. And at the very end of the common route on day four, you start to question Ray-- your trust in him starts to waver at this point. At the very last second of his route, V shows up at Mint Eye to save you. He’s not an AI. Ray lied to you. It hurts Ray a lot to know that he’s lied to you more than it hurts the MC, depending on your choices but you’re basically torn bc V couldn’t save you from him but he swears that he’ll come back for you and LORD did this kill me.

V and Rika’s relationship: There was a big corner of the MM fandom that was reluctant to have a romantic V route because of V’s deep love for Rika-- how would Cheritz handle giving V and the MC 11 days to bond knowing that V is still recovering from an abusive relationship? Well, good news. Cheritz tackles this issue head on, no tip toeing around this situation. Days 5-10, when V comes to Mint Eye to save you, there is a scene where he is telling Rika that the two of them used to be obsessed with each other. Key word: obsessed. From the main story until now, V always thought that he loved Rika. This was one of my favorite scenes from this route because Cheritz KNEW what we wanted to be addressed while pursuing V and they delivered. And in the chats, V starts to come to the realization that he might have loved Rika at first, but then later what they had stopped being genuine and just became so unhealthy. He was blind to that at first, but then starts to see their relationship for what it really was with help from the MC. 

Romance: As to be expected, this is gonna take some time. Depending on your choices as the MC, you could either throw yourself at V, show him no respect and rush him to forget about RIka and date you-- or you could aid V through his pain and understand that he’s not a bad person for not being able to fully figure out what love is. V’s been dealing with a lot of Rika’s shit for the past six months. While he DOES actually fall in love with the MC, the two don’t even get together until day 11, which is set two years after the events of V’s route. And I loved that Cheritz handled the romance between V and the MC this way. 

Rika’s characterization and interactions with her: I’m the minority of the fandom that actually likes Rika. But I’m also the minority of that minority that wanted to beat her senseless for the shit she’s done. What I really liked about her in this route particularly was that you actually get to talk to her for yourself-- not through the RFA’s clouded image of her. I enjoyed reading the VN scenes where she talks to Jaehee and recruits other members in the RFA. Rika actually had some very cute moments and I lived for them! I empathized a lot with Rika about how she felt like she couldn’t show her dark side to her loved ones. Cheritz unraveled a much more detailed story of her and V’s relationship and answered the questions that were unanswered in the main story. BUT BOY DID THIS BITCH REALLY TRIED ME LIKE I WANTED TO DECK HER SO BAD BUT I FELT FOR HER PAIN. There were actually a lot of moments near the end where Rika chats with the RFA members and... man it breaks my heart to see her so hurt. And right after days 8/9, shit goes down at Mint Eye and for the first time we see that Rika actually actually does care for the people she’s manipulated and hurt-- Ray. In the main story, it seemed like she didn’t care for him that much outside of his loyalty to her and Mint Eye. But when there’s a bombing at Mint Eye and Ray seems to not have escaped-- she cries for him. She REALLY HOPED for him to find a place where he belonged and I’m really proud of Cheritz for showing us more of her emotions. 

V’s development: Let me just say that you gotta be HELLA PATIENT with this man. V means well, incredibly well, but he’s always carrying the burden of his emotional abuse and the RFA on his shoulders. You learn so many new things about how he met the members, his friendship with Jumin, and you get VNs from his mothers point of view! Not only did we get a completely new story, but we have so many new Jihyun details to gush over and it’s great that we got to see VNs of V as a kid, and how that affected his relationship with Rika. Basically, I felt like V’s relationship with Rika was to prepare him for real love-- love that he would have with the MC. In the beginning V is mourning, in denial, trying to hard to sacrifice himself so that nobody gets hurt. He’s stubborn and self-less to a huge fault. But in this route, you as the MC help him to learn how to love himself and care about himself more. it gets to a point where V shuts down Rika and hopes for her happiness-- but says that it’s over. That what they had was not love. V is finally standing his ground and he’s being so much more honest with himself and with Rika. He admits that he shared some faults within the relationship too, like how he suffocated her with love rather than face her mental illness realistically. And the way he wants to protect the MC from her is literally the best thing ever. V cares about you and is genuinely interested in you, telling you that you made him feel things not even Rika gave him. It’s a slow and frustrating development but the MC is patient enough to help him get there. I just love how V cherishes you so much, to the point where Rika has noticed that V has fallen in love with you. And even V knows this himself, but as I’ve said, the romance takes a lot of time but ultimately he chooses you in the end and comes out a much better person-- following his real dreams and being happy!

Other things: Yo Yoosung pissed me the fuck off a lot in this route bc it felt like he was trying to justify the shit Rika did just because of the good girl image he has of her, and although he does come to accept that she’s beyond saving and even drags her away from drugging people at the party in the end, it was so hard not to be mad at him in this route. But he’s someone I had to be patient with too. Yoosung is a good kid and I love him but he drops her name in this route more than he did his own and THAT’S saying something. I understood that he was grieving but he was dead tryna defend a criminal and that had me all the way fucked up. 

JUMINV!!!! Their friendship!!!! And the way Jumin kind of shipped you and V in the end is just the best thing ever, if anyone knows me, I’m a huge Jumin fan so seeing him accept and trust the MC and compliment her strengths had me swooning. OH AND WHEN JUMIN CHECKED RIKA IN THAT ONE CHAT ON DAY TEN, HE WAS BEING SUCH A SAVAGE I FUCKING LOVE THIS MAN. LIKE YES!!!! DEFEND YOUR BEST FRIEND!!!! 

Ray deserves to be happy. Ray deserves his own route. I wanna romance this man and help him escape from the Mint Eye ideology. WHY WOULD CHERITZ MAKE A V ROUTE AND THEN HAVE RAY BE SO SWEET TO US LIKE THIS I LOVE THE BOTH OF THEM SO MUCH BUT I HATED HAVING TO HURT RAY. 

Draw backs: I felt like Cheritz fell back on Rika’s backstory. When Rika tells you that she’s been bullied or that her parents didn’t love her-- I felt like Cheritz didn’t go into enough depth about it so it was hard to sympathize with vague ass stories. As a person whose been bullied and emotionally abused by my family, I felt like Rika didn’t explain enough of what happened to her and it really didn’t cut it for me. And I was also slightly disappointed that Cheritz built up Rika’s character so much only to give an anti-climatic ending where Rika is STILL up to her Mint Eye bullshit, trying to drug everyone at the party with an elixir, only to get dragged away by Yoosung. Which was probably the only good thing he did in this route if I’m being honest. I felt like we never got any answers as to what happened to Rika or Ray after the party and I hope those questions get answered in new V DLCs and After endings when Cheritz updates again. I’m also a little annoyed that 707 doesn’t find out that the hacker is actually his brother but maybe if Ray get’s a route, that would be addressed? I really hope so bc the route was so perfect up until then, bc it didn’t make sense that they never crossed paths in this route. But that’s pretty much all that bugged me.

In conclusion: Whooping Rika. JuminV. RFA shenanigans. RAY’S BLUE FLOWERS. And Jihyun Kim’s happiness!!!! This route was everything I expected it to be and so much more. It was so fucking emotional and had my heart hurting a lot for the past few days, but I’d do it all over again just to see Jihyun’s smile. Thank you, Cheritz. We truly don’t deserve such a good company. 

[letmeremindyouvn]

Oh my gosh. ;w;

Thank you everyone who downloaded and played A Date with Denial because it's currently on the top of the yandere tag on itchio and on the front page for visual novels!!

Thank you so much!! ;w; I'm so happy!

[megadarkbouquettidalwavethings]

DDoS attacks decreased since Q2 2017: Verisign report

Verisign’s Q3 2017 DDoS Trends report showed that 29 per cent of attacks in Q3 2017 employed five or more attack types.

However, the number of attacks has decreased since Q2 2017.

The largest volumetric and highest intensity DDoS attack observed by Verisign in Q3 2017 was a multi-vector attack that peaked approximately 2.5 gigabits per second (Gbps) and around 1 million packets per second (Mpps). This attack lasted approximately two-and-a-half hours. The attack was notable because it consisted primarily of a wide range of attack vectors, including TCP SYN and TCP RST floods, DNS, ICMP and Chargen Amplification attacks and invalid packets.

The report said that 56 per cent of DDoS attacks were User Datagram Protocol (UDP) floods; 88 per cent of DDoS attacks mitigated by Verisign in Q3 2017 employed multiple attack types. The IT/Cloud/SaaS industry, representing 45 per cent of mitigation activity, was the most frequently targetted industry for the 12th consecutive quarter. The financial sector industry experienced the second highest number of DDoS attacks, representing 20 per cent of mitigation activity.

IT experts suggested to companies to deploy security technology such as DNS firewall, email filtering and other security solutions and to keep them up to date. No technology offered 100 per cent network protection, so organisations needed to implement a layered approach to security that includes both technology and user education. As attackers grow increasingly adept at creating “smarter” malware to circumvent individual protection, it becomes more important to layer these and other security controls, including taking measures at the DNS level.

Verisign DDoS Trends Reports throughout 2017 have reported a decline in the size of and number of DDoS attacks. This trend does not necessarily mean, however, that DDoS attacks are going away or that companies should be complacent. Now, is a good time for organisations to review all aspects of their network and application of security solutions to protect themselves against DDoS attacks or future security threats.

The recently released report, represents a unique view into the attack trends unfolding online, through observations and insights derived from the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack mitigations enacted on behalf of Verisign DDoS Protection Services and security research conducted by Verisign Security Services. — VNS

The post DDoS attacks decreased since Q2 2017: Verisign report appeared first on Sports News, Transfers, Scores | Watch Live Sport.

[maleyanderecafe]

A Date with Denial (Visual Novel)

Created by: Batter_Sempai (Axolittle)

Genre: Horror

I was actually pretty excited to see this game when it came out since I enjoyed Be My Muse quite a lot. This one is more self contained and a bit of a spin off of Be My Muse, but the concept of having a date with a yandere character is always rather fun and even more so with a memory altering being. This was another game made for the #72HourMurderboyMayhem. If you are curious about Zecharias, you can get more information at @letmeremindyouvn.

The story starts with the main character waking up at a dining table with Zecharias. They don't seem to remember what's going on, but he assures them that they simply fell asleep after having the date after introducing himself. From there Zecharias will offer food and the two of them talk about things and ask questions.

Simply going along with everything will cause the MC to simply deny the strange feeling they have and continue the date with Zecharias.

Looking around, the MC will realize some details, their favorite food being served, Zecharias drinking wine, the fact that his plate is completely empty. Zecharias may express sadness for the fact that they have forgotten that they were his muse, possibly because he accidentally caused their memories to fade. He also may show a painting that he painted of them (seeming from the Be My Muse game, as that also ends with the player being painted) explaining that after he had painted them, he had invited them out to dinner.

At some point, Zecharias will offer and then retrieve a drink of the MC's choice, from where they can look around the venue or wait for him. If the MC looks around, they'll notice that nobody is here, not even the staff, the water outside has no signs of sea life or anything and a soft distant singing, that can mesmerize them. If the MC is able to look at the painting, they will start to recall what happened. They remember they were there with three other people and entered an old building. Zecharias eventually returns to give them their drink. They start to ask questions to Zecharias.

If they aren't quite aware enough, they will start to realize the differences in what Zecharias tells them, but he will instead wipe their memory, causing them to essentially start over from the beginning of the game.

If they are aware enough, they recall differences, like the fact they had a backpack, the fact that his plate is completely clean, the fact that the water itself has no fish (despite it being an aquarium) and the fact that they were with other people before they met Zecharias. After this Zecharias breaks his wine glass in anger, and the MC starts to run out of the venue. They eventually reach a part of the hall where they see the bodies of their four other people that were with them while going into the abandoned building. They recall that their friends, now lifeless, liked to hang out in abandoned buildings to go camping until they ended up finding him, with him stating that he wanted to have one of them as a muse. Helpless, they are captured once again by Zecharias.

There was a bit of an issue reaching the first ending of Denial since I could never reach it (this has since be fixed, but I had to cheat in the code to get that ending) as well as a bit of black glitching after I changed stuff in the code, but other than that, the game ran pretty smoothly. I do like that it uses more piano/classical music like in the first one, and when Zecharias breaks down a bit there's a bit of ominous sound layered on top of it.

Anyways, as I said, it's always fun seeing game that have a dating mechanic with a yandere, because we don't always get to see them in that setting, often yandere vns focus more on the actual development of being in a relationship with a yandere (or otherwise running away from them). In this case, we not only get to hang out with Zecharias, but also see his powers of memory, first wiping the MC as well as alternating/gaslighting them so that he can continue keeping them as his muse. His powers are always kind of fun because it makes it a lot harder to find out what is real or not, and what kind of lies Zecharias is feeding us. In this case it often is pretty obvious when the MC is able to notice it, from the clean plate to the fact that there's no fishes inside of the aquarium, but because they're under the influence of Zecharias's memory numbing ability, its a lot harder for them to focus. I am curious about the singing though, since we hear it even when Zecharias is present (at least from what I can tell), but I would assume his singing does have a bit of a sleeping effect on people. As for how the two met, it is curious that Zecharias was kind of just inside of an abandoned building. It's implied that the entire date set up was something that he created (as we know he can create things from thin air), but has forgotten specific aspects like the fish or staff (or possibly that he can't actually conjure living things, but who knows). Why he ended up choosing the MC and then slaughtering the rest is unknown, but probably as a yandere he didn't want them being around his muse. Since this is a spin off though, the MC in this world is not the same as the one in Be My Muse, though it does beg the question if he's the type to jump between different muses or if this was just done for game purposes. My bet is on the latter, since this is a one off game, but who really knows. The horror of revealing that something is seriously wrong is pretty intriguing though and looping the player's memory over and over again is a rather tragic ending where they are just stuck there until they either find out what's going on or simply accept it.

Overall, I think Batter did a good job with this game. It's simple and lets us know more about Zecharias as a character while also exploring more of his powers, and what kinds of horrors that Zecharias's darling will have to face in the future. Really fun!

[cryptidplays]

It's Monday!

I hope you're all ready to go on a date with a mysterious man... who you don't actually remember saying yes to.

[letmeremindyouvn]

August 18th. Today is Zecharias' birthday.

I wanted to draw some stuff for it to celebrate, but unfortunately I'm sick and this is all I managed today. ;w; I will finish it tomorrow if I can.

Happy Birthday to the strange liminal space yandere Zecharias! :D

[letmeremindyouvn]

I was wondering if the main character is the same person in each game. Or is it a different person. Normally a yandere is after only one. So I was curious.

Hello anon. ^^

The character in A Date with Denial is different from the one in Be My Muse. It takes place in a different era too. Be My Muse takes place in the late 1980s/early 1990s. A Date with Denial takes place in the late 1940s.

Zech does actually have multiple muses/lovers over a few centuries he's been around, however, he doesn't have a good track record of maintaining healthy relationships. I can't say what happens to the those people, but you'll find out in the full game of Let Me Remind You.

Thanks for the ask anon!