#akila just had to go and make me pissed

[checkmatecalculations]

@healerkissed has been formally asked to the royal ball

----

   Another ball, another dreary night of socializing, fake smiles and empty words tossed around without a care. Nobility was a façade that was worn to hide the true intentions of human hearts. . . At least, that was what Langston had come to believe over the nineteen years of his life. Not only that, but the cruel weight of the expectations cast upon him as the heir to the throne. . . Seeing how he was the only child.

      Ah. . . He often found himself occassionally ENVYING those who had free time. . . Whose parents sought to see their children smile, instead of see them perfect themselves down to the last iota. He was a genius, surely it was an easy matter for him of all people, right? But even he found himself faltering at the idea of the so called PERFECTION his father sought from him. 

   The worst part of all of this. . . Was the near crippling loneliness. People oft avoided him because of his status and those who sought him out only saw him FOR his status, and not as himself. So much had he adapted to this way of thinking, that more and more of a shell came to form around his heart. . . To keep it safe. Safe from those whose intentions were vile and conceited. 

      A room with so many people, a floor with so much mirth and laughter, as music played, and ladies tried for his attention, despite the fact it was fruitless to try to woo him -- His hand had been spoken for many years ago. Though he spent time often with the princess from the nearby kingdom, his heart was never HERS, but he knew love didn't exist for a man of his pedigree.

   Marriage was a political affair after all, not an act of love.

       Yet, after he waves off another hopeful maiden, blue eyes do come to rest upon a young woman with bright red hair. She seemed out of place here, hands nervously clasped together, emerald hues searching the room as if trying to find the nearest escape -- Only to have a couple knock into her, they not giving her a second thought. A sigh leaves him, he shaking his head a little, before he makes his way over, extending his hand out to her.

            ❝ Perhaps. . . We could both use a bit of fresh air. Come join me out on the balcony, away from this noise and chaos? ❞

[a-cosmic-elf]

Never wanting to judge a book by its cover, I decided to give Sam a chance.

*Starfiled Spoilers Ahead*

It didn’t start well, dragging Cora into that murder scene. I’ll defend Sam bringing his daughter along for the ride to my dying breath for very personal reasons. But that was a bit too much. /sarc british

We rescued his ex successfully, but then she wanted to raid a UC ship and this is my UC-aligned playthrough, so I thought ‘uh-oh. Better equip some EM weapons then’. But I’m not gonna lie, blazing through that ship tearing heads off with the Revenant would have been far more entertaining.

Several reloads later and I finally knocked them all out, but someone must have bought it because a message popped up saying ‘SAM IS ANGRY WITH YOU’

Ffs, Sam. Idgaf. We did it and I killed no one, just who is firing live rounds in here, you? Okay, so that’s on me, I didn’t check you had the right weapon equipped, but holy hell, I am not doing this again because you decided to fire off a round and someone died. That’s on you, Sam, not me.

Confident that it was only a minor setback and that he’d eventually get over it and come around, I carried on. We took out several waves of goons on the next planet and then this happened:

There couldn’t have been a worse time for the game to go into meltdown. I couldn’t move, I was stuck there like that and could only open the start menu.

*sigh*

I lost all the progress on that planet and when I reloaded I also had to do that fight again, this time with Cora standing by the landing gear and not in the ship. I really began to feel like there was something off, like my game had suffered quite a substantial glitch.

Finally, I got to have that conversation with the pair of them again and - bare in mind he still hates me at this point, outside of game dialogue he’s scowling and telling me to piss off - you then end up back in Akila city where he wants to have that relationship-defining talk by the statue.

But I don’t want to talk to him there at this point because he actually hates me. But he’s stuck there now, because as soon as we arrived he legged it over there. I just ignored him and did a few side quests, hoping to up his opinion of me.

I even fast travelled back to New Atlantis, dropped some stuff off at the The Lodge and had a kip. As my current companion Sam spawned forward into the room, and sat on my sofa for a while, but as I left the lodge, he disappeared again. Presumably teleporting to that spot in Akila City.

I don’t know what to do at this point. I’m wondering do I have to trash the last few hours of gameplay, and replay his loyalty mission from the start to try make it so he doesn’t hate me for a death that was wasn’t my fault?

Because it just feels weird going from ‘I hate what you did, it goes against everything Constellation stands for’ to ‘I love you and want to be with you.’ Within a few paces.

I wanted to give him a chance but ugh, wondering if I should just give up trying to get close to the guy in this playthrough. I’m also sick of this two steps forward, one step back bs that has been marring my game recently.

Because this kind of thing has been happening a lot, I’ve just completed the ryujin questlines and they were a total ball-ache for things going pear-shaped and having to replay an area. Honestly, I’m fed up and just want to make some damn progress. 🙄