#and honestly the performance stuttering is just...the same as the base game?

[total-andymonium]

Hearing about people review-bombing the Elden Ring DLC because it was "too difficult" is still baffling to me.

I know some of the concerns were performance issues, so that's a whole different thing thing, but how did anyone get through Elden Ring, beat two of its rudest bosses (that Radahn fight honks on multiple levels), show up in the Lands of Shadow and only then go "damn this game is hard" ?

Just wild. Anyway the DLC is great so far, I would happily fight a dozen furnace giants before I go back to one fucking erdtree spirit tbh

[nerd-cat-rambles]

DR VA Tierlist:

I made a Daganronpa Tierlist based on their Voice Actors performance, (THIS IS NOT MY OFFICIAL RANKING FOR THE CHARACTERS AND NOT HATING TOWARDS THE VOICE ACTORS AT ALL!!!) this is probably quite biased, and I haven't finished V3 so I don't have too much to say about that game! :)

SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT!

Here we go! (quick notes bc alot of characters)

I COUNTED WRONG THERE ARE ONLY 50 BUT I'M NOT BOTHERED TO CHANGE THE NUMBERS SORRY GUYS.

Did not hear you talk once blud:

51: Twogami: did not hear him talk once. Probs same as Togami.

50. Mechamaru: Same as last but with Nekomaru.

49. Kiyondo: Augh bb they gave you nothing before killing you off...

48. Rantaro: Not many voice lines, but his voice is satisfying when they are delivered. Ult. Wasted Plot Potential.

Nothing too noticeable:

47. Peko: I love her, but tbh her voice was quite bleh. Suited her character well though.

46. Sonia: I love Sonia but she was kinda mid tbh.

45. Keebo: Nothing much other than "ROBOPHOBIC!" but that might change I'm not sure.

44. Chiaki: I love her, her voice suited her, but there were no powerful lines.

43. Akane: I love her sm, one of the best DR girls, but she didn't have much going tbh.

42. Hifumi: I like how his VA portrayed the otaku thing e.g "booblust" which was funny, but honestly nothing noticeable.

Overrated:

41. Sakura: I like her, she's okay, I just don't think she did too much yk?

40. Toko: When she stutters she sounds like that one mf from "It" and that kills me every time I hear it.

39. Makoto: I dislike Makoto anyway, but saying "SHIT!" once is not a worthy performance Bryce.

38. Kyoko: Eh, her VA is good, but didn't do it for me ig

Wait I just realised I forgot to put Mukuro in the last section oopsies. And Junko should be in decent performance, mb guys don't come at me.

37. Mukuro: LOOK THIS IS WHERE SHE'S SUPPOSED TO BE OKAY? Cool concept, good lines from what we heard, meant to put her in "didn't hear blud talk once"

36. Byakuya: Cool VA, nice delivery of the lines, I just think it's overrated.

Didn't Cut it For Me:

35. Yasuhiro: He was in 6 trials... and what did he give me? "OH NOOOOOO" sorry, he didn't cut it for me.

34. Chihiro: I like him (her, them? UGHH CHIHIRO GENDER DISCOURSE SUCKS BRO) but it didn't GIVE yk?

Decent Performance:

33. Ryoma: Very talented VA, but that's his normal range (a bit lower) and not many POWERFUL lines were delivered (unlike Tanaka's.)

32. Kazuichi (bc I alr did Mukuro): Ay I love Kazuichi, his performance was nice, just not the best yk?

31. Tsumugi: Haven't finished V3, I love Tsumugi but her performance is like her catchphrase. Just "Plainly-Plain" (might change later idk bro.)

30. Maki: I've grown to like her, (I'm up tp CHP.4 yippers!) but I'm WAITING for her to have her MOMENT where she's crying and screaming. I know she will. C'mon DR LET HER CRYYY-

29. Mahiru: She's decent, I like her, just not much giving yk?

28. Ibuki: Very talented VA, amazing and fun range, nice energy. Nothing jaw dropping, I enjoyed it.

27. Hajime: He drops some banger ass lines bro like goddam lil bro chillax buddy. I quite like it... I like when he realises it's Nanami and is in denial. Good job VA.

26. Mondo: AUGH HIS VOICE IS SO SATISFYING IMMA BE REAL- It's not the usual stuff his VA does but I enjoyed his performance.

25. Gonta: Ay better performance than his counter-part (same va) Hiro. He's pretty good so far, innocent too.

24. Aoi: I don't really remember trial 4 that well tbh... I didn't like it though. But I do kinda enjoy Aoi. She has nice pitch, and when she gets mad her VA puts alot into it, almost top of her tier gj.

23. Same VA as Aoi, I enjoy her performance. Her voice is fun and different, contrasting the rest of the cast with her accent. Bonus points for going from Aoi to Angie in 5 seconds.

NOT TALKED ABOUT ENOUGH!!!

22. Teruteru: Augh I love this stupid litte man for his stupid little voice. Even though he's a creep his lines are delivered VERY well, and even his accent is great. That's some talent that we NEED to talk about more often.

21. Sayaka: Babes talked three times in official-art moments and does NOT get enough credit. I enjoyed her scenes and wish that she was in a class trial.

20. Leon: Omg leosaya order?! /hj. Y'all sleeping on Grant George, like goddam. When he gets mad, he gets mad. Talk about Leon more, give this man some credit his performance was excellent!

19. Miu: Augh I don't know how to explain the itch Miu scratches whenever she speaks. Even her "VIRGIN WHORE" moment voice lines just AUGHHH. The VA was picked SO well here, it suits her perfectly and I'm tired of pretending Miu = Hifumi because they're both pervy characters. GODDAMIT MIU WAS USEFUL!

18. Hiyoko: I do not care what you say, she ATE. She fucking devoured that second trial bro, my respect went up when she did all'at. God bro I find Hiyoko mid, one of my least favourite characters, but god her VA is so talented.

17. Shuichi: I don't think I need to explain too much, but god SHUICHI!!! When Grant George is given the time to develop... augh. "Kaede... that's just so cruel..." YOU CAN HEAR THE PAIN. TALK ABOUT THIS MAN MORE!!!

16. Jill/Syo: I know she has tiktok sounds, but she did so well. She ate every single line up, she used all of her screentime so well! I genuinely love her performance, and I don't even like her!

15. Tenko: So talented... you guys please hear me out (I'M NOT BIASED AT ALL.) but when she gets official art and moments in trials that's when she flourishes. "QUICK! OPEN THE CURTAIN, ALREADY!" like so satisfying Idc what y'all say she ate it up.

14. Himiko: After Chapter 2 she just... utilised the rest of her screentime. SHE CRIED, SHE SCREAMED, SHE USED HER EMOTIONS LIKE TENKO SAID!!! I love Himiko, and she is super underrated.

13. KOREKIYO: <- THIS DUDE IS THE REASON I MADE THIS TIER LIST. GOD HE IS NOT TALKED ABOUT ENOUGH!!! I don't care about the incest plot, his FANTASTIC voice acting lets him off the hook.Not just when he snaps, but when he screams!

Listen to this exact moment. HE LITERALLY USES SO MUCH OF HIS VOICE, YOU CAN HEAR HOW WELL HE DOES IT OH MY GOD. "THERE WAS NO EVIDENCE WAS THERE, SHUICHI?!" LIKE PLEASE CAN WE TALK ABOUT HIM???

He can also speak like a girl he gets bonus points for that. Holy shit. I just love this so much. "No. I will not acknowledge it." like yes bbg u ate.

*Chefs kiss!*

11. (I KNOW I SKIPPED A NUMBER I JUST NEED IT TO BE CORRECT!!!) Nagito: He goes insane, there's no reason for me NOT to put this here. He does so well, he went from Mako-Hoe to NAGI-HOEEE!!! He ate, I fear.

10. Mikan: WHEN SHE SNAPS AND GOES INSANE, OH MY GOD SHIVERS. SHE DID SO WELL. "WHY DOESN'T ANYBODY FORGIVE ME?!?!!?!?" LIKE I CAN HEAR IT SO CLEARLY SHE DID SO GOOD BRO AUGHHHH.

9. Nekomaru: "THIS IS NEKOMARU NIDAI'S FINAL FIREWORK!" "AIR CONDITIONERS?!?!?!?" "SHIIIIIIIITTTTTT!!!" He put so much power and energy into every. single. line. EVEN HIS SINGLE-FILE VOICE LINES!!! He made it sound so natural like he talks like that every day, and props to the VA for such dedication. Respect for Neko-Nation.

8. Gundham: Augh he delivers every line so beautifully in his trial. "THIS IS FOR THE TANAKA EMPIRE!" the power behind his voice and his hero-complex make me so happy. Every time he lost it in his trial I got LITERAL CHILLS. A fantastic perfect performance oh my goddd.

7. Kaede: I don't care what y'all say she WAS SO GOOD. "I'm nothing but a cold-blooded killer!" and that scream at the end of argument anament was FIREEE! I love her sm, and her VA did so much better as Kaede then as Kyoko.

6. Celestia: I dislike Celestia, but oh my god she did so well. The quiet reserved character snaps is definetely a chapter 3 trope favourite. I hate Trail and Chapter 3 THH, but that just shows how well Celes performed, her VA went INSANE for this role, and I love that she ate it.

5. Kokichi: He deserves this spot, he does so well, every single trial, every single performance, every voice line, every interaction. It truly embodies the spirit of "chaos" yk? (Just finished trial 4 and he deserves to be 3rd on the list.)

4. Kaito: LUMINARY OF THE STARS! I don't need to say more do I? (I'm lazy pls send helppp)

YOU POURED YOUR HEART AND SOUL INTO THIS PERFORMANCE!!!:

3. Fuyuhiko: AUGH SO SATISFYING, ESPECIALLY IN THE SECOND TRIAL. He does an amazing job, has fantastic range and AUGHHHHH HIS VOICE IS SO SATISFYING.

2. Ishimaru: The amount of sheer power in every voice line astounds me every time he speaks. From "I assert that the one who was murdered was Miss Sayaka Maizono!" to "Why are you all trying to frame him?!" and everything in between, he deserves this spot on the list.

Kirumi: All we see of her is calm and reserved until she snaps. She KEEP FIGHTING until the very end. You can hear the pain in her voice, how she IS BREACHING HER LIMIT during her "I WILL NOT DIEEEE segment." also, YOU CAN HEAR HER SCREAMING IN HER EXECUTION, let me show you.

This exact moment is where you can hear her scream. JESUS CHRIST GIRL I CAN'T EVEN-

[sweetest-honeybee]

To Hell and Back

Chapter 15

Summary: Hels takes a visit on his own to Beef and things don’t go as he initially planned. Not to mention, he seems to be changing too.

Characters: Helsknight, Beef, Ex mention, Impulse mention, Wels mention

TW: Implied threats

——————

Less than a week later, Hels had met each and every Hermit on the server- except Beef. He saw their bases, Scar’s village being his personal favorites, and had at least one decent conversation with at least half of them. Others he simply greeted and they had other tasks to perform before they had a chance to get to know him.

It was odd having so many people view him as nothing more than another Hermit. They didn’t fear him in the slightest, not even Stress. Though, he’d admit the little lady was a tiny ball of wrath if you wronged her. But again, he was very soon simply able to visit everyone as he pleased.

With that also came the ability to claim some land to build on. He couldn’t stay in Ex’s base despite the reoccurring offer, the knight needed some privacy at least. He opted for a smaller, similar castle to what Grian had built. Maybe he’d add some of his own touches. Instead of prismarine, he’d use Nether brick, and many decorations revolved around obsidian and basalt.

Unfortunately today, Ex was unavailable to assist him in the beginnings of the castle, but it wasn’t like he practiced a bit in building sometimes. Compared to many of the other residents in Hels, he was one of the better builders. It wasn’t every day people from Hels were visiting the Nether building bastions like he did.

Hels decided about half the size of his reference would be good enough. He didn’t need anything large and luxurious. Just enough for a few farms and storage. The Hermits were nice, but not everyone could just walk on in and use each other’s farms and villagers without paying a price and he had no intentions for IOUs with his immense lack of diamonds.

This wasn’t new to him, at least. In Hels, everyone was greedy and kept to themselves and their farms so he’d always usually build his own. Though, usually it was blown up within a couple days.

Finally, he had a floor plan set up on a hill near Ex’s base. It was funny how many flowers and greenery there was on the outside of it, certainly more than Hels could count just by staring. He had to admit, it was a bit of an eyesore for those who flew by. Ex wasn’t exactly an amazing builder. Hels could still see some dirt blocks hanging around a mile away accompanied by several wool, concrete, glass, cobblestone, brick, and whatever else kind of blocks possibly existed in the game.

Still, he kept to himself for the entire afternoon, not once taking a probably well needed break. That was until he had finished the facade of it. He stepped back and admired his work with a grin. Unfortunately, no other hermits were around to gawk at the detail of it, but he was sure someone would fly by eventually.

With that, he decided he was done for the day. It was the early evening so he could do more, but it could wait. He could find something else to do.

Ex still wasn’t back to check on the knight and Hels never saw the figure of him fly to his own base. He must’ve been quite busy to be gone for that many hours. Whatever Impulse needed him for, it was taking quite a long time. Not that it mattered of course, Hels thought. He was willing to wait.

Alone.

On his front steps.

No other bases around than the empty one a hundred blocks away.

He sighed. Well, that was pathetic- pitying himself. It wasn’t like the other Hermits weren’t almost constantly busy. Even if Ex was finished with his tasks with Impulse, he had every right to go spend time with other people. Not like he hadn’t practically been glued to Hels’s side for the last week.

He stood from the steps and threw on his elytra again. Today, he decided, was the day he’d go back to the sandstone village and greet Beef again. This time not through puffy eyes and heaving breaths. He was Helsknight for crying out loud, he could handle anything. He also just needed something to do.

And yet, the anxiety still stood. Lord only knew what Wels told him and what he probably thought of Hels but considering their last interaction, the butcher most likely had no ill intentions. Like the other Hermits, he treated Hels just the same as he would anyone else.

That was, if he wasn’t stuck on the whole “Wow, I made a clone successfully” thing. Hels wouldn’t have been surprised if the man didn’t poke and prod at him and ask a million questions a minute. Given a particularly invasive recent interaction between himself and Doc, he wouldn’t have been surprised. The old man was more curious than he looked.

With that being said, the knight took a deep breath and lifted off into the sky quickly.

And within a second, he had already forgotten where on earth the little village even was. He groaned and pulled out a map.

Minutes later, he finally made it to his destination. He landed near where they landed the time before next to the library and peeked his head around the corner. What was he hiding from, Hels honestly had no clue. Despite being a couple buildings away, he could hear the whirring of some kind of machinery and a periodic clanking of metal.

Well, better to get it over with now than wait and hide like a coward. Oddly, the thought turned his head to the general direction of where Wels’s base was, but he disregarded it.

The knight peered into the building and watched as Beef replaced several different parts of the machinery. The butcher whistled and hummed while he worked with his back towards Hels. Only after circling the machine did he notice Hels watching while he leaned against the wall. He practically leaped into the machine itself.

“Holy- Jeez! Don’t scare me like that!” Beef laughed. He tilted his head with a confused grin. “You’re the last person I expected to be here.”

“Hm, well, I thought it was about time I came back. You’re the only hermit I haven’t had the pleasure of actually greeting. I also uh...came to apologize for what happened the other day.”

Despite the kind statement, it only made Beef frown, remembering his recent interaction with the other knight. “Wow, you’re….different than I expected.”

Hels cocked his head to the side with a raised brow. “What do you mean? I don’t feel different.”

The butcher rubbed at his neck. “Just nicer I guess? At least nicer than what Wels depicted you to be. Though, given what he’s said to me recently, I think I might know why.”

That only made Hels more curious. “What did he say?” he asked.

“Nothing too bad, I guess. He’s just not him, ya know? More ignorant I would say and...threatening.” Beef sighed through his nose. “Anyways, hope you were okay after the other day. You weren’t looking too hot.”

Now it was Hels’s turn to rub at his neck. “Right, yeah, I am. Village just gave me a scare, iron golems aren’t the nicest.” Too easily, Beef could tell he was lying through his teeth.

“Are you sure? Nothin’ about this machine here?” The knight’s breathing hitched and much to Beef’s surprise, he stammered. This wasn’t the egotistical ignorant knight he had expected from Wels’s descriptions.

“Well I’m- I’m sure that might be one reason,” Hels laughed nervously.

“If I may ask, how’ve you been feeling recently?” Beef stepped closer to Hels, this time with his head lower into a glare. “More emotional?” He stepped again. “Careful?” Step. “A bit more kind?” One more step and he had Hels by the wall. “Not yourself?”

Beef then unsheathed his sword.

“Oh, um- I just-“ The knight kept stuttering and pressing himself into the wall as if Beef was practically a ravager. He was frozen in place. This was it. This was where he’d die and he’d never see Ex again. Bracing for the attack, the knight screwed his eyes shut and ducked his head.

That was until Beef stepped away again with wide eyes. “You didn’t fight back....”

“Wh….” He lifted his head, slowly opening his head. “What?” Hels heaved.

“I was testing something, don't worry.” Beef put the sword back in its sheath. “I was trying to threaten you but you didn’t pull the sword on me.” Reminded of Wels’s current state, he visibly deflated. “Oh this is bad. This is very bad.”

The butcher began to ramble and Hels watched while he paced around the cloning machine. This was utterly confusing, what was he talking about?! Hels just wanted to have a nice conversation.

“Does this have to do with Evil X?!” Beef finally concluded, growing more exasperated.

“I don’t….understand. What’s wrong here? Am I missing something?”

Beef tugged at his hair. “Hels, dude, you’re starting to act like Wels- well- Wels a few weeks ago. I mean he would’ve drawn his sword if someone was threatening him though...” Again, Beef started rambling. “But even then, he wouldn’t resort to immediately attacking, he’d say something to get me to stop, wouldn’t he?”

“Look, I don’t know what happened between you and Wels, but I think I’m gonna go-“ Before Hels could leave, he was grabbed by the wrist.

“Hels, I need you to stay here. Something is wrong with you and Wels, I can feel it.”

Suddenly, Hels seemed quite upset, not hardly trying to escape from the grip around his face. “And why do I need the help when Wels is your friend? I’m just a clone. You can just get rid of me.”

Beef gasped as if Hels said something offensive. “Because I care, Hels! I created you! You’re not just some clone to me!” He deflated and dragged a hand down his face. “I- You’re just important, alright? I created you and- well, you’re sentimental. I just want to help you.” The butcher let go of the knight sadly.

Though, what he didn’t expect was a set of arms to wrap around him tightly.

[thotsforvillainrights]

Hope you have been well during this weird time haha! I remember you mentioning Atsuhiro being into sexy roleplay with his s/o and I would love a scenario with that please and thank you 👀 Flustered sweet man going into Drama Mode in the name of Love

~Theatrical~

-Sako Atsuhiro smut-

Theatrical- of, for, or relating to acting, actors, or the theater

Okay so maybe he wasn’t as ready as he thought he was, but damn...after you came out of the bathroom naked he wasn’t just gonna stop now. He’s been wanting this for a while lately but was tied up with work and you were oh so neglected left to tend to yourself too many times without him. “Hey, you’re drifting off again. Pay attention to me baby.”  You confidently teased him as you went to straddled him on the edge of the bed. “My sincerest apologies y/n, I was just wrestling with my thoughts for a moment. No need to worry now, dearest! I guarantee you have my full atten-” You shut him up with a deep and passionate kiss that shifted into something sloppier near seconds later. When you pulled away to breath he was lightly panting, blush creeping up from his neck to his cheeks as he looked away from you. “Awwww, Sako...As many as times as we’ve done this, you’re still so flustered over me.” You giggled and playfully ruffled his hair. “Oh am I? My apologies!” You rolled your eyes and began leaving light kisses at the crook of his neck while he contemplated what the next move was. You eventually sighed and pulled away from him, moving to sit next to him on the bed. “Sako, cmon you promised you’d pay attention. What’s bothering you so much lately?” You asked as you gently laid a hand on his shoulder. He sighed and looked at you sheepishly. “I’m...still so very shy with you sometimes. I know we spoke a few times about me taking the lead for once, but I’m honestly afraid to mess that up dearest.” He admitted honestly. You met him with a soft, apologetic smile. 

“Aww...you know you can’t mess it up with me. I love the way you give it to me any way you do, so don’t be so shy. Hey! I was reading something earlier today about spicing up the bedroom. Why don’t we give roleplay a try!?” You eagerly asked him. “Role play?” He tilted his head curiously. You nodded and smiled widely as if you were a young child. “Yeah! It’s a really fun and sexy thing that I honestly think you’d excel at! It’s basically what the name says, like a type of make believe. Here, I’ve had one in mind for a while.” You quickly got off the bed and headed to the closet to dig out a hidden box. “I bought this a while back but never used it in bed because I forgot about it.” You placed the box in his lap and watched eagerly as he opened it. Compress sifted through the box and pulled out the contents one by one:

Handcuffs

A Blindfold

A Plastic gun

A Burlap sack with a money symbol on it

“What is all of this?” He asked you while you began picking some of the items up. “It’s the props! I know this is kinda cliche, but let’s play a game of cops and villains.” You winked at him as you twirl the handcuffs around your finger. “Ahhh! I see...very well.” Atsuhiro smiled and picked up the burlap sack. “Oh no no no! That’s mine. This is for you.” You grabbed the sack and handed him the handcuffs, gun, and badge instead. “I’m the villain, and you’re the cop.” You winked at him as he laughed. “Oh is that so? Wouldn’t I be better suited for the villainous role my darling?” He stood up and went to stand on the other end of the room. “No way baby! Besides, you’re a villain all the time. It’ll defeat the purpose of this little session.” You explained to him. He nodded and lifted the plastic gun up as if he were going to shoot it at you. “Very well then...villain~” You felt a certain warmth travel down your spine at the way his tone darkened up. If there was one thing he was good at, it was being theatrical. “Hands in the air villain. I don’t believe you’ll be robbing anymore banks any time soon.” He threatened. You stifled a giggle and stayed in character. “Shit! How’d you cops get here so fast. Damn it!” You dropped the fake money bag on the ground and held your hands up defensively. “Good, now face the wall. Don’t try anything funny or else.” He waved the gun toward the wall and you complied. Within moments you were pressed against the wall with him groping you from behind. It was a rush! Something was magical about the way he acted once he was finally comfortable and more confident in bed...and it was making you quiver with excitement. “Oh my, you couldn’t be enjoying this frisking could you? Such a filthy villain! Absolute scum of society. Why don’t you go lay down over there while I check you for weapons.” He demanded in a rough voice. You immediately did as told. Atsuhiro moved to place the blindfold over your face and shifted you so you were sitting up your knees. He clicked the handcuffs on your wrist, not too tight but tight enough to make sure you wouldn’t slip free easily. 

“My my, what have we here? An absolutely sinful display of yearning from a villain like yourself?” He teased you while you let out a few light whines at the way his hand worked magic at your most private area. “Careful with your movements dear, or you’ll bruise those pretty little (s/c) wrists of yours and then I’ll need to explain excessive force to the chief.” Wow he was in character! “Now then...wait right there.” You felt the weight leave the bed and waited in total darkness as the sound of clothes being removed echoed behind you. You were beginning to get giddy and more anxious by the moment. “Ready, villain?” He whispered huskily in your ear. You shivered and nodded quickly. He darkly chuckled and you felt the cold plastic of the gun run down from the base of your neck to your ass, rubbing in places where it shouldn’t. As quickly as it lifted away, you felt his cock replace it. You gasped and turned you head back, still blinded by the blindfold. “When did you???”

He chuckled and positioned himself at your entrance. “When did I slip the condom on? A magician never reveals their secrets.” He winked as if you could see it. “But right now you’re not a magician. You’re a co-ergh?!” He silenced you by quickly slipping inside. “So warm aren’t you? I bet you couldn’t hold on any longer. No need to fear. I’m here now dearest...” He leaned forward, holding your bound wrists in one hand and gripping your hip in the other. 

“I’m going to fuck you oh so perfectly~” He whispered. You gasped at his new found boldness and he began to thrust. That boldness showed in his motions as well. Normally you took control, riding him constantly or giving him oral until he was a flustered an stuttering mess. Now he was the one making you stutter instead. His ministrations didn't seem to let up the closer you two got to orgasming together. “Ughhhh y/n...why must you drive me so mad?” He groaned in your ear, gripping tighter in tighter. You couldn’t reply if you wanted to because you were a moaning mess. “Oh...I can’t!” He gasped as he slowed down, rolled his hips, snapping them roughly into the plushness of your ass. “I’m going to...I can’t...I...I’M...!!!” He gasped and came oh so sweetly into you, creating a brilliant wall of white within the condom. At that same moment, you finished as well. “Brilliant performance my dear. We simply have to do this again...but maybe let me be the villain next time.” He joked while you tried to catch your breath.

»—————————–———————————————————–✄

TIp Jar: https://cash.app/$YuTakeyama

[apex-academy]

Chapter 5: Caring Is a Hazard to Your Health (#24)

After an extended nap and some light reading, I head out to supper. 

Seems quiet in here.

Only natural at this point. Just 8 people—

Stop. It...

It’s just quiet because Aidan isn’t here at the moment. Yeah.

Still, silence beats fighting. I hop in the kitchen to make some vaguely lumpy onigiri and eat it in there. Not feeling sociable yet. I’ll probably head upstairs for the rest of the evening. Get a few games in. Or...

“I could go further upstairs than that...”

I still feel like I haven’t been that thorough looking through the new floor, and now...

Where did that key come from, anyway? To show up in the gym... It was right after we got our motive, so any of us could have dropped it then. Even Monochap.

There’s no telling. I’ll just investigate and hope this doesn’t turn out to be some kind of trap. If someone wanted this to be found, then... probably Kanagi? She started Horse. Not easy to believe she’d mastermind a trap like that, though, so I won’t point any fingers yet. It’s probably just what it looked like, anyway. Slipped out of a pocket somewhere.

Impatiently, I finish up my supper and head out. I cross Tsunyasha in the hall, but she doesn’t make any death threats, so not worth my attention. Maybe I ought to be hunting Mahavir down instead, but... I’ll just burn myself out if I’m not careful.

I check the Nurse’s Office anyway, but it’s empty.

Upstairs, then.

This many flights is a bit of a haul, but I’m not that tired. That, and I should probably double-check the shutters they’ve been using in here.

...Yup. There’s still a flight closed off. At least it keeps moving up.

“All right. Let’s see if I can get into anything.”

I dig around the Computer Room first, just in case I may somehow get access to a computer, but it’s not looking promising. If there are any secret compartments in here, they don’t have visible keyholes. Kind of a long shot, anyway. 

I go ahead and try the mysterious office at the far end of the east wing, but the key doesn’t even start to fit. Figures.

Finally I move to the Secretary’s Office. The door is unlocked, but...

“Probably my number-one suspect.”

I jiggle the key into the file cabinet’s key slot. It actually goes in, which is a good start, but it sure doesn’t want to turn. Maybe I’m wrong.

“Doubt I’m going to snap this thing in half, though.”

I give it another two rounds of heave-ho before it finally turns. I rub my fingers to try to get the key impression off of them before reaching for the topmost handle.

“Is there some way to make sure I’m not about to set off a bomb?”

Not that I know of, so I’ll just have to hope. Can’t see any wires running into the cabinet, so that’s a good sign.

The drawer offers some resistance, too, making a series of clangs as I pull and push on the handle. But then something manages to rattle loose, and the drawer comes on out. Not all the way, thankfully, since that probably would have knocked me over. But far enough to see the contents. Five files hang between the sides of the drawer, so widely spaced it still feels eerily empty. All but the first are labeled at the tab.

“Aidan, Aki, Arthur...”

These are files on us? In... first-name alphabetical order for some reason, but the secretary’s personal preferences probably aren’t worth worrying about. I reach for the unlabeled file. The thing is full up, but it looks like most of the papers are copies of blank forms. Mostly demographic-looking. Not terribly informative. But at the front...

“ ‘ Recruitment Guidelines’.”

If the files in this cabinet are on students, I doubt it’s guidelines for recruiting staff. As far as the student side goes, I honestly know precious little aside from the fact that they do recruit. I think there was something flowery about my qualifications on my acceptance letter, but I can’t remember the details now. So I can’t exactly verify this, but it looks authentic enough.

“ ‘Must be a legal resident of Japan or be or become fluent in Japanese within one year’...”

A lot of the qualifications are kind of arbitrary with a nice touch of legalese, so that’s not helping me any. The only thing that really strikes me is how vague the most significant qualifications are.

“ ‘Has performed a feat or collection of feats that could not be expected of any other student’.”

“...Have I done that?”

I guess tournaments must count. Otherwise, I’m not sure how I qualify. But it makes sense. It was probably similar for Kazusuke and Kanagi, and maybe some of the artistic talents. Seems boring, almost, but otherwise this school would just be a collection of obscure world record-holders, wouldn’t it?

At any rate, this isn’t helping my search for the young master. Or whatever I’m searching for right now. Honestly I feel like I just showed up over here without an actual goal in mind besides “try key.” But whatever. No one else should be coming in here, so I can take all the time I need. Might be nighttime soon, but that just means less chance of anyone being out to see me by the time I finish.

Anyone who follows the rules, at least. But no one would be looking for a victim so soon, right...? I won’t worry about it. Maybe bring some kind of blunt implement with me on the way back, but. Not worth any more thought than that.

I put the recruitment guidelines away semi-neatly and browse the rest of the cabinet. There are a few files in each drawer. At least, each drawer I can get too. Bottom one’s thoroughly jammed. I can deal with that later if I feel the need to. For now...

“...My file.”

This is the closest I could possibly get to verifying this cabinet’s info. I pull out the file with my name and stare at it.

“Why do I feel nervous about opening it?”

It’s not like it's a report card or anything. Probably? Would they have those mixed in here, too?

But there’s no reason for me to be nervous about that, anyway?? Just shut up and read it.

I start flipping through. Aside from a few oblique mentions, I don’t see any grades in here. Just the demographic-ish paperwork. That, and a few grainy copies of championship certificates. Guess I got accepted here for consistency, because no single one of these is that huge a deal. Unusual for someone my age, maybe, but... 

“Anyway, seems legitimate enough.”

Time to check out the rest. I put my file back and start at the top. Aidan’s first, then. I remove his file and gaze at it in my hands for a while. Seems kind of personal, now that I think about it. But most of this would be public information, anyway, right? That, or something that’s no big deal, like hometown.

Well, I won’t find anything either way if I don’t even look. Open sesame.

First few pages are the same forms, filled out differently. He is indeed from America, specifically Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

“Never heard of either of those, but sure, why not.”

Blah, blah, height, weight, medical conditions... Nothing earth-shattering. And then...

“What the heck? Everything on this page is redacted.” Aside from a few prepositions that don’t tell me anything, all the text has been reduced to a stuttering black line.

I try looking at the other side, then holding it up to the light, but it gets me nowhere. Nothing I can do with this besides think about it, and I can save that for later. There’s a newspaper clipping in here that looks a lot less difficult to read, so I’ll try that.

“ ‘Bioterrorist Attack Kills Three, Hospitalizes Eleven Others’.”

It goes on to summarize a recent anthrax-like attack on an air control tower that pretty much took out everyone there, lethally or otherwise, within a few minutes. One Abe Sorakubo managed to hang on long enough to redirect traffic despite technical difficulties and guide one plane safely to the ground when it was unable to change course. Abe remains in critical condition...

“...’but has received a better prognosis than the 12-year-old child caught up in the attack alongside him’.”

The child had already stopped breathing by the time EMS found them on the floor of the control tower wearing one of the controller headsets. Abe stated that the child was an aspiring air traffic controller, and he wanted them to be able to wear it before they died, even if they were already unconscious at the time.

“...........”

Yeah, three guesses who the 12-year-old child was. Is it really okay for me to be reading this? I mean, if it was in the news, a lot of people already have, right? And whoever was putting together the recruitment files read it, too. They even highlighted the bit just before Abe’s statement.

I quietly refile the papers and put the folder back. Next is Aki...

“...”

I don’t know if I can do this right now. Maybe I... I’ll come back to her later. 

Arthur, then.

Still hurts a little to thumb through his profile, but it’s a muted enough pain by now. At least we weren’t really friends. Classmates, for sure, but...

“...........”

Anyway.

Born on some kind of British military base in Germany, looks like. And lots of travel from there. Even his list of actual residences goes on for pages. Nothing in here seems suspect, though.

Instead of third-party material, his additional insert is more of a handwritten memo. Notes on his total distance travelled, the success of his blog, and an addendum that Super High School Level Hitchhiker may not be a very standard sort of talent but would nonetheless fit him and the standards of the school.

I flip through everything again just to be sure, but still, nothing of interest. “He’s been a lot of places” is about the whole gist of it.

“Ichiriki, then.”

I sort through his main file, which tells me a whole lot of nothing. Heir of the Tokino Hardware empire. No major moves.

No psychological profiles or anything, either. That would be too helpful, huh?

Instead of a single news article, his has several, though none of them actually have photos of his art. A few of them explain that he considers photography an abomination against everything chalk art represents. None of them specify what it’s supposed to represent, but I guess that’s to be expected.

At any rate, it really does look like he’s here as the Super High School Level Chalk Artist. As much as I’d like to say he has some fake talent to hide his involvement in this whole thing as some kind of warped observational psychologist, between this and his actual art skills, I really have no basis for saying anything like that.

Darn. He’d make an awfully convincing bad guy.

Maybe not so much at the moment, but. Overall. I can’t discount him entirely just because his talent is genuine, though, so there’s still that.

And that’s all the files for the top drawer.

“...........”

I’m weirdly tired already. Maybe I should take a break before I start overlooking any real clues. This cabinet won’t be going anywhere, right? And it probably is getting late by now.

“...”

I lock up the cabinet with much less struggle than it took to unlock it. I tug at each drawer afterwards, but they’re all sealed up pretty well.

All right, then. I can jump back in tomorrow morning.

Assuming nobody’s dead by then.

“...............”

Let’s just get moving.

[BACK] [NEXT]

[theraputicfluff]

Evasion

You know what I can’t get enough of? ticklish Emile.

So guess what I wrote: a fic involving ticklish Emile.

Gotta credit this lovely fic by @cefstickles, which totally sold me on the Deceit x Emile pairing. The AU of this fic is based loosely on this post, which speculates that Dr. Picani might take on some of Thomas’ sides himself if he had Thomas as a client.

Pairings: Deceit x Dr. Emile Picani Words: 1,357 Warnings: tickle fic, implied angst from unidentified clients, sad Emile (don’t worry, he gets better). SFW. [Let me know if I left any warnings out!]

If you’d like to be added to my taglist, lemme know!

Emile Picani loved his job. Really, he did.

But the same traits that made him so good at it- the empathy and depth of understanding that allowed him to pour so much of his heart into his work - left him, on bad days, feeling as dim and hollow as a spent candle.

Today was a bad day.

"Are you alright?" Deceit asked, uncharacteristically direct.

Emile was slumped beside him on the couch, struggling to peel open an applesauce cup. He didn't seem to hear.

"...Em?"

"Hm? Oh, yes." His voice was thin, more like he was murmuring to himself than replying. Another long silence followed.

"One of your patients, I take it?"

Emile finally placed the applesauce cup on the coffee table, still stubbornly sealed. "Several." He straightened up and smoothed his hands over his knees. "But. Work at work, home at home." He flashed his companion what he hoped was a cheerful smile. "No need to worry. You wanna watch a show or... somethin'?"

It was not a convincing performance.

"That's not dinner, is it?" Deceit nodded to the applesauce.

Emile looked at it blankly. "Well, I can't get it open, so I suppose not."

Deceit turned his human eye to him and managed to deliver a scolding lecture on the importance of self-care in a single deadpan look. Emile would've smirked, if he still had it in him.

When he looked away instead, Deceit's heart dropped a little. He felt a bit out of his depth - heart-to-hearts were in Emile’s wheelhouse, not his (at least, not honest ones). But he sure looked like he needed one.

"Would... you care to discuss it?"

Emile did manage a warm little smile at that. "I can't, really... confidentiality and all that."

"Oh, but I'm very confidential!" Deceit replied. "Keeping secrets is my specialty."

"You have enough of my secrets, sweetheart."

Truth was, Emile really didn't want to talk about it. It was hard enough to listen to the echoes of the day's events; they’d been spinning through his mind since he'd walked through the door.

Deceit slumped back. "Well, let's find something to help you relax then."

"Honestly, Dee, I'm fine. I just need a good night's sleep is all."

"You know how you get, though. At this rate, you'll be tossing and turning all night..."

Emile sighed and let his head fall limply against the wall behind him. Another silence yawned.

"I thought you cared about me! I thought you understood!"

"...Is there a particular show you feel like rewatching?" Deceit's voice sounded far away.

"Dr. Picani, I did it again. I thought I was getting better."

"Well, if you can't get it off your chest, and you're clearly not interested in television..." Deceit was starting to grow concerned.

"Dr. Picani, I want to-"

"-Hey!" Emile squeaked, and dropped back to earth like a sack of bricks.

"That got your attention." Deceit peaked his hands under his chin and began tapping his fingers together, a villainous glint in his eye.

Emile, sensing where this was heading, drew his knees up to his chin and pressed back against the cushions. "I-if that’s how you think you’re gonna get me to relax, you’re-"

"Is it? Why, I hadn't considered it, but I must say that's an excellent idea."

"Dee, I didn't mean-" Okay, maybe he did, just a little bit. "Y-you don't have to-”

"I think we could both use a little... levity, don’t you think?"

"Wait - both of us? Is everything okay?" Picani scrambled to sit up against the arm of the chair and tilted his head with concern. "You didn’t have another nightmare, did you? I know how hard you take th-"

"Ah ah ah, don't go turnin' this back on me!" Deceit cut him off, smirking. "I'm not falling for your little therapist routines."

"Wha- that’s- it’s called emotional sensitivity, you jerk!" Picani was unable to keep the smile out of his voice. "That's not a ‘therapy routine,’ it's-"

"It's called an evasive maneuver, my dear, and I see right through it." He leaned in close, propping his chin on the other’s knees. "Evasion, after all, is my specialty."

Emile made an attempt at a stern look, but was far too distracted by the proximity of the other man (who was now stretching his fingers, catlike, up toward the ceiling) to maintain it.

"Now, if I remember correctly..." Deceit resumed poking gently up the other's sides, screwing his eyes up to the ceiling as if searching for something lost between sofa cushions. "Somewhere along here really got you last time..."

"Ack! Dee, stOPit, I'm too - I'm too tired to be ticklish - right nohow!"

Deceit actually did pause to give the doctor a look. "My dear. You are a terrible liar."

At that Emile finally cracked, unable to hold back his own nervous giggles any longer. One of the challenges (or perks, depending on how much of a lee mood he was in) of being tickled by someone who was the literal embodiment of deception (or so he claimed) was his skill in sleight of hand. It made trying to anticipate when and where he would strike virtually impossible. Emile could only press himself as far back into the pillows as he could, drawing his arms up to shield himself more as a reflex than serious defensive tactic.

"Oh, I remember now," the darker man drawled. "It was riiiight about... here."

Emile squeaked again and flinched sideways as long fingers began scribbling into his ribs. Deceit was also a strategic 'ler: he kept track of the precise pressure points that made his victim squirm most desperately, like the bottom edge of the ribcage, for example, or the space immediately above the hipbones. In Emile's case, he'd found places where skeleton met softness were particularly effective.

Of course, Deceit had to dig a little to find them, as Emile was... well, primarily composed of softness. But this only contributed to the stuttering giggles the therapist was now shaking with. And it gave Deceit an excellent excuse to slip a hand under his sweater to get a better feel.

"Dee- DEHEHE!"

"Yes dear?" Though the darker man's voice was perfectly calm, Emile caught a quick twitch in the corner of his mouth, betraying his true feelings. He was loving this.

So was Emile - at least, the part of him that wasn't trying to halt the progression of Deceit's hand against his bare skin. He succeeded only in trapping it even closer to his body. Deceit felt his glove slip off as Emile jammed his elbow into his fingers, and, shooting him a positively evil smirk, began skittering his now-free fingernails up and across Emile's belly.

"AH-aha! STOPPIT!" It didn't help that Deceit's hands were freezing cold. Must be why he wears those ridiculous yellow gloves all the time... Emile's train of thought came abruptly to a halt as Deceit found a sweet spot exactly halfway between the base of his ribs and his bellybutton. The poor doctor crumpled sideways and wheezed with laughter, desperately clutching at Deceit's sleeve.

"Goodness. That's a good spot." Deceit was outright grinning now, unable to stifle it. "Heaven help you if you ever require a Heimlich maneuver."

There was the hint of a waver to the dark side's voice as he (just barely) fought down his own case of the giggles. The man was just. so. cute.

And, unbeknownst to Deceit himself, catching that little waver was one of Emile's favorite parts of their little games. The dark side’s own giddy delight may have been subtle to onlookers, carefully tucked under his usual suave, sly persona, but the therapist was just as skilled at seeing through emotional facades as Deceit was at producing them. Emile could read him like an open book.

And being able to find a crack in the composure of someone so careful to maintain it? Somehow it felt to Emile as if a shy puppy had chosen him as his favorite.

When Emile lost his breath completely, Deceit finally withdrew his hand and patted the rumpled sweater back into place. It took Emile a moment to collect himself, still quivering with soft, hiccupy giggles.

"You're..." he slowly propped himself back upright. "Good... at that..."

Deceit only leaned back with a chuckle of his own. And a very fond smile.

Emile had always struggled to put his work aside long enough to adequately recharge his emotional batteries. But when he needed to forget the weight of the world, at least long enough to get some sleep, Deceit was always happy to help.

After all, it was his specialty.

[gen-is-gone]

Some thoughts about Chuck post-Five, namely, on Chuck’s particular brand of performative toxic masculinity, and how much of it, especially when they were teenagers, seems to be based around not being Dominic.

So the thing that started me thinking about this was ruminating on how Chuck is the person who stands out as the least integrated into the actual friendgroup. It’s interesting -- out of all of them, it honestly seems like Chuck had the most to lose from alienating any one of them, because he’s the friend none of them would be friends with if they didn’t have to be.

Dominic and Sol are best friends, Sol is dating Isabelle, Angela wasn’t a part of their friendgroup to begin with, and Matt and Dominic had become closer friends because Sol was spending more time with Isabelle. Chuck is the only one of them whose presence doesn’t have an explanation beyond the obvious: he likes the same things they do. Archetypically, he’s That Guy in gaming. He’s the guy who comes for free pizza and the chance to vicariously beat shit up and steal things. He’s the murder hobo. By contrast, while the rest of the group approaches the game with varying levels of interest (note Isabelle, who Ash immediately assumes doesn’t want to be there and kind of mentally slots into the role of Dungeon Master’s Girlfriend, though more on Ash and Isabelle’s...fraught...relationship should probably be its own post) they all seem to take it seriously enough. He’s the only one who doesn’t even bother to create a real character, just a selection of stats.

Kieron talks in the backmatter essay in Four about the kinds of friends you make while gaming, the people who become life-long companions and the people who fade away once the time and place shifts. Chuck seems like that kind of friend to the rest of them, but where they never got the chance to grow out of their friendship with him, nor he to find people with personalities closer in line to his own, because they got sucked into an rpg and got stuck with a trauma-bond that means even if they hadn’t been summoned back, he’d still be an indelible part of their lives and an influence on the adults they all became, instead of just a guy they hung out with because he was the other role-playing nerd in a tiny Midlands town, before the internet and the rise of the geek cultural majority meant teens now have their pick of players. 

So back on point. Dominic was the weird, quiet, kind of femme-looking even then boy with the nerdy special interest who kind of seems like his first instinct towards hostility is to freeze (see, his stuttering reaction to Isabelle at the beginning of One). Chuck is loud, aggressive, often-deliberately mean-spirited and even studiedly careless, traits that his character class then rewards in DIE when it becomes a matter of survival. Chuck and Dominic couldn’t be less similar.

Ash has some harsh retrospective things to say about the both of them lusting after Maria Wardol, but unlike Chuck, even as a teen Dominic has a level of self-awareness that belies the “mostly-straight teenage boys” stereotype. Straightforwardly, Dominic Ash might be read as a semi-closeted bisexual man who as a teenager used his character to explore gender and sexuality in the liminal space roleplaying offers. I personally think there’s a chance it’s a little more complicated than that, but even if that is the entirety of the matter, it’s an important part of Ash’s identity. It’s not simple. Ash is a whole person, and one who chooses to reveal that identity only in fragments, fully aware, as narrator, of the readers’ gaze and potential for judgement.

Chuck, like Ash, seems at times (ironically) hyperaware of the potential for others’ judgement, so he wraps himself in layers of straight boy carelessness. He can be the class clown, as long he’s not the bullies’ next target. Dominic clearly didn’t escape anyone’s notice as the victim-of-choice for peer abuse, and Ash gets multiple chances in the narrative for mordant reflection.

Chuck continues to add to the distancing affect by casually mocking Ash in-game, (see the comment about her bust in Five) and while clearly by now they’ve all acclimatized to to each other’s appearances I suspect more flashbacks will come up that offer insight into the others’ reaction to Ash as teens with an early nineties context finding themselves in DIE for the first time.

...Something tells me their reactions then were decidedly less accommodating.

How this attitude affects their current relationship and how much either of them is consciously aware of it remains to be seen, but it’s telling that the two defectors are the two with the fewest and weakest bonds within the group, and both of them are at personal conflict with Ash specifically in ways that have their roots not just with her behavior in the present -- reprehensible though it at times has been -- but with Ash as a person and a constructed identity, which stems from their original time together and is rooted very much in their feelings as sixteen year olds, rather than adults.

[greatrunner]

Did you get to play DMC5? What did you think of it? Also RE2 Demake? I pirated the latter lol.

(They shoulda gave you pirate eye patch for that one :p) Yeah. I rented both from Gamefly and constantly worried thatI was about to send the family PS4 to an early grave. (The last game we rented,from Blockbuster, in ye olden times, was Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction,and our thicc PS2 died shortly thereafter).

Both left me feeling mixed and a little disappointed,between the two of them, I came out feeling a little more positive about DMC5than RE2R.

 DMC5

Positives

+ I played through the first time using the JPN dub, and I think that was a large part of why I enjoyed the experience more than I would have if I simply used the default ENG dub. Nico sounds decidedly manic in the JPN dub, and the energy of the actress translates better to her motion capture actor. The only negative is that I don’t get to hear Daniel Southworth the first time through, who, legit, probably gave the strongest performance out the cast for ENG dub of DMC5. JPN Vergil is just kinda generically evil. I just prefer Southworth’s deliberately stilted and measured Vergil.

+ As far as newcomers are concerned, I actually enjoyed Nico. She’s obnoxious and juvenile, but I figure that’s the point so far as her function as comic relief. (I don’t know how her mother ended up in cahoots with stuttering moth guy, but whatever, I’m not gonna think about it considering the game couldn’t be arsed to name him.) I definitely like her rapport with Nero, especially within the opening and closing discussions they have. It feels like a genuine friendship with no preoccupation with forcing the two together. I honestly feel like a lot of these relationships too absent in media, so I’m kind a hoping to see more of their dynamic in later games.

+ I liked the soundtrack, I think it’s the first DMC soundtrack I can honestly say I listened to almost all the way through, but I’m also less inclined to listen to it again without playing the game. I’ll miss the irrelevant screaming buttrock, but the EDM-esque direction – even if it tends to sound like bees dying in a jar - elevated the action of the game to a point. “Devil Trigger” and “Crimson Cloud” are the standout battle themes. It’s a shame Dante never got one. I would’ve loved to have heard it.

+ The Devil Breakers are a boon to Nero’s playstyle. It took a while to get the hang them, y’know, without detonating them prematurely. They don’t have quite the same feedback loop as the Devil Bringer, but their special abilities more than make up for what they lack in that department. Just in terms of pure power, “Punch Line”, “Gerbera”, “Ragtime” and “Tomboy” are definitely my favorites based on the destruction they can land on multiple or single enemies.

+ I had more fun playing with Dante this time around, he fares better against DMC5′s enemy types than Nero given the arsenal he has at his disposal. The SIN Devil Trigger is cool, but I wish it was perma thing instead of temporary like the default Devil Trigger.The fact that he comes so late in the game (yet again), will never not bother me. There’s a lot about the progression of Dante’s character that feels like one of those things that got completely undermined by the introduction of Nero. Dante creating his new sword using the broken hilt of Rebellion in combination with the Sparda sword was something I wish had more importance to the plot, because all the pieces, the stakes, the mood are right there. But, the fractured storyelling kinda reduces it to a quick power-up.

+ Out of the bosses fought in the game, I think the most fun I had was with Vergil, Goliath and the Operatic Tuna Fish Boss (which did nothing but remind me of the opera boss from Nier). All three bosses encouraged the right kind of momentum and at the very least, had me trying a little harder to play fancier than I would’ve (and that got me killed, a lot).

Negatives:

- I think the biggest problem I had with this game is howthey chose to structure the plot. There was no reason not to start this game inchronological order and work to its logical conclusion. The plot plays aterrible game of non-linear hide and seek and fade-to-blacks in an attempt tomask the fact that Urizen is Vergil and The Mysterious V™ is “Vergil’s HumanHalf”.

- V is one of the biggest issues with the game. I wasn’t afan of his gameplay, specifically because it felt like an RPG character gotstuck in an action game, and splintered both the gameplay and the plot. Vergil’s humanity reallydidn’t need to be personified. I think the non-personification of a demon or half-demon’s humanity makes forfar more interesting characters. There’s a lot you can do to communicate that Vergil abandoned his humanity without giving it awhole other personality.

- I’m not a fan of how they decided to change Vergil’sgambit for power from understanding his mother died trying to save both him and Dante – and wanting the power toprevent something like that from happening (among other personal reasons), toseeking out power in an almost petty bit to get even with Dante on theassumption that Eva only saved Dante and abandoned him. Maybe Imisunderstood, but Dante explaining that outta-nowhere bit to his brother justbaffled me, because I swear that’s not why Vergil wanted the power of Sparda.Also, reducing their feud to almost something they have no control over (like the magnets bouncing off each other) kindabugged me.

- Dante feels more auxiliary here than he did in DMC4. Ithink I’m at a point where I’d rather see a DMC game focused entirely on Danteonly (with Trish and Lady), or that Itsuno give up the ghost and just get ridof the character and focus on Nero and his newer characters. I don’t think he has a real interest in Dante (or his supporting cast) either as a protagonist orsupporting character. He’s just not as poorly treated like as Trish and Lady,who were abducted, strip naked, and left to “wait in the van” until the guysfinish saving the world.

- I really wasn’t crazy about the bosses this time around.Excluding the aforementioned three I liked, the others didn’t stand out as unique tome? Some of the bosses were either too big, or too same-y (tentacle monstersout the ying-yang).  The first two or three battles with Urizen (before the last one) confused me, because I was never sureif I was supposed to be doing damage or wasting time until a cut scene hadDante or Nero thrown across a room. I also wasn’t crazy about fighting all theMini Nelo Angelo bosses throughout the game. It just kinda soured the characterfor me.

- I really don’t like that Nero just grew his arm back. Iwould’ve preferred that he remained without it because it’s almost like erasing what the consequence of losing it did to him (to a degree). I thought the Devil Breakerswere probably a solid progression of Nero’s Devil Bringer gameplay set. Tobasically nullify the reason he’s using them, was just kinda lame. I’m also notcrazy about how patchwork anime his Devil Trigger form looks. It’s so jarring and outof place when compared to the monstrosity of Dante and Vergil’s DTs. (Who or what did Virgil have sex with???) 

Resident Evil 2

Positives

+ Resident Evil is usually a game I’ve played with my sistersince RE4. We love the co-op options that RE5, RE6 and Revelations 2 provided,but without a co-op option with RE2R, we passed the control around every thirtyminutes. Playing RE2R with my sister kept it from being a miserabletime, largely because my sister isn’t as into RE as I am, so her generalnonchalance toward anything that nothing to do with the gameplay was a welcomerespite. Mostly because we talked about other things to distract each otherfrom the sudden zombie growls and the arrival of Mr. X. I think she took the spongy-ness of the zombies better than I did (she’s also the better shot), but Ialso did warn her in advance to aim for the legs and arms because headshotsweren’t the same as earlier games.

+ I liked most of Claire’s campaign. Even if it feels like alot of Leon’s campaign gets stitched together with some extra environments, herplot thread flows way better than Leon’s, which is not something I wasexpecting considering all the promotion focused solely on him and barely on her. Even her interaction with Marvin is more engaging. I think, as far as characterization goes, the worst thing about her is theartificial foul-mouth they slapped onto her dialog, but, she has morepersonality than whatever that representation of Leon was supposed to be.

+ I liked Sherry’s brief segment in Claire’s scenario(s). Itwas like whoever worked on that level decided to make a Clocktower game in themiddle of the remake’s production, which was cool. I just wish Sherry was morepresent in the plot and gameplay, because it was over too quickly once you gotChief Irons’ pattern down.

+ I really liked the [extremely brief] interaction Claire and Sherry were allowed to have in the game, largely because they put more focus on Claire’s relationship with Chris and used it as a way for her and Sherry to bond.

+ Marvin Branagh is probably the strongest character in the game, based purely on the performance of his actor. Like, there is not a character in RE2R quite like him. He actually feels human, you barely know him any better than you did in the original RE2, but damn if I didn’t want to do everything in my power to save him all over again. They really should’ve done more with his character.

+ I loved the fact that the game decided to arm Claire witha Gatling gun during the elevator boss battle with Birkin. The game just gave up any kind of pretense of selling itself as “survival horror” and just defaulted back to ridiculous action.

 Negatives

- The decision to make the zombies bullet sponges to varyingdegrees really killed whatever enthusiasm I thought I could maintain from agameplay perspective. It felt like I was playingwith a nerfed weapon set just trying to get them stay down on the ground ortrying to get a decent headshot. I’m being dramatic, but it was absolutelydemoralizing to hit a zombie with Claire’s grenade launcher or Leon’s shotgun andnot have them explode into a fountain or gore or body parts, but just kindastagger back like I had shoved them a little. I missed the over-top, buteffective melee moves like crazy. Perishable knives were a bad idea. If this isthe direction Capcom plans to take the gameplay, I hereby automatically optmyself out from any future Resident Evil experiences. I’m not here for that atall.

- I was not a fan of what they did to Ada Wong. She seemedless capable as a character, and prone to making the absolute worst blunders inthe world. Nothing about how they dealt with her role in the plot feltparticularly smart, she seemed present only to bolster Leon’s new role in theumbrella plotline and nullify her own. I was really hoping they could capitalize on all the timesAda was not with Leon (in the OG game) and the best they could come up with wasa fuse box hunt where Mr. X just showed up for no reason and they injure her insuch a way that she’s written out of the primary action of the plot. Theattempt at a ‘romance’ between her and Leon comes off absolutely terribly. The worse I could’ve said about the original attempt was that it was justhammy (and equally unearned). I want to set fire to that ugly red slip they put her in as well. RebootAda is terrible and thinking about her makes me angry as hell.

- The frequency of Mr. X’s appearances (early on) diminishedwhat made him such a startling and imposing character in the original game. Heeventually becomes nuisance and hindered the want to explore the environment. Ihonestly envy PC players who can use mods to make Mr. X an almost non-factor intheir gameplay experience.

- The game is a little too serious for its own good. It tries to play the events off as deadly serious, but also tries to be campy (that whole ending sequence went over like a led balloon in comparison to the extremely cheesy turn-back-to-look-into-the-camera-and-make-a-bold-declaration moment from the A/B endings), so the tones end up working in disharmony instead of together.

- The overall design of the game is very much in the vein ofa “modern video game”, and while that’s not necessarily terrible, it honestlyjust made me miss the dungeon crawling and puzzle-based environment design of theoriginal game. The fact that they decided to keep the puzzles in a game thatclearly didn’t need them ended up making a lot of the revamped puzzles feellike busy work. It’s at its worst during the sewer level, which feels like itgoes on forever and forever. With all the talk about people up-rezzing andtouching up the pre-rendered backgrounds of RE2 for PC, I wish the classic gamewas available to purchase on GOG so I could play with one of these up-rezzingmods. Effectively, I’m not even a die-hard fan of OG RE2, but damn if this gamedidn’t make me appreciate it a whole lot more.

- RE2R kinda left me feeling a deceived. Even seeing how different the game was to the original, Capcom spent so much time marketing it as a “remake”, that waiting until a year before its release in 2019 to backtrack and say “oh, it’s a re-imagining”, felt particularly scummy. As far as “oh, it’s different”, I honestly felt it wasn’t different enough. I just started looking into the scrapped version of RE2 that they made for a 1997 release, and honestly? That felt like a better re-imagining of the concept than what the 2019 game ended up being (Marvin was alive. You could save Marvin). The 2019 RE2 clings too much to the original premise and what’s different or shifted around doesn’t really do anything to really warrant it.

[clickbliss]

Insurgency Sandstorm occupies an awkward place in the shooter landscape

by Amr (@siegarettes)

For my money the war in the Middle East, at least within fiction,  is separated by two eras: The Bush and Obama Eras. The first marked by “shock and awe” bombing campaigns and boots-on-the-ground military action, and the latter defined by the increase of drone warfare and escalating tech fetishism. Insurgency: Sandstorm is strictly rooted in that Bush Era, War on Terror understanding of the Middle East, and while it’s not any more morally comfortable, there’s a certain fervor to the era’s perspective that feels anachronistic today.  It’s in the very name: the idea of an insurgency feels outdated, and its presentation of the insurgent enemies certainly is.

Voice acting is rendered with broad Arab caricature, removed of specificity and delivered with accents that would honestly be hilarious if not for the severity that each line is delivered with. Avatars shout dialogue with desperation, convinced of the immediate danger of each situation. Insurgency believes in its verisimilitude, and wants you to believe as well. These are real people, and they’re really gonna die.

The guns, the guns are real too. Insurgency sells itself on the promise of that realism. The tech fetishism might be missing, but there’s plenty of military fetishism elsewhere. Weapons are modeled in detail, with functioning scopes and mechanisms. Bullet physics--from their trajectories to the way each caliber of bullet penetrates material--are given the same affectionate treatment. Team chat is audible if an enemy is in close proximity. Avatars choke and cough in smoke. All in the service of a creating a more lethal, more tactical game.

Insurgency: Sandstorm occupies a space somewhere between Rainbow Six: Siege and Battlefield. The quick kills call to mind the intimate firefights of Siege, but maps are generally spread over more open space and several control points, with some modes even giving access to vehicles. It doesn’t use a health based system, but you drop so fast you’ll rarely have a chance to recover from a shot. As a rule, an enemy with a sightline to you is one that’s got the kill. High lethality means that combat becomes an exercise in calculating risk, sprinting between cover and trying to find an advantageous position. Escaping disadvantage requires smart use of tools like smoke and flashbangs, or cooperation between a Commander and an Observer to bring in fire support.

Class dynamics as a whole are important, since loadouts are restricted by class and only a few players can fill each position. That prevents broken team dynamics and encourages everyone to play a role (though almost every time I ended up as a general rifleman). Respawn waves prevent formal squads from being formed, so I had to improvise a team with whoever was currently part of the reinforcements. This being an online game, that meant that most of the time there wasn’t much cooperation.

A team commander is basically needed to get anything done in Insurgency. On one memorable skirmish one player took over chat as commander, calling out points to capture and prepping the next point for a push as a group finished the capture. They called out good kills, gave good advice and warnings. Their map knowledge proved crucial, pointing out what sides were viable to move in from and which points had sightlines we could use to move into the current objective. They led us to a victory and a close call, then left as we tied up. Without them the toxicity of the space took over and the game quickly became disorganized and sour.

Rounds of Insurgency in general served as a reminder of how toxic online shooters can get. Co-op generally remains positive (generally), but any PVP match will be regularly full of either obnoxious or downright toxic players. Expect to hear a lot of shit talk, slurs and the like, as usual. Matches never became the angry shouting matches they could have been, but I assume that was just my luck. Part of this is the usual problems with unmoderated playerbases, and part is that this is exactly the kind of crowd a “hardcore” focused shooter tends to draw. Either way there’s a general low level discomfort to contend with at all times.

That’s Insurgency at its worst. At its best it reminded me of why exactly this style of shooter draws in such dedicated players. Its shooting model demands you learn each map, its sightlines and chokepoints, and doesn’t forgive anyone foolhardy enough to believe they can simply walk into the open and not get shot.

And unlike other shooters, the entire kit makes sense here. I found distinct uses and advantageous situations for each piece of equipment, and started to understand why you’d use them. Flash and smoke grenades feel useless in most shooters, but here smoke is an essential tool needed to approach and flash grenades make approaching a room with an unknown number of enemies inside a lot more comfortable. Suppression also makes approaching more than a single enemy alone a lethal encounter, which gave me a newfound appreciation for the danger of frag grenades and the area of denial ability of molotovs.

Guns, are of course, given just as much consideration. Shotguns are surprisingly lethal at medium range (which by all accounts is accurate), but are a liability in packed quarters, just as likely to cause friendly fire if you’re not careful. Rifles dominate mid to medium-long ranges, though recoil basically makes them useless at range without very short controlled bursts or single shots. And of course the snipers dominate long range and can keep enemies pinned down thanks to their suppressive fire, but need to shot with controlled breath and are subject to more physical forces thanks to the long travel of the bullets.

The general feel aims for just enough realism to sell the aesthetic and force tactical play, but avoids the parts of military sims that are cumbersome or produce long bouts of boredom and dead air. It’s a game for people who want to play soldier but don’t care enough for accuracy to engage in the bit where you walk for 20 minutes to be shot out of nowhere.

Theoretically, that’s me. And I’d even be able to look past the toxicity of the community (you sadly get used to this playing any game online), if it wasn’t for how terrible the game ran. Even on the lowest settings, at low resolution, Insurgency stutters and performs inconsistently. This isn’t even when things are going on--in otherwise quiet situations the framerate will go from entirely stable stuttering. I’m not sure what causes it (though texture streaming and anti-aliasing seem to be big problems), but what I am sure of is that there are some serious technical problems with Insurgency and a real lack of optimization.

Between the thematic problems, the community, the tech problems, a general lack of resources to properly learn the game and the unforgiving pace of rounds, Insurgency: Sandstorm is difficult to recommend. You might be able to find a server with a decent group, and outside resources might eventually help you understand the core tactics better, but Insurgency is going to make you WORK for every inch of progress. Which is a shame, since the tactical options and weapon modeling genuinely feel great. The core of the game is solid, and with some work it’s possible that Insurgency: Sandstorm could become a great shooter, if one that still carries a lot of baggage. As it is now, I can’t say that’s true.

[sugakookiesbutbadass]

💜 Soft Bias Tag 💜

i was tagged by the two lovelys at @bts-soccer-moms​ to do the most adorable tag ever ~ tysm this was so much fun!! 

1. Who is my bias?

my favourite muscle bunny jeon jungkook, kookie, nochu, love of my life

2. What made you notice them?

“Dope” was my first bts mv and i swear it was legitimately love at first sight (that police uniform got me whipped from the start but shhh) i’ve never chosen a bias that quick in my life tbh i didn’t even know what a bias was back then and i already knew it was going to be him (cheesy i know) also when i started watching more bts content i fell for his honey vocals, his big sparkly eyes, his cute bunny smile, and he’s just my ideal boy you know? he’s beautiful and talented what more can i say?

3. What’s your favourite thing about them?

i know everyone says this about their bias but honestly can you blame us? of course the answer is everything! i love everything about him, his passion and ambition for music, his big heart and love for his hyungs, his cute mannerisms, his will to strive to become the best at whatever he sets his mind to, he’s not only beautiful on the outside but he’s infinitely beautiful on the inside 

4. Who would initiate skinship more?

i think at the beginning probably me? mostly because he's such a shy shy boy but also i think once he's more comfortable it will be pretty balanced between us

5. Who would hog the blankets more?

either neither of us or him bc i'm literally a human heater so i don't really need to hog the blankets that much plus if he just cuddles up to me he wouldn't need to hog them anyways  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

6. Who would be more clingy?

i don't think either of us are that noticeably clingy but if it's just us and not in public then perhaps me? 

7. Who would say “I love you” first?

hmmm is it cheesy if i say we happened to say it at the same moment bc it finally felt right? lolol but idk i think maybe he would to say it first cuz it takes me a while to finally admit things so yeah

8. Who easily be more flustered?

oh man i think we both tie in this one but i’d like to think that i can hide it better than him, i mean have you seen the stuttering mess kookie is when his hyungs catch him off guard poor bun bun

9. What cuddling position would you two have?

please refer to this taekook moment as a point of reference

10. Which colours remind you of him?

two colours come to mind:

~ golden honey yellow: he's not the golden maknae for nothing, also like i've said before, his honey vocals make me melt every time and he's also the sweetest boy so of course he reminds me of honey plus he looks so precious whenever he wears yellow

~ a deep bold red: it reminds me of the fire and raw passion in his eyes as he performs, the energy he exerts when he dances, and just that alluring presence he holds when he knows he's owning the stage

tldr: kookie is 💛✨🍯 and jungkook is ❤️🔥🎤

11. What season would you like to spend with them?

summer! i want to have all the fun in the world with him without any worries or cares in the back of our minds, i want to have cute amusement park dates, ice cream at the park dates, bowling alley and arcade dates, everything and anything, we could go out to the pier, stargaze, the whole shabang 

12. Who would bake the cookies and who would steal the batter?

based on the cooking run bts episodes, i think he'd be better in the kitchen than me tbh and i'm not much of a baker but i will help if i see someone else baking but also low key so that i can sneak a bite or two

13. Which one of you would make bad puns and how would the other react?

i think both of us would crack a pun every now and then and the other person would just sigh and roll their eyes but also quietly chuckle and note to themselves to one up the other person in the future 

14. Who would want to adopt 50 cats and dogs?

i think we would alternate between one of us being like "you know what sounds like a good idea? adopting a dog. right now. let's do it." and the other one being the Reasonable One™ but then eventually one day we both end up being the one wanting the dog and attempting to enable the other and so we end up getting a cute dog child and we live happily ever after the end

15. Which one of you would nearly burn the kitchen down trying to microwave a pop tart and who would come to the rescue?

well considering kookie had said before that he has One Fear which happens to be microwaves so i'm gonna say it's him. it will be like:

him: "kirstyyyy can you make me a pop tart?"

me: "sorry kookie i'm a bit busy at the moment, can you try making it yourself?"

*smoke detector goes off in the distance* 

me: *cleans up the mess and makes him a new one* 

me: "you're an idiot" 

him: "yeah but i'm your idiot" 😉 

me: “ugh you're lucky i still think you're cute” 🙄 

him: “heheh sorry ily” 😙

16. Who likes to lean over trail railings and who pulls them back?

i think we'd both have our moments for this because we both have no fear of heights and have moments where #dangerismymiddlename but then again we are also promoters of safety so yeah 

17. What would watching a horror movie with them be like?

it would consist of a lot of fun banter and teasing towards whoever jumps or get scared :P i really enjoy watching horror films with company because i love commentating (especially for dumb horror films where i get to yell at the characters for making dumbass decisions) but i also get a laugh whenever someone (including myself) gets a big scare so yeah, i think it would be fun to have a horror movie marathon with kookie during spooky season or something

18. Who would be the cheesy flirt and who would be the smooth flirt?

i think kookie can be 50/50 i mean have you seen this boy's duality? his dorky offstage personality vs his sensual onstage presence gives me whiplash.. me on the other hand, i think my cheesiness will outweigh my smoothness like 75/25 

19. Who would be more competitive?

we will make everything a competition, but like in a fun healthy way like "i bet i can beat you in this track in mario kart" "iS tHaT A cHaLLeNgE??!?" and whoever wins gets like a little prize each time (can be anything from food to a peck on the cheek to getting the better controller next time to picking the next movie etc.) like just simple silly competitions to keep it interesting (no sore losers or egotistic winners in this house, it's all just fun and games) and ooo bonus: we can keep a little chart over like the month or maybe the year like a "jungkook vs kirsty" and the overall winner gets a grand prize of whatever they want 

20. Who would have to be given constant reminders (to eat, sleep, drink water, etc.)

him. we all know that he works his hardest and tries to push himself past his limits so i think he would need someone to gently remind him to take care of himself from time to time :’( 

21. Who sends memes and who sends cute “i miss you” texts at 3 am?

we're talking about your resident meme king and queen here so what do you think? but then again we both have our soft hours so i think it will be a fair mix of both. something like 

"i miss you"

"you meme a lot to me" 

and that’s it!! this was honestly so much fun to do and i’m now feeling softer than usual for my bunny rip gonna go watch some cute compilations or something ok byeee

i tag: @wen-jun-bae, @blueberry-child, @taeyongskookie, @cyphersnamjoon, @mysticalj, @jinstaej, @min-baby-boy-yoongi, @majinstic, @madpanda69, @kochiniseokjinnie, @im-captain-of-this-ship,  @kawaii-ing, @chiantae, @dailygifihope, and anyone else who wants to do this :) 

[bastardrobocop]

on fallout 76

so, because im a fool i pre ordered fallout 76. frankly, i was going to buy it on release anyway because im starved for anything fallout and new california was a complete bust. 

anyway, this means i have had access to the “B.E.T.A.”, which isn’t really a beta. it’s just server stress tests. i’ve done every pc round so far and i feel like i can say pretty conclusively that it’s just not very good.

sorry, this is going to be a long meandering post

i dont know if its something they can fix in the like, week before they launch the game, but the delay/latency/feel is so fucking whack it’s unbelievable. the multiplayer fallout new vegas mod feels like it has better netcode. in addition, it is dreadfully optimized. i play on a laptop, so maybe take my perspective with a grain of salt, but i’m not the only one who has pointed this out. i use an nvidia 970m, which runs fallout 4 at around 50/60 frames per second. fallout 76 tops out at around 10-30 on average. just wandering the world, the framerate is atrocious. performance is best in small interior cells and in wide open spaces with nothing in it. in more dense and enemy populated areas, the game stutters hard. more than once ive had the game freeze for several seconds during a firefight. its honestly inexcusably bad most of the time. with poor latency and framerate chugging, the gameplay experience is trying. it makes literally everything painful, including just inventory management and crafting. 

the gameplay itself isnt too awful in that its just fallout 4 again but without the pretense of minimal rpg elements. performance problems can make some engagements suck, but most common enemies aren’t too hard. however, the real nasty ones that are higher level than you can be nigh on impossible to take down solo, which sucks because my friends arent always available and dealing with online randos is always bad. but it’s also the only way to get like, good weapons. but anyway, the core gameplay loop is almost the same. i say almost because the ‘workshop’ storage is your only storage. and it has a 400lb limit. which takes into account anything you put in it. this should seem like an obvious issue; you basically cant afford to store things if you gather valuable resources. im currently stuck carrying this big fucking rocket launcher which is useless right now because i dont have any inventory space for missiles, which weigh a ton. also, ammo has weight now. and you can’t scrap ammo for ammo parts like gunpowder or lead. and you can’t sell ammo either. so instead you just have to like, dump hundreds of rounds just on the ground since you can’t store them in the workshop because you need space for steel and adhesive and that M2 Browning that you can’t use yet but want to hold onto because it looks bitchin. however, you can bulk scrap with plastic, which reduces weight by about half. however, therein lies another problem; plastic becomes a precious resource because you can’t make a bulk pile of wood without it for some reason. plastic is currently more precious than literal gold. still, you get stuck holding a bunch of valuable scrap in your inventory which you can’t put into your stash because it’s full and you can’t go out and find more plastic because then you’ll be over-encumbered and you cant afford to drop this circuit board and you can’t build any more things in your camp because the budget is painfully low and even when you DO get enough plastic to bulk things the bulked stuff goes into your inventory and wont necessarily fit back into the stash and i’m still carrying this fucking missile launcher please god let me put down this missile launcher please oh please god

the ui is a disaster. it’s like they turned 4′s console/gamepad control scheme and doubled down on it; on pc, random keys are bound to multiple things and then also bound to a separate key, and you can’t re-bind things individually. so that means middle mouse is both ‘open favorite item wheel’ and ‘enter third person’ and ‘enter build mode’ when there’s also V which is also ‘enter third person’. you cannot change this. there will always be one button for this. there is still no separate binding for bash and grenade throw, of course. if you press escape, it opens the map. if you press m, it opens the map. to open the pause menu with things like ‘options’ and ‘microtransaction store’ and ‘quit the game’, you have to open the map with either escape or M and then press Z. there is no direct button to take you to the pause menu, as far as i can tell. when you go up to a workbench, there are three options; E to craft, R to scrap, Space to repair and modify. from this menu, if you want to scrap an item, you must mouse over it, and then select it. however, DO NOT MOVE THE MOUSE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. even if the prompt is open and asking if you want to scrap, say, a pump action shotgun, if you mouse over and the highlight moves over to your only power armor chest piece, it will scrap the power armor chest piece. even though it was asking if you wanted to scrap the shotgun. its potentially one of the most hostile interfaces ive ever seen. the bindings for ‘scrap mode’ and ‘scrap item’ in different menus also change. if i’m in the repair menu, G scraps an item. if i’m in scrap mode, spacebar does. the only good thing ive seen so far is the favorite wheel and also you can set it so you can see through your pip boy background while browsing it. 

the world feels desolate and boring. the lack of human npc interaction has been replaced with finding some dead persons holotape. there are robots. there is at least one AI. but all the questgivers are pieces of paper, holotapes, or voices on a radio. sometimes it’s a robot. you don’t actually interact though. there’s no interaction beyond listening and being told what to do. while im bitching about how the world feels, lets talk about factions. bethesda has kind of casually hyped up factions as being some kind of meaningful, cool choice. they’re literally nothing. there is no indication to other players what faction you are in. you can join every faction and reach top rank in every faction. you cant see if anyone is a member of your faction unless theyre in your faction specific base. there is no inter-faction conflict, there are very few faction quests aside from random events, and once you’re done with the main faction quest, you’re basically done for good except for repeatable ones. i honestly expected factions to be a meaningful choice, which was probably my mistake. i was hoping it would force you to commit to your current faction once you joined it, or would prompt you to abandon another faction in order to join a new one. but there’s just nothing. i was expecting something like, i dunno, destinys faction thing. like joining new monarchy. and maybe butting heads with members of other factions, like i figured the Brotherhood faction would be my enemy if i joined the enclave. but it’s just nothing. the world is nothing, the quests are nothing, everything just feels pointless. 

this is also a personal gripe, but there are like no energy weapon alternatives to small guns aside from the errant laser pistol, but ammo is extremely rare. the only new energy weapon i’ve seen so far is the plasma gatling, which is a big gun. otherwise, it’s just the crappy pistol/rifle converting laser and plasma rifle. no plasma pistol, just a pistol conversion. no laser pistol, just a pistol conversion. i’ve always loved energy weapons and just like. not getting any variety while guns and melee weapons get tons of variety is grating. there are many new ballistic weapons that look neat. the 10mm smg is back, and i am admittedly fond of it. however, 10mm ammo is painfully rare. i spend basically all my lead making more ammo for it. i can kind of get by with my laser pistol and my shotgun always makes up however much ammo i lose because a lot of enemies use shotguns, but my 10mm just goes up in smoke and there’s none to be found elsewhere. there’s a shocking amount of .308 because almost every early/mid enemy uses a hunting rifle, but i guess it makes sense because the big MG-32 thing takes .308 so they want you to be able to use it when the time comes. still, i’d rather be using an energy weapon. i want like. a recharger pistol. or the plasma rifle with all the tubes. or a pulse gun. just like. anything other than the ugly aer9 pistol conversion. i think the folks down at bethesda just dont like energy weapons very much; theyre leaps and bounds less viable than small guns. 

the enemies look okay. instead of raiders, you have the Scorched. they’re Marked Men, but weaker and also a cult formed by radioactive bats. there are super mutants, because bethesda cant be bothered to go outside of the comfort zone of Things People Recognize and also they hate lore i guess. the wild animals are kind of fun. theres a big toad that looks cute, and frogs that have MASSIVE arms that they run on, which looks funny. theyre small though. things like the mothman and snallygaster look neat. the flatwoods monster is okay. the grafton bastard is big and kind of easy to cheese out. there is a monster named after a flawed and racist interpretation of indigenous beliefs. theres a big sloth, who i love. the mole men (called mole miners) are intimidating and ANNOYINGLY precise with shotguns. they’re later game enemies and very aggressive. they drop a neat looking unarmed weapon that ive been using, called a mole miner gauntlet. it’s like a power fist with big claws. there’s a big bee called a honeybeast. ive basically covered all of the new monsters, though. everything else is from fallout 4 and dlcs. this includes things like anglers, which had obviously evolved on far harbor along with the lure plant so it doesnt make sense for them to be there, and gulpers which are big salamanders so i guess that’s more okay. there are swarms of bees that are just he same repeated png of a bee, spinning around. oh yeah, there are a couple new insect types; ticks and fireflies. both use the animations of the radroach and bloatfly, respectively.

solo play can be kind of boring and difficult. most randos you meet will either ignore you or call you a slur and run away. ive only had one guy break into my house and i murdered him. however, even though he had a bounty on his head, he was still allowed to get ‘revenge’ on me which meant he could spawn right next to me and this time he had a power armor suit, so he killed me a couple times before logging out to avoid my wrath. coward. if you’re out there dude, i’ll kick your ass. also, quick note about the bounty system; its kinda rough around the edges. i tried to save someones garden by shooting a ghoul that was stomping their flowers in the back. however, my shot somehow curved around him at point blank and broke a blackberry bush. from then on, i had a 20 cap bounty on my head. i had to hide from people in my secret enclave bunker and get my friend to kill me so i could perceive other people on the map again and also not live in fear of every tom dick and larry with a power armor frame and a bad attitude. 

i feel like i should wrap up. fallout 76 is not very good, but if they can work out performance and latency it wouldnt be too bad for just dicking around with friends. in terms of being like, a fallout game, it’s worse than 4. i haven’t gotten into story spoilers, but its not great. and it feels remarkably desolate for a game thats advertised as being a cool time with your buds. maybe itll be better when there are more people playing. i dunno. its just not very good. i dont recommend it.

[tech-specialist98]

Samsung Galaxy A31 Review

📷

Making sense of Samsung's Galaxy A and M series models is getting harder by the month, as new models are brought in with minor refreshes, but don't always line up in a logical order. For example, the very recent Galaxy M21 (Review) was basically a Galaxy M30s (Review) with a different selfie camera, but going by the model names, it's impossible to make that connection.

While some models in the A and M series have slight overlaps in pricing, there's still a relatively clear distinction between the series themselves. Generally speaking, most models in the A series tend to have better finishes and fancier features such as in-display fingerprint sensors, while the M series prioritises low prices.

Today, we'll be testing Samsung's new Galaxy A31, which, on paper, should succeed the Galaxy A30s. Compared to the latter, the new model offers a fourth rear camera, a bigger battery, a higher-resolution display, full support for Samsung Pay, and of course a higher price tag. Available in just a single configuration with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of storage for Rs. 21,999, does the Galaxy A31 deserve a spot in our coveted list of top phones under Rs. 25,000?. Let's have a look

Samsung Galaxy A31 Design: Been there, seen that

Even though the design of the Galaxy A31 isn't exactly fresh for a budget Samsung device, I do like the fact that it's slim and light. The all-polycarbonate body feels quite sturdy but it does pick up fingerprints easily. The phone has a noticeably thick chin below the screen, and an Infinity-U cutout at the top for the selfie camera.

There's a huge SIM tray on the left, for two SIM cards and a microSD card. The headphone jack, USB Type-C port, and a speaker are at the bottom. The back features Samsung's Prism Crush pattern, of which we have the blue variant. This phone is also available in back and white trims. The quad-camera cluster at the back is a rectangular module and doesn't bulge outward much.

Overall, the Galaxy A31 was comfortable to use on a daily basis during this review. It's a little wide, and reaching the top of the display isn't the easiest, but One UI has gestures to help with this. After seeing many phones in the series with the same pattern on the back, the design has started to feel a little boring at this point. The box contents are pretty standard too: there's a silicone case, a charger, a USB cable, and a headset.

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Samsung Galaxy A31 Display: AMOLED never disappoints

The Galaxy A31 has a sharp 6.4-inch full-HD+ (1080x2400 pixels) Super AMOLED display. I found it to be more than adequate in terms of brightness, even in the daytime. Colours were a bit too rich for my taste in the default ‘Vivid' mode, but this can be toned down in the settings. The display is flat, without any curves on the sides, but there are no sharp edges either so performing gestures isn't a problem.

There's an in-display fingerprint sensor, which isn't very quick but works well as long as you give it a firm press. The time taken to wake the screen, along with the fingerprint animations, make this whole process feel a bit laggy. I usually relied on face recognition, which I found to be quicker. The always-on display has basic customisations such as the ability to show what song is playing, and a choice of different clock styles.

Samsung Galaxy A31 Performance: Quite disappointing

Despite its decent build quality and good display, its performance is a big issue. Samsung has used the MediaTek Helio P65 octa-core SoC, and I would have no problem with it on a phone that costs Rs. 10,000, but I certainly don't expect it on something that costs above Rs. 20,000. Compared to even the Galaxy M21, which uses the Exynos 9611 and costs a lot less, the Galaxy A31 is slower in most of the popular benchmarks.

Samsung's One UI v2.1, based on Android 10, also feels a bit sluggish overall. There's a persistent hint of stutter in the animations, and lag when I was switching between apps. It didn't hamper usage too much but having to wait that extra second or two for things to happen is not an experience I expect at this price point. One UI itself is fairly feature-rich with lots of shortcuts, themes, and gestures to play around with. There's also Dolby Atmos, but only for wired and wireless headphones.

The Galaxy A31 supports Google's Widevine L1 certification, which means video streaming apps can play content at the display's native resolution. The single speaker gets fairly loud but the audio quality is strictly average. Simple games run well, but heavier titles such as Asphalt 9: Legends or even PUBG Mobile ran at reduced graphics settings. Gameplay was tolerable but they didn't look as good as they should have. I also noticed a bit of heating when playing games for longer durations.

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Samsung Galaxy  A31 Cameras: The disappointment continues

Okay, so far the Galaxy A31 isn't looking too appealing, but perhaps it can redeem itself with its camera performance. The four cameras on the back include a primary 48-megapixel sensor, an 8-megapixel sensor with a wide-angle lens, a 5-megapixel depth camera, and a 5-megapixel macro camera. The apertures of all the cameras aren't particularly impressive, with even the one on the main camera being just f/2.0. The front camera uses a 20-megapixel sensor.

The camera app should be familiar to most Samsung users, though I did find a few missing features which ought to have been there. Keeping in mind the price of the phone and its positioning in the series, it's a little odd to not have 4K video recording as an option, and even a Night mode for low-light stills. Pro mode is crippled, with no option to adjust the shutter speed. Autofocus speed is decent, but this phone tends to hunt for focus in low light.

You do get Samsung's ‘Scene optimiser' AI engine, and the ability to save stills and video in the HEIF and HEVC formats. Under good light, the main sensor captures decent-looking photos. Images are captured as 12-megapixel shots by default but you can shoot at the full 48-megapixel resolution if needed. In low light, noise is suppressed well but details are lacking, which is noticeable when you zoom in to photos a bit. Close-ups shot under good light fare better, with good details and colours, but due to shutter lag, even slight movements can cause blurring.

The wide-angle camera captures comparatively weaker details, and HDR isn't as effective as on the main camera. In low light, details are much worse and there's no Night mode to help salvage shots.

Live Focus works decently well, and the amount of background blur can be adjusted for portrait shots. The macro camera does a fair job with extreme close-ups but I didn't find image quality to be much better than what I've seen from phones with 2-megapixel sensors.

Videos are limited to 1080p resolution, but quality is decent given ample light when shooting with the primary camera. The Galaxy A31 doesn't offer even electronic stabilisation, so movements with the camera look jerky. You can't switch to the wide-angle camera while recording but you can switch to it before you begin. As expected, video quality is just about acceptable under good light but very poor in low light. There's no stabilisation here either.

The selfie camera captures 12-megapixel stills by default (8 megapixels if you choose a tighter crop). However, you can shoot at the native resolution too. Selfies are generally usable when shooting outdoors, in daylight. Skin tones tend to look a little too warm and HDR can be a hit or miss, but it's not too bad. The camera struggles to reproduce good details in low light, often leaving you with soft textures and weak details.

Overall, the cameras on the Galaxy A31 are very underwhelming and lack many features that you'd find in many phones that cost a lot less.

Samsung Galaxy A31 Battery: Pretty good

If there is one redeeming quality about the Galaxy A31, then it would be battery life. The 5,000mAh battery lasted for 18 hours and 11 minutes in our HD video loop test, which is very good. Even with regular usage, I was easily able to go well beyond a day on a single charge. There is 15W fast charging, so you can charge the battery up to 50 percent in an hour, but filling it completely takes well over two hours

Verdict: Who is the Samsung Galaxy A31 for?

I'm struggling to find a good reason for the Galaxy A31 to exist, and I honestly cannot think of one. It seems as though Samsung has launched it simply to fill the price gap between the Galaxy A50s₹ 22,990 (Review) and the Galaxy A51₹ 23,990 (Review) — either of which would be a much better pick than the Galaxy A31. Battery life is the main standout feature here, along with the decent build quality and display.

However, the middling SoC performance and underwhelming cameras are faults that are too glaring to ignore when you're paying more than Rs. 20,000. Even if the price were to drop, there are plenty of more powerful and feature-rich options in the market such as Samsung's own Galaxy A50s and Galaxy M31, or phones from Realme and Xiaomi.

[modosphere]

About A Girl: Chapter Two

Happy reading :) I actually am quite looking forward to this, so... Let me know what you think!

- henbee xo

CORE: club Manhattan, New York Two Days Later

Mara watched Ari collapse, her back hitting the mat with a satisfying thud, just as the alarm on her phone signalled the end of their training session.

Mara knew it was petty; it was a compliment, really, for Ari to want to train with her rather than the CORE club’s trainers. It was the most elite gym in the city, open twenty-four hours (hence the two of them being there at almost 3am) and filled with anything a rich drama queen may need; psychologists, personal trainers, personal chefs…

Except, Ari asking for Mara’s help wasn’t about that. And anyway, it had been Mara who had text her; asking Ari if she’d like to train, if she was awake. Mara hadn’t been able to sleep; and she needed to train somewhere that wasn’t the balcony of her and Danyal’s flat, somewhere she could push herself without having to worry about Dany wondering why she looked as if she was in pain.

… Still. After Ari’s blackmail stunt to force Mara into agreeing to play nice with Danyal at Pixie’s wedding, seeing Ari winded - if not only slightly more than Mara - was still a nice edge.

Clearly, Ari had noticed.

“You’re angry at me for blackmailing you.” Ari huffed, still out of breath, as Mara helped hoist her from the floor. Mara said nothing. “It’s like Raj said-”

“Anything Raj says is going to be defending you, that’s not as glowing a recommendation as you seem to think.” Mara muttered, letting her hand go. Ari watched enviously; to her, it looked as if Mara hadn’t even broken a sweat - her cheeks just looked rosy, as if it were cold… Not like they’d been sparring each other for fifteen minutes straight. “You could have asked me first. Before blackmailing me like that. My career is something I’ve worked for is entirely separate from your family’s surname-”

“If that’s what you tell yourself.” Ari shrugged, making Mara shake her head. Of course that was her reaction. “Anyway, would it have made a difference if I’d asked you first? Wouldn’t you have just refused anyway? I gave you… Incentive-”

“You pissed me off.” Mara admitted calmly, shrugging slightly as she picked up her bottle of water from the side - and tossed Ari her own. Ari caught it with ease, the both of them pausing to drink. “But that’s beside the point,” She said breathlessly between sips. “The point is that once again, I’m the outsider who you all just see as a chess piece-”

“I know Pixie’s already told you this, we didn’t know at the wedding.” Ari groaned, leaning against the wall. Mara fell silent. “Do you honestly think, with my history and what happened to me, I’d sit back and watch my brother marry you without your consent? He told me he was going to tell you how he felt, okay? He told me-”

“You must’ve known he was lying-”

“I knew something was wrong at the wedding, but I thought that was because the entire thing had been planned as a farce!” Ari said incredulously. Once again, Mara shut up. She’d spent too long wondering to not just… Let Ari say it now, without being asked. And even if it was bullshit… Mara was sick of calling out the Zafar siblings on their crap. It was much too often a fruitless exercise. “I know you think I don’t like you and it’s true I didn’t trust you in the beginning, but you spent so long away that I assumed you didn’t want to be a part of this family and I am not one to beg-”

“You think I don’t want to be a part of this family?” Mara interrupted, aghast, choosing to ignore Ari’s acknowledgement of her frankly ridiculous pride. Ari leant her head against the wall, watching as Mara struggled to find the words - more horrified at herself for saying such a thing, than anything else. Her brain struggled to keep up with her tongue. “That’s not - I blame your brother and maybe, maybe if what you’re saying is true, but -” How did she even begin to explain it? How perfect their family was, how jealous it made Mara feel? How she’d never wanted to be a part of anything more and that was why she hated Danyal so much, because pressurising her the way he had on the day of their wedding had made her feel like an imposter, like she’d always been on the outside looking in? How it all felt like a lie, a sham, a farce for Mara to even be around them?

How did she even begin to try and explain that the Zafars were everything she’d ever wanted, and everything, by proxy of being one of them now, she could never, ever have? Because whatever she was to them was out of deceit?

“But it’s what you want my brother to think.” Ari finally said, as silence filled the room. Mara pressed two fingertips to her forehead and closed her eyes.

“Your brother is an idiot.” Mara mumbled. And so am I. “The fact he’s capable of thinking at all is a minor miracle.”

When Mara opened her eyes, she was surprised to see Ari smiling slightly.

“I’m sorry I didn’t ask you.” She said sincerely. Mara nodded. She wasn’t sure how much of it she believed, but… It was nice to hear. And honestly, who else did she have to turn to? “And I’m sorry I brought your career into it. I know that you’ve worked hard to get where you are, probably to compensate for the surname and I know what that’s like, too. In fact, I’m working on a new project for that exact reason.” Ari told her, pushing herself from the wall. “And I’d like to say I wouldn’t have used that email if you’d still not agreed to help me help Sarfaraz, but in all honesty, I don’t know if that’s true.”

Mara wanted to disbelieve her. She wanted to hate her, hate another Zafar sibling, find a reason to find fault in them all. They all felt so… Inhuman, sometimes. So above reproach, so untouchable.

But there, at that moment, at a fancy gym in the early hours of the morning… Mara realised something.

They weren’t perfect. They were people. They were just incredibly flawed people, who happened to be really good at hiding it. Money did that.

And she was now one of them, too.

“Thank you for being honest.” Mara sighed. Ari nodded.

More silence.

“It’s… Complicated, with your brother, you know.” She couldn’t look at Ari. She wouldn’t. She didn’t know why she was still talking, why her brain hadn’t caught up and shut down her stupid rambling yet. Was this the effect of endorphins after so long without working out? Was her hardware malfunctioning? “I didn’t know what was going on… Then and its been so long and so now-”

“I don’t think you two are complicated.” Ari sighed, heading for the neat pile of towels in the corner - and just like that, Mara cursed herself, her brain finally alert again. Ari didn’t want to hear this. Ari didn’t care. Ari was bored two seconds in and Mara was just talking again, talking out things she couldn’t fully verbalise, and once again to another person who could only assume to understand… And then becoming frustrated at herself, for it all inevitably being misunderstood. “I think you think it’s complicated.”

Every time she did this. Every time, Mara tried to talk about it - to explain - and every time, the other person got it wrong and didn’t understand and Mara would promise herself to not try again - and then she did and the cycle continued. She knew how this went. Why couldn’t she ever just shut up?

“Maybe.” Mara shrugged, forcing down her frustration. Oh, what difference did it make now? She’d tried. Stupidly, she’d tried, because she and Ari had hugged for five seconds and now Mara was being a goddamned softie. She was tougher than this. She knew better. She should know better. “We should get going, it’s a long day.”

Ari nodded tiredly, the towel pressed to the back of her neck - and they both headed for the door.

Mara quietly let out a deep sigh.

Same shit, another day… And another Zafar.

Flawed people, Mara tried to remind herself, her heart stuttering and her stomach already twisting in knots at the thought of returning to the flat - where Dany was, sleeping soundly in his room. Incredibly, incredibly flawed people.

. . .

The two of them said their goodbyes on the street, going into their separate cars.

Mara plugged her earphones in as they drove, the city’s sky looking… Odd, in the early hours of the morning. That special, odd hour colour; too light for it to be daytime, but much too dark to be anything but that exact moment, a weird brown hue to the sky. Pressing play on the first angsty playlist she could find, she pressed her head against the cool window, feeling guilty - but not quite enough to pull away - about the small grease stains she’d likely leave on the glass from her drying sweat.

Was Ari right? Was she overly-complicating things?

TJ thought so. Mara was sure others did, too; maybe even Raj and Pixie, in the rare occasion they all discussed it. But how could Mara trust their opinion? She still didn’t know how to describe her own, which was what they were basing their information on.

She felt like she was going mad. That was another affect Dany’s presence had on her.

It had been so long since she’d been back in New York; as the second Mrs Zafar, at least. She hadn’t expected to… Fall back into it so quickly.

As skyscrapers loomed and lamp posts whizzed past, Mara tried to… Centre herself. She’d be back at the apartment within a few minutes at this rate - and she still needed to remind herself that none of it was real.

Pixie’s wedding meant playing their old game; secret meetings and constant performances. More so than before, because she’d been so absent before now. Mara had basically played herself.

Frowning slightly, Mara pulled up her pictures, swiping and scrolling until she reached the selection under 2041. She already knew what she was looking for.

At first, Mara was frustrated, unable to find it immediately and panicked that she wouldn’t find it before they reached the Richmond Building. She needed to see it before then. She needed to make up her mind.

But then, after some more careful scrolling… There it was.

From their trip to Monte Carlo, during the Christmas holidays before their wedding.

Mara remembered it like it was yesterday; like she was there. Walking down the grand staircase on her own, trying not to throw up at the thought of the crowd below - when she’d seen no sign of Danyal anywhere; how it had taken all of her energy not to trip up on the expensive, baby blue Elie Saab Pixie had picked out for her, as well as to seem calm and collected as her throat and lips had dried up from nerves. It had all felt absurd; even now it did, that she had fooled diplomats and princes, something out of a story or a TV show instead of Mara’s own life.

She’d tried to imagine herself like a princess out of a film, too, to help herself; and Mara closed her eyes as she remembered her hand trailing lightly down the smooth banister, it shaking too much for her to try and properly hold it. She’d kept her eyes trained downward, unable to fully help her self-consciousness, her hand running smoothly down the banister… And right into a waiting, warm hand.

Mara smiled slightly without meaning to, her eyes still closed, as she remembered; the surprise from feeling a hand on hers, the warmth she’d suddenly felt from looking up to find Dany’s eyes trained on hers from where he stood at the bottom of the stairs, a few steps below her. The secret smile they’d shared, her own relief, from seeing a friendly face in a crowd that had suddenly become invisible.

She swallowed slightly. That hand had stayed by her for the rest of the night; a reassuring hand on her back whenever she’d been swept away by a group of people, a light cupping of her waist whenever he’d whisper an important fact or tip in her ear, it clasped with hers as he’d gently pulled her away from Gustav so they could dance instead… And other things, too. The secret, proud wink he’d give her from across the room when her eyes nervously searched for a friend’s, the smell of his aftershave as they’d danced and he’d leant down close, whispering stupid stories about the scarier people in the room to put her at ease.

As Mara forced her eyes open and her smile faded, she also remembered how she’d gone back to that memory once before.

The day of their wedding.

Looking at the picture, she steeled herself; and there it was, the two of them smiling at each other as Dany met her at the bottom of the stairs. You couldn’t see Dany’s face. She remembered it anyway.

The car pulled to a stop - and Mara managed a quick smile as the door was held open for her, it being a different chauffeur to the one she remembered. So much had changed.

So much hadn’t.

Three years, Mara thought bitterly to herself as she made her way to the lift. Three years. We’re not the same people we were then. How were they meant to act it, meant to make it seem real, when their relationship should have grown too?

Nervous flutters began at the pit of her stomach as she watched the lift doors close in front of her, her reflection staring back at her. She had that odd sense of tiredness, the fuzziness in the corner of her eyes and the grimace of someone staring at their reflection at too harsh light during ungodly hours.

She knew what she had to do. Of course she did.

Because - and Mara couldn’t help but aggressively roll her eyes -, Dany was right. They did need to talk - and with the two of them flying out to Pakistan for Pixie’s wedding within a matter of hours, it wasn’t like they had much time left to do it.

Mara was scared - and, standing alone in the harsh light of the lift, Mara took a deep breath and forced back tears.

You’ve cried in front of him enough to last you a lifetime, she reminded herself shortly. Stop.

Mara tried to bargain with herself, as the floors ticked by on the screen above the doors. If he was awake, maybe then she’d have to tell him. Only then. Or if he’d fallen asleep watching a movie on the sofa…

But contrary to the nervous beating of her heart as she stepped out of the lift and into the penthouse, Mara knew it wouldn’t work like that. Dany wouldn’t be awake - and she closed the door of the apartment behind her and proved herself true, she hesitated, unsure as of what to do next.

The first time around, they’d had… Files. Things to learn about each other. It made sense to follow that methodology again, seeing as the result had turned out so well (too well; too convincing). But it felt… Childish, wilfully ignorant, to go back to that. To fall into the same pattern.

The apartment was eerily quiet and as Mara watched Dany’s door in the distance, she wondered what the Hell she was doing.

She’d felt trapped. She’d ended up marrying Danyal, in a way that she didn’t understand and in circumstances she didn’t understand, and then had been unable to run away as she’d wanted to because there had been nowhere to go… But the very first opportunity she’d had to separate herself from him, she had - and hadn’t looked back.

But she was here. Again. Exactly where she promised herself she’d never end up, back in London; in New York, almost three years later, playing one half of the happily married couple. She wasn’t stupid. She knew that her distance from the Zafars over the past few years would mean everyone would have questions, that her and Dany’s dynamic would have to overcompensate. She’d dug the very ditch she was now finding herself trapped in.

It was all so wrong. Truly, it was.

… So why was it that coming back to New York had felt like coming home?

Not because of her uncle or her cousins. Not because of NYU. Not even the Zafars themselves; they were all reminders of everything that had gone wrong in London, to varying degrees.

The best bet Mara had was that, the last time she’d been here, she’d been so filled with hope. She and Dany had been a team. She’d been planning her future, filled with adventure and naivety and, most importantly, escape of all of the bullshit following her. Not feeling - being - loved. Being other people’s charity. Being a keeper of other people’s secrets, but being able to have none of her own.

Pushing herself off of the door with a sigh, Mara rolled her eyes. That had worked out so well.

“Don’t think about it.” Mara whispered to herself, taking a deep breath… And walking purposefully towards Danyal’s bedroom. Even her whispers sounded oddly loud in the darkness.

For a moment, her fist hovered over the door - and it uncurled, ready to fall by her side as she turned away in defeat.

She knocked lightly on the door three times instead.

. . .

When Dany woke up to find Mara standing over him, flushed and watching him sleep, he thought he was dreaming.

It wouldn’t have been the first time he’d dreamt of her; standing and watching him in the dark, yes, but certainly not in a room with a bed. Usually…

Urgh. The two of them alone, in the dark, usually near a bed. Did it really need further explaining?

“I’m sorry.” Samara muttered, feeling herself flush slightly as Dany blinked up at her, sensing her presence. “I tried knocking, but…” She motioned to where he slept.

Dany quickly sat up, squinting at his clock. Almost half three in the morning.

“I’m sorry to wake you, but I wasn’t sure we’d have time before our flight, so…” Mara sighed, feeling… Stupid. She was grateful that there were no lights on; she’d caught enough of a glimpse of Danyal’s bare shoulders in the dark and that was all she wanted to know, thanks. “Look, I only just got back-”

“Got back?” Dany repeated blearily. “From where?”

“The gym.” She replied shortly. “I need to shower, but I, um - I need you - you should probably be awake for this to be an actual conversation, so can you try and wake up while I shower?”

Although Dany wanted to ask - what was wrong? Was it an emergency? Was everything okay? -, seeing the nervousness on Samara’s face… He decided to play it all a bit more carefully.

“Yes, of course I can.” He muttered, rubbing his eyes as he sat upright. “Do you want me to wait here, or -?”

“Here’s fine.” Mara nodded. “I’ll be around ten minutes. Don’t fall back asleep… Please.”

Dany nodded, watching as Mara left. She didn’t shut the door behind her.

. . .

Twenty minutes later and Dany was wide awake, playing Tetris 4 on his phone and wondering whether it had all been some sort of elaborate dream. His only source of light came from his bedside lamp and his phone screen and, propped up on pillows against the headrest, Dany sat with the duvet tucked up to his stomach.

As much as he wished he could hope for something… Positive, Dany wasn’t stupid enough to believe that they’d soon be living out one of his frustrating dreams. In fact, if anything, Dany was concerned; was this Samara telling him that Ari’s blackmail be damned, she wouldn’t pretend for Pixie’s wedding? He’d thought about it a lot since the two days had passed. Why would Samara be so willing to be blackmailed by Ari, when, if she was serious about wanting out of this situation eventually, it shouldn’t matter?

Her career, Dany reminded himself unhappily. That had been the only reason Samara had paid attention, whether he tried to ignore that fact or not.

Nothing positive was going to come out of a random meeting at almost four in the morning.

… At least, that was Dany kept telling himself; until Mara walked in.

Her hair was tied, still wet, in a bun atop her head; and Dany let his phone bleep furiously as he failed his level, seeing she wore nothing but a pair of grey furry slippers… And a short, silk gown of ivory with lace in the sleeves.

“Sorry for the wait.” Samara murmured. She’d told herself the gown was for practicality, but that hadn’t stopped her heart from stuttering upon walking into Dany’s room in it. “Can you sit this way? I need to show you something.”

Dany found himself incapable of words. Instead, hastily shoving his phone on silent and setting it aside, he turned, sitting on the edge of the bed and facing her.

Mara purposefully wouldn’t look at him - not as he’d moved, not as he’d sat to reveal he was sleeping in (seriously?) grey Moschino sweats with teddy bears all over them and not much else - and certainly not as, to get close enough for the light of the lamp to be of use, she automatically stepped in the space between his legs.

What was she doing? This could have waited. There was something… Supremely dangerous about doing this now, having an actual conversation after so long of dodging now, at an odd hour of the morning with the two of them barely dressed, in Danyal’s bedroom. The bedroom that everyone still assumed was shared - at least, whenever Samara was in the city long enough to need a bed.

But knowing that was�� Logical. In reality, there wasn’t much odd about it at all - if anything, Mara and Dany had found themselves in various states of undress around each other before and it was that, the recognition that this was nothing in their long and complex history of pretending, that sat uncomfortably in Mara’s throat as she gently pulled on the knot of her gown.

Danyal didn’t know where to look; at how Mara’s hands gently pulled on the silk gown, fidgeting so that it fell open in smooth lines, or up at her, her face giving nothing away.

This was wrong. He had to stop it. They hadn’t… Talked. They had to talk.

… Didn’t they?

Not talking was still… Communicating. It was something, at least and she was standing in front of him, undressing - Dany gulped as he glanced at her body, in a white set of Calvin Kleins -, her skin smooth and…

Dany stopped, blinking - and then again, when his eyes didn’t correct themselves. Once more, as he peered, unthinkingly putting his hand on Mara’s waist and pulling it close to prove himself wrong.

Mara blanched slightly at the movement, her free hand catching Danyal’s shoulder to steady herself, the other still keeping her dressing gown out of Dany’s view.

“What the-”

“They’re surgical scars. I donated one of my kidneys about a month ago.” Mara mumbled, looking up at the artwork on the wall opposite her. She frowned. It seemed… Familiar. Forgetting to not grip Danyal’s shoulder too tight, she clutched on as Dany continued to peer at her abdomen, apparently speechless. “Is that - is that from the museum? One of the pieces from the gallery where we - at the V&A?” She quickly corrected. Where we had our registration brunch.

Surely not. Surely not. It was a… Museum piece, and whilst it dominated the tall wall that Mara now faced… Maybe it was a trick of the dark.

But the couple twisted in a passionate kiss, ignoring the carved crowd around them… Mara could have sworn she’d recognise it anywhere.

“How many scars are there?”

Dragging her eyes away, Mara tried to refocus. She probably didn’t want to know why Dany possibly had the original art piece in his bedroom. There wasn’t really a right answer.

“Three.” Mara said, grateful for the distraction. Unthinkingly, she rest her knee gently over Danyal’s thigh for balance. She pointed. “One,” she said, motioning to a small, dark line a few centimetres down from the Calvin strap of her bra. “Two-” she motioned to a line of the same length another few centimetres down, underneath her belly button. “- and three, which is still feeling a little bit uncomfortable.” Shifting her balance slightly again, Mara felt herself flush as she pulled down - very carefully - the logo on her panties, showing a longer scar than before, at the bottom of her stomach, right above her pelvis.

Mara went to tie the gown back up - but Dany immediately swatted her away, pulling her closer. Mara stared up at the ceiling, gritting her teeth slightly as she felt Danyal’s warm breath hover over the first two scars.

“You did this under our medical insurance?” Dany asked, staring intently at them. Mara nodded, before realising he was paying her face little attention.

“Yes, I hope that’s okay-”

“Of course it is, what is likely to not be okay is that you would have had to name a next of kin on your medical forms.” Dany said coldly. Here we go. Mara pulled away, tying the gown back up. “Is that why you’re showing me? Because I’m already meant to know? Who the Hell was important enough for you to give a kidney to?”

Mara said nothing, pulling away to tie the gown.

“Samara.” Dany groaned loudly - and this was happening now, really happening, because this was something they both knew. Arguing. Sniping at each other, making sarcastic little comments - and it was scary.

It was! How were they falling back into routine so quickly? How was it even possible?

That was another answer Mara probably didn’t want.

“My dad.” Mara mumbled, ignoring how Danyal immediately made a sound of disgust. “Look, I came in here to fill you in - in - in case anyone asks questions at Pixie’s wedding, which they will-”

“You went to have transplant surgery without telling me, so you could help your absentee father?” Danyal repeated, shaking his head as if to brush off her reply. “And you said one of the scars is feeling uncomfortable - have you had that seen to?”

Mara felt an uncomfortable sense of… Normalcy in her irritation. It was just like the old days. Danyal always knowing better, irrespective of whether or not he had any knowledge on the subject.

A certain wedding came to mind as an example.

“And how would you know if he’s been an absentee father, or are you talking from experience as an absentee husband?” Mara mumbled, not bothering to say it sweetly as she once may have.

“Because you gave me such a choice.” Dany shot back, rising to his feet.

And as much as Mara wanted to have an answer ready… There wasn’t one.

There wasn’t enough distance between them for Mara to do anything but look down at her slippers - and Dany’s stupid pyjama bottoms - in guilt.

He smelt good. Clean. Naturally good and clean, not doused in aftershave. She could smell it from where she stood, and the skin of his shoulder had felt smooth and soft underneath her fingers. These weren’t details Samara wanted to know, not at nearly four am in a dark bedroom, standing in her underwear and with him shirtless.

And holy shit, there it was.

She’d felt this feeling before. A million times over - and she’d tried to ignore it, a million times over. Successfully, too. Certainly if only now was she realising how stupid an idea that had been.

She had feelings for Danyal.

Of course, that wasn’t necessarily new. Mara had… Had a hunch for a while now, however uncomfortable it was to admit. It was partly why she’d avoided him for so long. Like he’d said that night - God, that night, Mara’s head hurt even acknowledging it as a moment in time -, the night of their wedding night - she’d wanted it. Or, words to that effect. That’s what he’d meant, okay? That was the part Mara remembered, all of the insufferable little details.

That was what felt like home. Not feeling hopeful the last time she’d been in New York for more than a few days; but being with him, wherever that was. Knowing she could look at him from across a room and he’d know what she was thinking. That… Chemistry, for a lack of a better term, simmering away underneath the surface and lacing every action and every word. Enjoying how, even when they argued, he was always one step ahead and she had to push herself to keep up, when ordinarily, for Samara, it was the other way around.

Knowing, despite that, she was with someone with whom it was safe to make mistakes.

It was wrong. And screwed up. And stupid. Mara didn’t want this. She’d fought it for so long. She’d only come back because… Well, just like before, because she’d run out of places to go and hide.

But also because he’d given her space and she didn’t want anymore space. She didn’t want to be more alone. She’d missed Kabir and the rest of the Zafars, even if it felt like she was pulling herself over hot coals every time she uttered another lie in front of Danyal’s parents. But that was better than what she’d felt with her own parents, stupidly thinking that, with something as extreme as a kidney donation, it would pull them closer together.

She realised now; in the few days it had taken for her family to return to its heightened level of toxicity after the op, somewhere in the back of her evil, scheming subconscious that she already did not trust, she’d made up her mind. To come back.

To come home.

No. None of this was right, none of this was… Acceptable. She didn’t understand these feelings. They were too complicated and so much time had passed since the wedding.

But nothing else made sense.

Because the moment Danyal had pulled her close to stare at those scars like touching her was nothing, the second he’d showed concern, something inside of her had felt warm - for the first time in what felt like… Well. Three years.

She hoped it was loneliness. It was still… Humiliating, but it was better than the alternative; that Mara genuinely had feelings for Danyal, that he’d been right to trap her into that scenario on their wedding day. That her saying she consented to their marriage was less of a mistake than she’d tried to convince herself it was, out of what was probably stubbornness.

No. Nooo! This was… This was so far from what she wanted. It was so… Stupid. There was no happy ending. There was no way this worked out, she wouldn’t let it. She was just… Looking for intimacy, trying to find something to distract herself from yet another rejection. That was pathetic enough in itself! Shouldn’t she be used to it by now?

“I didn’t come in here to fight with you.” Mara said softly, deciding the rest was… Best kept in a box inside of her head, for now. A box inside of her head, tightly sealed. And chained. And then thrown into the depths of an ocean until she got her shit together. “I came in here because-”

“Because as much as I’ve tried to have an actual conversation with you since you arrived, it’s only because there’s something wrong and I’m going to find out anyway that you’re bothering.” Danyal interrupted, his eyes narrowing. Mara gulped slightly. She’d forgotten how… Intimidating it could be. Not in a way that made her scared for herself in any way, more scared of the… Feelings he would invoke. And that was without the shitty revelations coming in at awkward moments. Danyal sighed, shaking his head. “Even after everything, Mara, I thought you’d still come to me when it was serious.”

She wanted to tell him off. To tell him to not call her Mara again, not when it’d been so long, him saying it when it was just the two of them.

But she didn’t want to.

Christ on a stick, this had been a mistake.

“I didn’t know if you’d come-” She lied - and stopped, as Danyal shrugged past her to stand by the dresser, instead. That was bullshit. She’d known he’d have come. She’d somehow known, but convinced herself she didn’t, that after missing one phone call in the lead up to their wedding and missing so much… He’d never do it again. She hadn’t wanted to be right. So she just hadn’t given him the chance. She watched his back as he went through his drawers. “What are you doing?”

“Taking you to the hospital - and please, cut out the dramatics.” Dany muttered.

Her heart sank - and thank fuck for her natural defences, because that immediately made her angry. Who was he to make her feel guilty? It was her body, it was her decision to look after it - or put it at risk - as she pleased. And what dramatics?

“You are being so abrasive-”

Dany slammed the drawers shut so hard, the resulting bang made Mara jump.

“What changed?” Dany asked, the muscles in his back rippling as he gripped the furniture. Mara said nothing. “I have spent days trying to get your attention and all of a sudden-”

“I was talking to Ari at the gym-”

“When at the gym-” Mara’s eyes widened as Dany stopped. Oh, no. Oh, no… Dany turned, eyes sparkling, jaw clenched in anger. “You’ve been going to the gym?”

“I’ve been careful.” She said quickly. Why was she doing that? She didn’t need to justify herself. What she needed to do was making a scathing remark about Danyal’s ‘dramatics’. “Just - look, none of that is what I came in here for-”

“Then what did you come in here for?”

“To make a plan.” Mara said resolutely - and she was proud, because it sounded a lot more convincing than it had in her head. “Pixie’s wedding. I am still… So angry at you, but I am willing to put that aside for our flight today-”

“If we fly today.” Danyal immediately corrected. Mara, once again, shut up; which wasn’t exactly in her nature, but, watching silently as Dany stormed past her again to sit on the edge of the bed and put on some socks, she felt like she didn’t have much of a choice. “We’re getting those scars checked and for all we know, because you’re too proud to ask for help when you should, you’ve put yourself at risk-”

“What difference does it make to you if I did?”

Mara couldn’t understand it when Danyal stiffened.

But he did. He understood everything, all at once; and as much as he tried to hide it, (and did, quite successfully, too) even the slightest possibility of it being true had him stunned.

It was the way she’d said it; and although Dany knew Samara would have wanted to sound nonchalant and unaffected, as always, that wasn’t how she’d sounded. She’d sounded insecure and unsure. Curious.

She’d sounded the way he’d felt, when he’d began to understand, before the wedding - the last time they’d spent this much time together -, that he didn’t want to lose her.

Slowly unfreezing to finish putting on his socks, Mara watched with knitted eyebrows as Danyal stood seriously in front of her, his face suddenly cold and detached.

She shifted slightly, unsure of where to go, as he stood… Inches, less, away.

They were in the dark, in a bedroom, in the early hours of the morning during which nothing felt real.

Would I try to stop him if he tried to kiss me?

It terrified her that the resounding no she heard as a reply in her mind… Took so long to hear.

“If this is what you decided we needed to go through for you to hear me tell you I love you again, then maybe you should have listened the first time I tried to say it.”

… Oh shit, nothing had prepared her for that.

“I - I - you - I’m sorry, I- that is not-” Words, she needed to say words, she needed to hear words being said back so she’d say more, anything to distract her from what she’d just heard because -

I love you. Present tense.

“Go and get dressed, we’re leaving in the next ten minutes.” Danyal told her quietly, the dark shadow lining the bottom of his jaw making him seem… Rougher, more serious, in the dim light of the lamp. She’d never seen him like this before. Certainly not whilst also shirtless and in teddy bear bottoms.

Any distraction.

I love you.

“Again.” Mara repeated and oh, no, no, no thank you, distractions did not come from confronting the issue and how did this happen to her? Every time? How did, every single bloody damn time, she find herself in the middle of an ongoing shitstorm just as she noticed there was actually a storm in the first place? No. No. Three years apart should have been long enough for Danyal to not… Know things about her anymore. Was her epiphany really that obvious? That blatant? No, no, no, she forbade herself - yes, she forbade herself from taking the topic any further, so there - “You said again, but I never heard it a first time.”

She was such an asshole. To herself.

Dark bedrooms with shirtless boys with trouble tattooed across their forehead in her handwriting; note to self. Avoid.

Wow. Wow, she felt sick. Her heart was beating in her throat and her stomach hurt and it was terrifying because two seconds ago, she’d just accepted that being with Danyal - however fucked up it was - made her feel less rejected so why was she actively seeking rejection now?!

“You would have heard it a million times over by now if you’d have listened. If you hadn’t been too stubborn to admit I was right.”

She didn’t have to ask what he was talking about.

“I never said - I never said you were right -”

He glanced at her over his shoulder - and maybe it was the dim lighting again. Except it wasn’t. But she wanted to believe it was, that the childlike expression suddenly on Dany’s face, the sorrow in his eyes and the sadness in how his shoulders sagged… It wasn’t her doing.

“You should have called me about the operation.” Was his only reply. “Now go and get dressed-”

The entire situation was spiralling massively out of control and honestly, Mara couldn’t quite believe how. Especially so quickly.

“I am not going to the hospital-”

“Samara,” Dany’s voice rang through the silence of the rest of the room, loud with authority. Once again, Mara shut up. This was yet another thing that was new - and once again, she was irritated because a), being irritated was a lot easier than dealing whatever the fuck else was going on and b), how was it that Dany seemed to have changed so much and she seemed to be exactly the same? He was reading her like a book and she couldn’t even open the damned cover.  “You can either get dressed now and walk with me down to the car, or I can carry you downstairs as you are, but you are going to the hospital, whether you waste my time arguing or not.”

Outrage, hot and fast, ran over her - and she was grateful. Because just like that, the rest of their conversation no longer existed.

How dare he? She wasn’t a child. She wasn’t some moron incapable of making her own decisions, just because they were decisions he wouldn’t necessarily make. He wasn’t some kind of… Paternal figure. He was her husband, but realistically a super distant boyfriend at best, how dare he patronise her like that? Him, of all people? With his choices?

“Danyal Zafar, if you think for one second that you can - command me like-”

“I swear to fucking God-”

Mara yelped as Dany immediately went to grab her legs from under her, his hand automatically wrapping carefully around her stomach so as to avoid the scars.

She’d never seen Dany like this before. So angry, so upset, so… Hurt.

“Danyal, Dany, I’ll - I’ll go, stop, stop!” She shrieked, her stomach fluttering - and not from pain -, her fussing hands automatically falling to rest on Danyal’s bare stomach… And even though Dany just looked frustrated and not much else, Mara didn’t. Mara felt everything shifting between them again, just when she’d finally begun to understand what they’d just had. “I’m… Sorry, I’ll go and get dressed now.”

She wasn’t apologising for being abrasive and she hoped he knew that; she wouldn’t know how to explain it once she left that stupid room. She wouldn’t want to.

Her fingertips, ignoring her brain telling them to back the fuck off, lingered on the smooth, inverted line in the middle of his chest.

“I’ll meet you in a few minutes.” He muttered gruffly, before pulling away.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.

[aion-rsa]

Outriders Server Issue Solutions and PC Performance Fixes

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While Outriders is a pretty impressive looter shooter in a lot of ways, but it’s hard to deny that the game’s server and performance issues are ruining the experience for many players. 

Maybe we should be used to these kinds of issues by now (and the difficulty of developing a game during a global pandemic almost certainly exasperates them), but it’s a shame that Outriders hot debut has been cooled slightly by the fact that many people haven’t been able to connect to the game in the first place. Others simply aren’t able to enjoy it without navigating a variety of performance issues. 

While Outriders’ long-term fixes are going to likely come in the form of official updates and patches, you can make things a little easier on yourself by trying a few of these quick fixes designed to address some of the game’s most immediate issues. 

Outriders Server Issues: Check Your Connection and the Game’s Server Status

The bad news is that the majority of Outriders‘ server problems seem to be based on the fact that so many people are trying to play the game right now. It’s the same problem we typically see whenever a lot of people try to play an always-online game at the same time.

While there’s no great immediate solution for thatproblem, here are a few basic fixes you can try:

Make sure you have a strong internet connection. I know, I know, but it honestly can make the difference between connecting to the game and staring at the title screen. Try using an ethernet cable. 

We’ll talk about this more later, but Outriders currently suffers from some significant crossplay problems that impact PC and console players trying to join the same game. Definitely avoid immediately queuing with friends on opposite platforms if you are able to join the game.

As this is an ongoing issue, be sure to keep an eye on the official Outlanders server status website to make sure there aren’t major issues keeping you from connecting.

Honestly, just keep trying to log in. Unless there is a major server issue preventing players from connecting, most people are able to eventually launch the game through persistence.

Run DirectX 11 Instead of 12 to Fix Outriders’ PC Stuttering Bugs and Glitches

Outriders’ biggest problem on PC at the moment (aside from connection issues) is a strange “stuttering” glitch that affects performance as well the overall quality of the game’s visuals. Fortunately, players are starting to find workaround solutions to this widespread issue. 

The most popular fix to the game’s stuttering problems at the moment involves avoiding Direct X 12 altogether. Instead, you’ll want to choose the “Play Outriders– DirectX11” option available to you when you launch the game.

Please note that this is not a universal solution. Even if it does work, you’ll likely need to use it alongside a combination of other fixes in order to even temporarily solve the game’s stuttering issues. 

Try Rolling Back Your Nvidia Driver Update

If you recently updated your Nvidia drivers in preparation for Outriders’ release, you may have inadvertently contributed to the game’s visual issues. 

For the time being, you may want to roll your Nvidia driver back to Version 456.71. The Outriders team has brought this up as a possible temporary solution, so while there’s no guarantee that it will work, it does seem like this can help address some of the most glaring issues at the moment. 

Disable Crossplay on Console and PC For Improved Overall Performance

As we mentioned before, one of Outriders’ biggest technical problems at the moment is the functionality of its crossplay features. By People Can Fly’s own admission, that feature is absolutely not working as intended. 

Unless you really want to take the risk, we advise PC and console players to disable crossplay until the developers say that it’s safe to go back into those waters again. For that matter, you might just want to hold off on multiplayer altogether for a little while if the performance problems are really bad. It kind of sucks, but this seems to be one fix that offers 99% of players some kind of performance and stability boost.

How to Fix Outriders “No HUD” Glitches

Are you one of the many people currently wondering why there is no HUD in Outriders? It turns out that problem can be attributed to a surprisingly common glitch. Fortunately, there’s a reliable solution available:

Open Outriders‘ menu and go to “Options.”

Go to the HUD tab and turn every “On” setting to “Off” (avoid other settings for now).

Launch the game.

Go back to the HUD tab and enable every option you disabled previously.

Leave the Options section and choose “Return to Lobby”

Your HUD should be fixed.

There’s a chance you might have to do this more than once as there have been conflicting reports on how “permanent” this fix really is.

Try Changing Your Steam Friends List Settings to Offline to Improve PC Performance

Interestingly, it seems that Outriders players on Steam can solve quite a few performance issues simply by going to their “Friends” list on the launcher and choosing to go offline. 

Based on what we know about the game’s problems, it sounds like this helps ensure that the title isn’t constantly searching for friends via Steam. Removing that system check strangely seems to improve overall performance and connection stability. 

Overshoot Outriders’ PC System Requirements

Outriders isn’t the most poorly optimized PC game (at least compared to some other recent games), analysts have found that there’s a pretty good reason why the game’s PC system requirements are so high in the first place. 

In fact, you might want to “overshoot” system requirements for the time being. Just ignore the minimum requirements outright (for now), and aim for the recommended requirements as your new minimum. There’s every hope that some early fixes and eventual patches will make the game a bit friendlier to players with lower-end hardware, but for the moment, overkill seems to be the way to go.

Adjust Cinematic Camera Smoothing to Fix Outriders’ Annoying “Shaky Cam”

This fix isn’t really about some of Outriders’ biggest performance issues, but if you find yourself annoyed by the weird way that the camera shakes during Outriders’ cutscenes, it turns out there is a solution (kind of). 

Buried in Outriders‘ console and PC options is a setting for “Cinematic Camera Smoothing.” Some players have reported that setting this to around 0.50 seems to make things the camera a bit more stable, but as always, you’re going to have to play around a bit to get it to your personal comfort zone. 

Outriders’ Optimal PC Settings for Performance

If you’re desperate to experience high FPS Outriders gameplay and can’t wait for updates and patches to fix the title’s underlying issues, then you’ll have to lower some of the game’s core settings. 

I don’t recommend this set-up for anyone who wants to focus on pure visual quality, but here’s an ideal performance-based settings combo:

Window Mode: Fullscreen

FPS Limit: Off

Resolution: 1920×1080

Vsync: Off

FPS Limit: 200

Field of View (Degrees): 60

Effects Quality: Medium

Texture Quality: High

Shadow Quality: Medium

Antialiasing: Off

Post Processing Quality: Medium

View Distance Quality: Low

Foliage Quality: Low

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

You’re going to want to tweak those settings a bit based on your preferences, set-up, and what kind of output you end up getting from the game, but they should offer a respectable jumping-off point. 

The post Outriders Server Issue Solutions and PC Performance Fixes appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[wiredleaks]

Hands-on Review of the Meizu M6S: This is a device worth buying!

It took the international mail way too long, but finally the Meizu M6S has found its way to my home. That was a week ago. Since then I have been using the Meizu M6S as my daily driver. In this full review I will walk you through the experience. Sure there are budget phones out there that might be two or three tenners cheaper. Sure there are phones out there with dual camera lenses. Some have bigger battery capacity or even a bigger screen, but are they better? In this hands-on Review of the Meizu M6S we'll try to answer the question if the price of the M6S is justified and if this is a device worth buying. DESIGN & SCREEN The first difference between the Meizu M6S and a lot of other budget devices is no doubt the building quality. Also the materials used by Meizu are premium class and that gives the phone a great feel. The M6S has a light metal body that's slightly brushed, so the phone is not slippery to hold. It also doesn't attract half as much fingerprint stains and smudges than its plastic or glass competition.  Everything is round and smooth and the U shaped antenna lines blends in seamlessly. The 5.7 inch display feels completely integrated since its covered in a slighty curved 2.5D glass layer. The screen itself is a 1440 x 720p. HD+ screen that reproduces great colours and deep blacks. Sure we could argue why thay didn't put in a 1080p. resolution, but considering that we're dealing with a budget phone here the 720p is just fine.

With a only 8mm body thickness and a weight under 160 grams the Meizu M6S doesn't feel cheap at all. In fact the overall feel reminds me most of the iPhone 6 or 7 Plus. So I think it's safe to say the M6S is definitely a looker and the last week many people have asked what this phone is I'm using. But looks aren't everything now are they? So let's see what the Meizu M6S has to offer under the hood.  

HARDWARE  Most budget devices of today will offer you a MediaTek MT6750 or MT6753 Chipset clocked anywhere between 1.3Ghz to 1.5Ghz (Cortex A53 based). These processors will sign off on the AnTuTu Benchmark with a score anywhere between 40 an 55K.  Not the Meizu M6S! The M6S is featuring the brandnew Samsung Exynos 7872 chipset. This processor runs on six cores clocked at 2 x 2.0Ghz (Cortex A73) and 4 x 1.6Ghz (Cortex A53). Translated into an AnTuTu Benchmark score that means the Meizu M6S will easily get a score aroudn the 92K! And with that Meizu does not only leave the competition behind, but also scores better than devices that are around 150 tot 200 euro's more expensive! The 3 GB of RAM are quite sufficient to multitask and the phone comes with either 32Gb or 64 GB ROM. For graphical support the GPU is provided by the rather advanced Mali G71 chipset. This means the Meizu M6S performs way above average in gaming than a lot of other smartphones of the same price range. But it doesn't stop there! Let's talk about another great piece of hardware in the Meizu M6s: The fingerprint scanner. The M6S is the first Meizu device that said goodbye to the fingerprint scanner/ mBack button

on the front. That doesn't mean you have to give up on the fantastic "one button for everything" concept though! The M6S sports a side mounted fingerprint scanner that unlocks the phone in 0.2 seconds. Of course I have tested it for you and I can tell you it had a 100/100 succes rate! The great thing about the side mounted fingerprint scanner is basically it's located on the most natural logical spot. It doesn't matter whether you have the phone in your right of left hand.  it's easy and natural to unlock this way. SOFTWARE Then there is the absolute easy with which you're able to navigate through your phone! The Meizu M6S runs on Flyme OS, and this means everything can be navigated with one button. The mBack button, that in the M6S is replaced by a virual, pressure sensitive halo button. This can be used to go back by simply tapping it. If you press it it will take you home straight away. But there's more. Press it twice and the camera application pops up and a long press and hold will turn off the screen. Now, let's talk multitasking. Never did I own a device that could switch between open apps this easy. Just swipe left or right on the mBack button and you will move through your opened apps! Personally I was always a fan of a physical home button, but this is the next best thing.

This easy navigation thing is just one of the many perks that come with the Flyme OS (Meizu's own UI). The Meizu M6s is packed with Android 7.1 in combination with the latest Flyme OS. Basically what that means is no stutter, no lags and no freezes. Just a very smooth running interface. No doubt this OS will give you the best user experience possible. The phone comes with many customization options and themes that will let you choose your own look. And you won't need to download shady launchers from the Play Store that are packed with agressive advertising. The hundreds of available themes are all optimised for Meizu and run perfectly. So far it seems we have found some distinct differences between the Meizu M6S and other budget phones. Now what about the camera? CAMERA'S  The Meizu M6S comes with a 16 megapixel camera made by Samsung on its rear. The 8 megapixel front camera is absolutely sufficient to provide you with great looking selfies.  Now let's talk about the rear camera for a while. It gives you the choice between 4:3 pictures in 16 megapixel or 16:9 ratio in 12 megapixel. There's also an 18:9 ratio, but this will scale down to 10 megapixel. The first thing that surprised me when the M6S was announced was the fact it had "only" one rear camera. This while other brands advertise their phones to have 3 or even 4 camera lenses. However having tested many of them in the past year I think its fair to say about 80% of those lenses do nothing or close to nothing. Some are even downright fakes and do nothing at all except looking cool and trendy ;)

So I appreciate Meizu's honesty and their respect for the customer by not lying and faking extra lenses. However having tested the rear camera on the Meizu M6S it became clear. The macro shots, and the focus in general is so on spot that foto's turn up having a natural bokeh effect that is simply stunning! The camera comes with many options like for example there is a slow motion option and the possibillity to record time lapse video. But instead of talking about the camera: Take a look at the video review I made about the Meizu M6S. And as usual, at the end of this review I will post several different picture samples I have shot on the M6S. What's maybe interesting to emphasize is the fact that Meizu Camera's come with ArcSoft algorithm especially designed for Meizu. This leads to things like a fantastic low light performance. The camera is also very capable of freezing fast moving objects without any blur. Other settings like HDR, defog and dehaze are available with just one click. The photo editing options in the Flyme OS and the M6S in specific are so complete that it won't be nescessary to download a third party editing tool. In other words, this is a camera interface that belongs on midrangers and high end devices and you won't find this many options on any other budget phone (including Xiaomi). AUTONOMY How about the battery life? Because, granted, a 3000 mAh battery doesn't seem that spectacular on paper, especially combined with a 5.7 inch screen. Agreed, 3000 mAh seems average. Especially when other brands advertise phones with 5000+ mAh batteries. However 1. None of those phones comes with the camera quality, weight and performance of the Meizu M6S and 2. None of them comes with the very energy concious Samsung Exynos 7872 processor!  Even with rather heavy use the battery will make it through most days. And if you had a game-day or a chat-day you might need to recharge. Since Meizu decided to stock the M6S with Meizu's mCharge fast charging system (18W!!!!) the battery will be fully charged from 0 to 100% in give or take ONE HOUR!  I can honestly say this is the fastest charging smartphone I have ever seen. Ultimate freedom!

CONCLUSION So in conclusion, the Meizu M6S has everything that you usual find in higher end devices for a budget price tag below the 200 euro marker! Sure it might be a couple of tenners more expensive than the very cheapest of budget models but it return it won't remind you for a second you're using a budget phone. From the processor speed, multi tasking experience down to the camera sensors, everything is running smoother than smooth and looking like a milion dollars. In fact, when I first looked at the M6S I couldn't help thinking, THIS is what the new iPhone should've looked like. But fortunately they didn't come up with it and Meizu did!  So even though it's only April I do declare the Meizu M6S to be the best budget phone of 2018. I will therefore rate the M6S 9.4/10. And I definitely recommend it! To order your own Meizu M6S you can follow this link.   PICTURE SAMPLES

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[lolbtsaus]

Pirate!Jungkook

So I have finally finished this series, took me like two three months bc I’ve been so fucking busy but I loved writing it so much so without further ado, it’s time for the second half of the Busan line, our sweetest lil bunny boy with the cutest smile, Jeon Jungkook aka kookie

BLA CK HAIR BLACK HAIR BLACK FUCKING HAIR

We all know that Jungkook loves himself some dark colored hair, he always goes back to it but normally he has that dark brown, he had the blonde hair for like two days and I loved it so fucking much still one of my favorites on him in all honesty

But typically he’s got this chocolate/dark brown hair that can sometimes look black but when he has the actual black hair oh my g o d

Just look at this shit it’s ridiculously nice (ight so this one may not be fully black bc there are a couple pictures that look like it could just be a dark brown but it’s close enough and it still makes my heart hurt)

Should one singular person every look that nice is my question bc Jungkook already is 1000000/10 good fucking shit but then you add in that lil forehead peek and the black hair and fucking just take my heart

Like you know the War of Hormone hair or the DNA hair that’s my everything, one of my favorite Jungkook looks to this day is that one log he made during the War of Hormone era (I looked it up, it’s the 141021 one) where he’s got a white shirt, a black bucket hat type of hat and then the black hair with the tiny forehead peek it’s so fucking good idk why I love it so much can a scientist explain it to me bc no hairdo should look that good on someone

Okay so for outfits here’s the thing

I have less links and more of a visual for this so I’m gonna link some other outfits and some moodboard type of things but the main outfit I think would be his white t-shirt black jeans look bc oh lord

This one is the one that’s just perfect in my mind bc look at that shit that’s just a really fucking good look on him like what happened to your precious lil bby who wore all red in the Harlem Shake video and was still pretty big but still lil and smol and we all wanted to just tuck him into our pockets to keep him safe and now bitch’s out here looking like a fucking man who would treat you r i gh t

Like honestly here what the hell happened what are they feeding this kid I fucking blinked and he’s all broad and shit he’s not fitting it anyone’s fucking pocket anymore

But some more ideas for pirate!kook are here, here, here, here, here part two and here (lol this is pretty much the same look as the first one)

A fighter

He runs the training for the hand to hand combat, while Jimin handles the fencing/sword fighting shit (I’m sure there’s a term for it but idk what it is)

I’ve said it about a million times and I will continue to say it bc I’m not over it but kookie is literally so fucking strong the dude was lifting up Jimin at the age of 15/16 in every No More Dream performance they had !!!!

Like why do isn’t this talked about all day the dude was a b a b y and he was lifting up another bby like it was no big deal

And he’s only gotten stronger since then, he doesn’t even stutter when someone decides he’s gonna give them a piggyback ride, he tossed Jimin over his shoulder like he was a fucking ragdoll, he carries these grown ass men around like they’re toddlers so I’m quite sure Jungkook would be strong enough to hold his own in a fight

He’s also incredibly fast which is helpful in a fight bc good luck getting any hits on that kid lol

He’s so smug after taking over a new ship and as he’s kicking all the old crew off of it, he’s just got this smirk on his face and he probably gets sarcastic and cocky and gives them a lil bow as they make their way to the escape boat bc tell me you can’t picture him pulling that shit

He’s smart, he’s fast, he’s strong, he’s got a loyal crew, he’s got a shit ton of ships, he’s pretty much indestructible

And he’s so young when he’s doing all of this so a lot of the other pirates don’t take him too seriously bc they think oh it’s just some kid with a big boat and a couple of wooden swords and he uses that to his advantage

He’s a competitor, he’s pretty damn competitive so it’s all one big game to him, how many ships can he get, how many captains can he piss off and how many crew members can he get

He loves adventure and I think that would be his base reason for becoming a pirate, he loves seeing new things and exploring and I think he would love being out on the sea, just in a ship with his best friends, exploring the world together

Dresses up as a pirate for Halloween and spends the entire night just giggling at his own joke

But you can bet your ass he’s still gonna give candy out to the lil kids who come onto the dock

He just sits on one of the posts with this giant ass bowl of candy that he gets some of his crew to refill whenever it’s nearly empty and probably eats half the bowl himself before the first kid even arrives 

But he sees another lil mini pirate and gives him his hat bc you know what the kid was super cute and so happy about getting an actual sized candy bar instead of the mini ones and he deserves an actual pirate’s hat

He gets so :D watching the lil kid skip away with their new hat

You two meet when he’s docked for a bit to pick up new supplies

You instantly recognize him bc you’d actually seen him before but you’d never talked to him so when you see him a second time, you take the chance and start up a conversation bc you already let him go without starting anything once, you don’t wanna do it again

He’s actually kinda shy?? and flustered that you’re talking to HIM out of all the people around him and it’s actually really cute to look back on once you know just how amazing of a pirate the dude actually is

The same man that’s never lost a battle, that laughs during fights, that just smiles and waves to his opponents after he’s won is now giving you lil shy smiles and acting all cute

He doesn’t tell anyone but you two spends the rest of his time there together and then, just a month later, he’s back bc he “ran out of supplies” again even though they rarely ever go to the same dock more than once or twice

The boys start getting suspicious when it’s their fifth time back there and kookie’s gone the entire time and comes back wearing your necklace around his neck, something he definitely didn’t have when they got there

He eventually tells them the truth, that the two of you have been together for a few months and that’s trying to build up a relationship before inviting you onto the ship with them bc he doesn’t wanna have you come onto the ship and realize you hate him or that you don’t get along

Plus he’s young and in love and one of the hardest things for a young, in love person to do is be away from their loved one so he may make an excuse here and there to spend more time docked and visit that dock much more often than they should

It’s around the sixth trip back that he decides to invite you to join him, after already having told you what it is he does and all of that and you saw yes to coming with him of course

He’s so smiley the entire first night you’re on the ship with him and he clears out a drawer for you and it’s basically like moving in with him you’re just on a ship and it’s just, he’s really really happy