#and it was entirely my fault! and now i just have to deal with it i guess!

[yutarot]

RIDE OR DIE: l.jn smau

012: stay wc: 1k

it has been 1 hour and 19 minutes since you sat, awe-stricken at the tv screen. it’s been 1 hour and 19 minutes since you picked up the panic call from mark. it’s been 1 hour and 19 minutes since you repeatedly asked him what you should do.

it’s been 1 hour and 19 minutes since jeno’s life fell limp at your feet.

someone had leaked jeno’s identity. and it wasn’t you.

which meant, by process of elimination, it must have been chenle.

but it doesn’t matter. because that immediately means the fault is yours.

he trusted you, you betrayed him.

and now the entire world knows his name.

mark was speaking down the phone trying to reassure you, “yn, don’t worry okay, you couldn’t have known chenle would go and do that.”

“i guess… but i still told him.”

even with mark reassuring you, the guilt you feel piles up in your stomach.

and it only intensifies when you put mark on speaker to check your notifications.

99+ messages.

it’s winter.

you skim your eyes past the notifications, the words “traitor”, “can’t believe you didn’t tell me”, “my man???” all jumping out at you. you haven’t just broken jeno’s heart tonight, but winters too. and you can’t even imagine how haechan must be feeling, his friend of a decade suddenly actually being his biggest idol.

and it’s all because of you.

“yn? you there?” mark calls out.

“yeah.. i just, i gotta go do something real quick..”

“what? yn? where are you going? what are-“

“sorry mark.” you say as you press the red hang up button.

switching the tv off and walking to your apartment hallway, you step into your shoes, grab your car keys and head towards the door, with only one destination in mind.

you need to see jeno.

you open the door, one fluid yet guilt driven motion. but much to your surprise, you don’t make it much further.

because your doorway is blocked.

your doorway is blocked by none other than jeno lee.

and his expression is unreadable.

“jeno..” you say, barely even a whisper.

“i have nowhere else to go.” he says, the seriousness in his voice overwhelming you.

you’re confused, “what about jaemin? haechan? even renjun?”

he shakes his head, “jaemins not answering his phone, haechan’s probably in shock and renjun…. renjun hates samo so… he hates me now too...”

“oh..”

the guilt resurfaces.

you try to make sense of everything. “im guessing your father kicked you out..”

he nods.

“and now you want to stay here?”

his features are still, seeming almost resentful. “just for one night.”

you can’t say no. as much as you wish you could, watching this man who’s life you’d just completely and utterly destroyed stand, helplessly at your doorstep, you can’t turn him down. not after tonight’s prior events.

so you let him in.

he walks through your hallway. “i hope im not stopping any of your plans.” he says, referring to the sight of you with your shoes on and keys in hand.

you turn your back to him in order to hang your keys back on their hook.

“no.. i, uh, was actually on my way to see-“

“chenle?” jeno cuts you off, finishing your sentence.

“what? no”

you turn to face him. and when you do, the sight infront of you lets the guilt finally overflow.

jeno’s stood beside your couch, a grey sports hoodie in hand, the words on the back reading ‘zhong.’

“he was just about to come here, wasn’t he? you were going to pick him up.”

jeno is livid. and you’re not entirely sure why chenles hoodie had angered him so much.

so you do the stupid mistake of asking.

“why are you so angry about that?”

his eyes narrow on you, thousands of thoughts running through his head. “you leaked it, didn’t you? to get back at me ending the deal?”

you can’t believe your ears. your mind nearly freezes as the words leave his mouth. he really thinks you did it? that you’re the one who told everyone?

“what?” you ask him for an explanation, any sort of reasoning to his point. it makes no sense, if hes angry at you for exposing his identity, why would he have come to your apartment to stay the night?

“i came over, for a little bit of consolation. but this just… this is enough..” he says, words trailing off in a mix of both anger and annoyance.

“it wasn’t me.” you say, “jeno i promise, it wasn’t me.”

his eyes find yours amidst his cruel state of mind and the air around you stills for a fraction of a moment. a feeling of almost giving up surrounding his features.

he sighs. “i know.”

what?

you open your mouth to ask him to elaborate, but he beats you to it, running a hand through his hair. “im gonna g-“

your instincts overcome you as you suddenly speak up. “stay.”

“what?” his brows furrow.

“stay. you have nowhere else to go. so stay.”

his eyes look at you like you’re speaking another whole language.

and you basically are. you have absolutely no idea what’s going on in jeno’s head at present, and you would bet all your money that he has no idea what’s going on in yours.

but what you both know, is that someone has leaked jeno’s secret.

you’re sure, with all your heart that it was chenle, and you know that jeno undoubtedly probably thinks the same.

so that’s why you let him stay.

no longer through remorse, but now through acceptance— an acceptance of not really knowing the truth, yet, living with it anyway.

“oh and jeno?”

“hm?”

“congrats on your win.”

he smiles, but it looks almost painful.

you wish you could take it all away.

that’s the best you could do.

for you, for samo and for him.

and so you both get some rest, jeno crashing on your couch as you take your bed. you’re painfully aware of the fact that you need a good nights sleep tonight.

because tomorrow, you’ll confront chenle.

previous : mlist : next

notes; ik u guys r gonna be soooo confused by this chapter but this scene is gonna be so important in the future u have no idea 😆😆 this may be the biggest yutarot mystery yet im so excited☺️ all will make sense eventually 🙏 may even be worth going back to read this chapter at the end because WOWIE this hurts me so bad

taglist — open! @jenohyun @jirsungs @do-you-remember-summer-127 @ddolbyong @stqrgr7 @thatsatricky1 @sunghoonsgfreal @nattan127 @ssweetreveries @flamingi @lesuneczka @chenlesfavorite @peterm4rker @snoopyjimin @akunoeyebrows @junviadinho @slayhaechan @f6llsun @multifandomania @cookiehaos @catecita @mrsjohnnysuh @luv4jeno @hyuckies18 @dreamiestay @tangerinelovelees @jjaegyeom @https-yeonjun @nanaxwi @yukisroom97 @nosungluv @mrkleelvr @neocrashed @jaedgemental @apolloxxivmin @kyubing @catdonut657 @dudekiss3r @juyeonshour @hamjwis @antifrggile @mmjhh1998 @ldh0000 @thegracerammy @jenocity23 @honeynanamin @bluedbliss @lampcults @yyangj3lly

[mcflymemes]

DRAGON AGE: THE VEILGUARD PROMPTS PT 1 *  assorted dialogue from the first hour of the video game

somebody's gotta stop him... and that's where you come in.

so... where were we?

our story begins where all great stories begin: with the seediest bar in town and a missing contact.

let's try this again.

you think you can come into my bar and make demands?

i'm not leaving until i know where she is.

be ready to talk by the time i get to you.

darling... you're adorable.

for the record, there was probably an easier way to do that than fighting an entire bar.

what'd i have to worry about? you were there watching my back.

break's over.

something must have gotten them riled up.

should we be in more of a hurry to get out of here?

i have to talk him down.

are they after us?

we don't have time to get arrested.

you're safe now. get inside and bar the doors.

there are a lot of scared people out here.

what about you two? are you okay?

have you got my gear?

can you get us there, [name]?

this is nowhere near my neighborhood.

eyes up! we've got company!

used to fight these assholes every day.

i'm back on the job.

isn't that a coincidence?

you said you had a lead?

that's where your man is hiding.

you told me he was working alone.

i'll take it from here.

take care of the team for me.

hope i'm not interrupting.

let's buy him some time.

i have taken precautions to minimize the damage.

people are dying right now.

you need to listen. please.

people are always dying. it is what they do.

shit. we need a better plan.

what if we disrupt the ritual?

the storm could tear you apart.

you came a long way and made a valiant effort.

this story does not end in my downfall.

you have no idea what you have done.

i know what i did.

i was not destroying the world.

why am i here?

had i the power to control you, i would have already used it.

get out of my head!

i do not want to be here any more than you do.

what are you talking about?

thanks to you, though, i am now trapped.

you were innocently doing nothing when we came along.

[name] always said you'd have a big explanation for why none of this was your fault.

i am certain you will be fine.

you don't get to sit back and look smug!

what else could i possibly do?

you will soon see what i was trying to prevent.

this is your responsibility now.

look who's still with us!

trust me. i've had worse. gonna take more than a flesh wound to stop me.

turns out, you were right.

the plan did go a little wrong.

i should have come up with a better plan.

you worked with what you had. and you succeeded, by the way.

[name]. you've got this. i've seen your work.

there's a reason i dragged you into this whole mess.

you're clever. adaptable. and you don't know when to quit.

sorry, i didn't mean to barge in.

i really need to look around.

we should talk about things.

i'll work with it. you know me.

maybe our paths haven't crossed, but i know our work has.

we've just got to start somewhere.

this is a dangerous job. everyone knew that signing on.

you don't slow down for much, do you?

let's stop worrying about me and go do that.

come get me when you're ready to go.

you're sure that wasn't just a dream?

i'm not certain of anything.

we're not out of danger.

we need to get out there and stop them.

we can't just sit here and do nothing.

we need to investigate. figure out what we're dealing with before we rush in and make things worse.

this time, if we see a shot, we take it.

you sure you're up for this?

it's not working! i can't contain it!

you all were supposed to stop him.

it didn't go as cleanly as we hoped.

things just got a whole lot worse.

let's just say they weren't known for their kindness.

you're in no condition to fight.

[woodchipp]

@erogurox

He's cowardly.

Cowardly characters still need to be rootable for.

But the point of omori is he does. He faces his feelings, his guilt, his trauma, he tries to fix it. He tells people what happened after he's barely convinced to leave his house.

as I, someone who was homeschooled and never left the house, didnt know how to confront or deal with feelings. How do you deal with social situations when you're so utterly terrified of letting a lie from four years ago slip? I was like sunny with my own secrets my friends didn't know. I didn't know social shit.

Such personal anecdotes have little place when it comes to character analyses and/or discussions like this, as they often tend to color one's perception of the character in a biased way.

If your argument is (or is largely predicated on) "you can't criticize the character because they're just like me fr fr", you have no argument.

it was a complete accident

It wasn't.

he's stupid, he doesn't know what a fucking lemon is,

Now that is a new one.

Stupidity doesn't grant you an examption from criticism.

He was in a state of shock when basil came to help him and he let basil do whatever because they both weren't thinking clearly.

His reaction to seeing Mari's hanged corpse upon snapping out of his fugue state is feeling "at peace", though.

basil is also at fault for not correcting behavior and calling for help,

I never denied that Basil's at fault too lol. In fact, I have my own issues with how laughable his cover-up is. Thing is, he's not as contemptible as Sunny - covering up Mari's murder was the worst thing he did, and him stabbing Sunny's eye out has an understandable explanation (i.e. his psychotic breakdown). Most importantly, Basil wouldn't have felt the need to intervene were it not for Sunny in the first place.

Sunny himself, however, shows a rather consistent pattern of asshole behavior the game doesn't provide any explanations for.

but opting to have sunny keep it a secret. Sunny didn't choose for it to be a secret, basil did.

That implies Basil coerced Sunny into keeping silent about the actual reason Mari died, which is completely false - Sunny chose to keep it a secret because he didn't want his friends to stop loving him.

He's going to make mistakes and be immature because he was twelve

A 12-year-old would not feel "at peace" upon seeing his relative's dead body.

I'll keep spamming this until you all stop using the "he's 12" argument.

He acknowledged his fuck up, and he tries to fix it.

Him telling the truth does not outweigh the myriad of shitty things he did. Or what, am I supposed to applaud him for basic decency?

He is just facing his trauma in the game after nearly half a decade of escapism.

And, again, we circle back to my question - why should I root for him to do that? He does nothing of note that would make me root for him over the course of the entire game. Your argument boils down to "You should root for him because he has trauma and he's just like me fr fr!", which are, as I've said, not solid arguments.

At least he helped kel get the gangs shit together.

He did not. He simply was There while other characters (Kel included) moved the plot. You could easily cut him out of most cutscenes in the town and nothing of value would be lost.

The truth is, Omori is about overcoming grief and loss,

He is not an extremely smart wizard that can conjure up perfect decisions in pressurising situations.

I love when people make up a guy to argue against instead of actually trying to understand my points.

It’s a fictional game, getting so hard-pressed over a little kid is kinda weird

If it's a "fictional game", he's not a "little kid". He's a fictional character. That means I'm free to talk about him however I please.

even if you dislike Omori, writing about it like this is sorta dramatic in my opinion.

Frankly, I could say the exact same thing about all the reviews, essays and analyses about how OMORI is flawless in every way possible.

I guess the reason why such a sentiment isn't applied to these people is that you like what they have to say :)

Alrighty, so since the user I reblogged earlier apparently doesn't want to engage in any conversation with the people they're lambasting, I'm making my reblog a separate post. I'm nothing if not willing to talk :)

learning to forgive yourself even after seeing the full weight of the consequences of your actions, and realizing that you can still be loved and relearn how to love despite everything

1) "forgive yourself" I am not Sunny, and Sunny is not me.

2) Why should I be inclined to forgive an unlikeable asshole who killed his own sister because he's too self-centered to consider her feelings, lied about it to his friends, did next to nothing to show he cares about them during the game's events (the only time he tries doing anything for anyone is when he stops Basil's suicide attempt, and even then he contemplated ditching him again as a legitimate option) and then left them after revealing he lied to them for the last 4 years while bitching about how hard it is for him to live with the guilt?

Why should I root for him? I'd love to hear a reason other than "He has trauma!" or "He's the protagonist!" or "His love for his friends is shown via the dream world he has in his head!" or an ad hominem attack.

overcoming grief and realizing the world still moves on, with or without you, whether or not you think it's fair or if you blame yourself

OMORI isn't a game about overcoming the grief of a loss. It is a game about a character who's grapping with the well-earned guilt for taking another person's life and then lying about it. Those are quite different things.

Such an argument would've been applicable had Mari actually turned out to have killed herself.

You still have responsibility over your actions, and everything you do still matters,

Which is why the gang's reactions to what Sunny's done didn't matter enough for the game to show them, I suppose.

You still can change people's lives for the better or worse even if you think you aren't worth a second thought.

Sunny changed his friends' lives for the worse. And then he left.

I really enjoy this game can you tell.

Good for you! Doesn't mean others can't point out the main character is a nasty piece of shit and the writing has more holes in it than Swiss cheese, though.

I do think some people need to retake basic literature classes or touch grass perhaps

How classy. Is it because "some people" are not reading the game the way you want them to? :)

Look. You're well within your right to shove your fingers into your ears and go "lalalala I'm not listening!" when someone tries to explain their point of view to you and you don't like it. But you can't criticize people for different opinions when you refuse to listen to any explanations.

[accidental-spice]

In the words of Jessica Day, "Work sucked today, my friends"

[transgenderfivepebbles]

hokma realization....

augh. ough my emotions. he really said "it's not shameful to be pitied because pity and sympathy are in themselves forms of love". he wanted angela to know she was loved and cared for despite her conviction that she resented, even hated, the others. "you still are awfully dishonest" i need this man DEAD (affectionate). he's not benjamin anymore but he'll still be the one to stay at her side even when no one else would. fervently gestures at them. you get it. you Get It

in conclusion. clawing and mauling PROJECT MOON WHYYYYYYY

[sskk-manifesto]

(*・ω・*)b♪

[wpmz]

hate when i do something that makes me face my fears and then something happens that directly reaffirms my fears

[butteryunlikelylady]

it was never my life to live and he didn’t fall for the real me… he fell for an accessory and thought he could just change the label while things stayed the same

[rosicheeks]

Unfortunately relatable. I grew up in the church and have a lot of Christian trauma from that. I show up for special occasions for my parents… sometimes. But it’s uncomfortable from the moment I step through the door. Bigoted pastor, the self-righteousness disguising the prejudice, the political comments from the altar. Shots at young people left right and center as if the hell on earth wasn’t caused by the same older generation 90% of the congregation belongs to..

I miss being young in the choir and the youth groups and not struggling with it. It’s wild to look back at the younger version of me who was unshakeable in his faith and honestly just saddening.

I was texting my sister today about it and she said

“I 100% think ALL of us have a ton of religious trauma and everyone else in the family just doesn’t realize it cause they’re still drinking the kool-aid.”

I ran out of tag room and didn’t want to delete any 😭 seriously not lying I could write a book about all my thoughts and experiences

[deus-ex-mona]

“a sicks’ dream come true; coming soon to fanfic channels near you”

[ilostyou]

recognizing bad habit cycles and knowing that they’re not good but not having the like. time or wherewithal to break them is sooo … 😐

[literaryrot]

.

[jooyeone]

i swear i am a protagonist in a kafka novel with this job sometimes

[orcelito]

Well this is certainly a blog state to wake up to

[nomairuins]

whining hours . sry

[nickbutnodick]

btw this is the worst thing ever