#i am in your game files. finding out your main character's first and second names. the language barrier cannot stop me

[heksen-sabbat]

good evening corkscrew rules nation

i went through the game files and discovered placeholder textures, one of which describes an alternate ending and refers to shtopor instead as василий/vasiliy (or however you want to spell it in english) ⬇ ⬇ ⬇

a real name instead of a nickname. thank you send post

[dustxechoes]

"Two dead Vespers, coming up! Forged in ash, we stand as one!!" "Focus, Ziyi. Coming home alive...that's your special mission for today." "Yes, Uncle. I'll be careful." "And...try to avoid shouting those slogans so loudly. Encrypted comms won't do us any good if they can hear you all the way from your cockpit." "...Yes, Uncle." "Good. They're coming. Show them your fury, Little Sparrow."

Raven turned down the job, so he had to bring someone he could trust.

It tends to get lost in the shuffle when people talk about Flatwell between his time as a spy and his secret plans with Rusty, but the most important connection Ziyi is given by the narrative is with her 'Uncle', Middle Flatwell. Military Commander of the Rubicon Liberation Front.

As an infant, Ziyi was taken to Rubicon by her parents—who, tempted by the promise of riches from Coral mining, sought to make an illegal entry to the planet. Only Ziyi survived the crash landing. She came under the guardianship of Uncle Flatwell of the Rubicon Liberation Front, and the core of an AC was the young orphan's cradle as she grew up to become a Coral Warrior.

It's deeply fascinating to me that someone so deeply jaded and pragmatic as Flatwell, who criticizes the plucky heroic attitude of the rank and file RLF members and is even willing to sacrifice the lives of his subordinates and comrades to further his plans, is also the type of person who would find an orphaned baby from off-world and without reservation take her in and raise her as his own daughter.

But also I have. So many questions about that.

How involved was Flatwell in her upbringing?

Was AC piloting just a natural talent for her or has he been preparing her for it from a young age?

How did being a spy impact his ability to meet her emotionally?

If Flatwell is the one most critical of the rank and file RLF members for having been fighting occupation for so long that they are no longer actually picturing a future where they're free, mindlessly repeating slogans and fighting, why is his own daughter Ziyi the most...like that, of any of the named RLF pilots?

Was he too distant? Does she simply not understand the way he thinks? Or is this just more of Ziyi overcompensating for her perceiving herself as an 'outsider' that has to prove herself, regardless of what her comrades actually think?

It's obvious she doesn't know Rusty is a double agent, but how much else does he keep her in the dark about? Was this a pattern, or was this just one secret too important to entrust her with?

Is she expected to step up if something happens to him?

On the subject of Rusty, have they...talked about that? She knows they were close, but does she feel like she has a responsibility to ease his burden by bringing 'the traitor' home?

There's so much to their dynamic we just...don't know. In fact, to my knowledge neither of them directly mentions the other a single time in the entire game. But his spycraft, his master planning, directly gets Ziyi killed in the first playthrough. How does that impact him?

Ziyi has so much going on and is important to so many other characters but somehow manages to dodge everything important to the main plot and from the player's perspective is an optional encounter that takes about fifteen seconds to beat with you only finding out who she is afterward for a quick emotional gut punch, also the coolest thing she does is only alluded to in a single line of dialogue that was fucking cut, which makes me feel like I'm going insane because no one else talks about this shit.

but Arshile, Rokumonsen, Flatwell, Rusty, none of them have dialogue that changes if she's dead or not and I am eating my own organs wondering if they even know.

There is a mission where you can fight side-by-side with Flatwell having potentially killed his daughter and he doesn't have any different dialogue. Is he aware that Raven did that? Is he even aware she's gone? Or is he just so pragmatic that he's able to set all that aside for the sake of the plan?

[theggning]

I Hate the Alternate Ending of Blind Betrayal, and Here's Why!

DISCLAIMER THE FIRST: Massive spoilers for Fallout 4 abound. This post discusses Blind Betrayal, a quest with suicide as a heavy theme. Content warning applies.

DISCLAIMER THE SECOND: This post discusses cut OFFICIAL content from Fallout 4 that has since been repurposed into multiple mods. I am not criticizing any modders or their implementations of this content. Mods are fun and people can enjoy whatever the hell kind of game experience they want with whatever mods they want.

I am ONLY interested in discussing the original cut content as Bethesda had written it, and how it would have impacted the story and lore of Fallout 4.

So, yeah, it seems there was originally going to be another way to conclude Blind Betrayal (BB).

As described in this Kotaku article (citing this post by Tumblr user tentacle-explosion,) there are unused audio files of Danse’s dialogue that show an alternate ending to his pivotal quest. These lines are the only evidence we have of this ending (suggesting that it was cut fairly early on, as no other actors/characters seem to have recorded for it.)

From what we can tell, in this alternate ending of BB, Danse comes up with a possible way out of the sticky situation re: his identity as a synth. According to the Brotherhood Litany, he is able to challenge Maxson’s authority as Elder via combat. If you agree to this idea, you go with Danse to challenge Maxson. The Paladin and the Elder duel one another, Danse wins, and Maxson dies. Then Danse names the Sole Survivor the new Elder-- or with a hard charisma check, you’re able to convince Danse to take the job himself. It is unknown how the main plot would have progressed beyond this point, as there is no other evidence of what being (or influencing) the Elder would have been like or what choices it would have given you.

There is understandable disappointment in learning that this ending was cut. Choices in games are great, and it could have been fun to have multiple different options for how to resolve the quest. In many gaming circles, people complain that this theoretical ending is superior to the one we got and shouldn’t have been axed. The Kotaku article calls it a “way better” ending, and you’ll see many players lamenting that it wasn’t implemented, saying Bethesda was bad at writing for cutting it, etc.

So why did Bethesda get rid of the Elder ending of BB?

In December 2020, after the Fallout 4 Cast Reunion, Danse’s voice actor Peter Jessop answered questions in a private signing session on his Instagram. Peter Jessop is an extremely kind and gracious man, an avid gamer, and a huge fan of Fallout. During the stream, he reflected on the alternate ending and remembered recording the lines, but stated the content was ultimately cut because Bethesda decided it was lore-breaking.

Peter Jessop is right. Bethesda was right. The Elder ending of BB is a bunch of dumb nonsense. It sucks, I hate it, and I’m glad they got rid of it. And now I’m going to tell you why!

SIDENOTE: King Shit of Fuck Mountain

There is no wrong way to play a single-player video game. If you are having fun, then you are accomplishing the task for which the game was made. Good for you! Play it on easy. Play it on hard. Mod it. Speedrun it. Make up an intricate roleplaying scenario. Perform “challenge” runs. Kill everybody you see. Ignore the story and run around collecting wheels of cheese. Games are meant to be fun and there is nothing wrong with enjoying a game however you damn well please. This is especially true for RPGs like Fallout, which are designed with player freedom in mind.

There is an RPG playstyle I like to call King Shit of Fuck Mountain: a naked power fantasy in which your protagonist is the most powerful person ever, even beyond normal RPG plot significance. Through brute strength, incredible charisma, or having completed tons of quests for world-breaking artifacts and weapons, your character wields godlike influence, able to control people, factions, and the fabric of the world itself. A game enables KSoFM gameplay when it allows the player limitless freedom to gain as much power as they like with zero consequences to plot or storytelling.

A great example of this is the Dragonborn in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. If the player chooses to pursue every questline in the game, one single person can become Harbinger of the Companions, Archmage of the College of Winterhold, Listener of the Dark Brotherhood, Nightingale and Guildmaster of the Thieves’ Guild, hero of the Imperial/Stormcloak army, the chosen one of like, 11 different Daedric princes, a bard, a Blade, and otherwise just, absurdly goddamn powerful in completely unrealistic ways. And that’s not counting DLCs. A fully-kitted-out Dragonborn is King Shit of Fuck Mountain.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with playing KSoFM if you like to. But I’m not a big fan of this style, personally. Sure, my first Skyrim character became KSoFM while I was figuring out the game, but after my first playthrough I preferred my characters become coherent figures in the story of the world. I pick one or two character traits and things that my Dragonborn is good at, focus on them, and make them part of some overall story. My honorable Imperial paladin werewolf is in the Companions, and hunts vampires on principle. My Argonian sneaky archer is a gleeful thief, but would never jive with the College or the Dark Brotherhood. I like creating protagonists who fit into these settings immersively. I don’t care about power fantasies or being in charge. I don’t WANT my character to be all-powerful, because that ruins my immersion and my little story.

Additionally, in a plot-driven story-focused game like Fallout, KSoFM tears the narrative apart. Skyrim is fairly light on story, so the Dragonborn can be the leader of the Companions and the Dark Brotherhood and whatever other factions without any of them noticing or caring. But FO4’s themes, faction drama, and the main thrust of the plot don’t work at all if the Sole Survivor is able to become too powerful or too influential. The Sole Survivor cannot become the leader of every faction, solve every problem, or eliminate every inconvenient bend of the conflict because it makes the lore of the entire setting implode. Thus, the game forces you to choose between factions. You cannot be with the Minutemen and the Nuka-World Raiders. You cannot be with the Railroad and the Institute. And you cannot become Elder of the Brotherhood of Steel.

So if you’re the kind of person who loves playing KSoFM, if you like plots that your character can “solve” with relative ease, or if you just think it would be super cool for your Sole to become Elder regardless of surrounding storytelling, then you might think the Elder ending sounds super cool. You are absolutely allowed to disagree with me here. Install all the mods and write all the fic and have all the headcanons you like. I respect that. There is no wrong way to enjoy a single-player video game. Have fun!

But if you’re a big nitpicky pedantic lore nerd like me, a fan of cohesive storytelling, or if you just want to hear how the Elder ending of BB absolutely fucking ruins Maxson, Danse, the Brotherhood of Steel, and the entire plot of FO4 from a narrative perspective, read on!

1. The Synth Thing

The Elder ending requires the stupid plot contrivance of the BoS forgetting about Danse’s synthhood.

One of the biggest problems with the BoS as an institution is their strict and dogmatic beliefs, which include a widespread dislike of non-human species. Perhaps more than any other non-humans, the BoS hates synths. Synths are, in their eyes, machines given free will, a violation of the sanctity of human life and the ultimate example of technology run amok. To them, synths are not sympathetic, they are not slaves, and they are not victims of circumstance. They are weapons that left unchecked will destroy all of humanity for a second time. Synths are anathema to everything the BoS stands for, and finding out that one of their most beloved and trusted Paladins is one is an earth-shattering blow to their integrity and sense of security.

It is completely absurd that the BoS would allow a synth within their ranks, particularly as they are waging war against the Institute, who created synths in the first place. It is even MORE absurd that they’d allow one to influence their Elder, or even worse, to become Elder. It completely undermines their mission in the Commonwealth, and the core tenets of their extremely rigid beliefs. No matter the Elder, no matter the Litany or obscure BoS law, no matter how valuable the Sole Survivor is as a soldier or how much influence they wield. Danse is a synth. He’s the enemy. He is physically the embodiment of everything they hate.

Not only wouldn’t they trust a synth in general, but the BoS specifically believes that Danse is an infiltrator for the Institute. Even Danse believes that he is a danger, that the Institute may be able to take control of him and use him as a weapon. Sure, we know none of this is actually true, or possible, but the BoS don’t know that. And given how quick they are to order Danse dead without even the possibility of surrender, I don’t think there’s any charisma in the world that’s going to convince them otherwise.

According to Peter Jessop, this, ultimately, is the reason why the Elder ending was cut. He talks about it around the 11:30 timestamp in his Instagram stream, linked above:

“We recorded an ending where you keep Danse alive and you take over the Brotherhood. But there was a question of content… there’s no way the Brotherhood, once they knew he was a synth, would let him be even the right hand of the person in charge.”

Bethesda correctly recognized the incredible narrative contrivance for the BoS to shrug off the reason they’re trying to execute Danse in the first place. Whatever other beefs I have with this ending conceptually, they all come in second to just what a big dumb leap it is to get beyond this first and most important problem.

2. The Complete Death of Conflict

The Elder ending of BB destroys the conflict of the quest, and potentially the conflict of the entire game.

Greed is a poison. There is no such thing as a perfect ideal or a perfect organization. Power corrupts. Humanity has the choice to build back better. War never changes. The Fallout games are full of themes, depicted by the characters and quests and factions we play out.

Blind Betrayal is rightfully praised as one of the most powerful quests in FO4. Not only is it well-acted, but it puts the player in a very difficult position. The BoS has given you clout and glory and free power armor and lots of firepower, but now you see the price: unquestioning obedience. You are ordered to execute your friend and mentor Danse for the mere fact he is a synth. Are you going to follow that unjust order? Are you willing to give up your principles on command? Or is this where you can no longer stay quiet and stay in line?

To be honest, I’ve always thought the fact you can talk Maxson out of killing Danse but still remain with the BoS in good standing was a cop-out. BB goes 90% of the way to forcing you to choose between a companion and a faction, and then chickens out at the last second to let you have both, if your charisma is high enough.

(I believe this has the fingerprints of Skyrim’s development on it-- Bethesda’s writers got nervous about doing another Paarthurnax choice involving the fan favorite Brotherhood of Steel. That’s right. Danse is the Paarthurnax of Fallout. Frankly, I understand why they chose not to go there, but damn, wouldn’t it have been wild? You want to run with the BoS? Then kill your friend and feel the burn. THIS is what it means to follow orders without question.

As for me, I’d pick Danse every time and sleep soundly without the company of shitty bootlicking dieselpunk LARPers- but I digress.)

Anyway, you know what would have REALLY been a copout? If the game asked you to make a difficult thematic storyline choice, and you solved the problem by just not choosing at all.

You are supposed to feel uncomfortable when Maxson orders you to kill Danse, because the game is telling a story about how it is maybe a bad thing to thoughtlessly follow orders without question. It is asking you to think about what the BoS is, what they are doing, and how they are going to run things, if you choose to let them “win” the Commonwealth. It is pointing out that there is no room for gray in the BoS’ black and white. That a good, loyal man may die because of the way he was made, through no action of his own. That soon, you’ll be killing other people on command. The Railroad. Fleeing Institute synths and scientists. Others, down the line. It all depends on who’s giving the orders. Are you going to follow those orders?

Eesh, that sounds thought-provoking and unpleasant and difficult! Let’s just skip it by killing Maxson and making ourselves the boss. Now we get to tell everybody else what to do!

It’s unknown what powers the Elder ending would have granted the player, or how it would have interacted with the other factions. There is speculation that you’d have been able to ease back on the BoS’ dogmatism, or change some of the later events of the game. For instance, perhaps you could talk the BoS down from attacking the Railroad, sparing popular characters like Glory and Deacon who must die in the normal BoS storyline. Perhaps you could have made the BoS a kinder, gentler faction and directed them to run the way you want them to.

If this was indeed the case, then the Elder ending would not only suck the gravitas out of BB, but torpedo the entire main plot.

If you can get rid of any and all downsides to siding with the BoS, why in the hell would players side with anybody else? With the player given total power, the BoS becomes a perfect faction with no drawbacks, no weaknesses, no tough decisions to be made. Screw slumming it with the Railroad or the Minutemen, let’s take over the BoS. Free power armor and a giant robot! Forget the whole intolerance thing, I hereby proclaim the BoS No Longer Problematic! Now to force all the factions to get along, completely removing all conflict and nuance from the plot!

That’s some real anticlimactic “tell Legate Lanius to go home and then he does it” bullshit right there. King Shit of Fuck Mountain!

Look, it might be nice if there was a perfect path like that to take through the game. It would be cool if our characters could be that powerful and the game was that tailored to our individual choices. On the other hand, “I change all the factions to suit my exact liking” might be a fun idea for a fanfic, but it’s an incredibly boring plot for a video game. “I get to make everything in the world exactly how I want it” is Minecraft, not a story-driven RPG with a complex and intricate plot.

It would be great if complex conflicts could really be solved that easily and effortlessly, but hey, you know what? War never changes.

3. The Assassination of Arthur Maxson (Literal)

Arthur Maxson’s death is too significant and fundamentally disastrous for the Elder ending to make any sense at all.

Hero, villain, leader, monster, tortured soul, brutal dictator, immature twerp, bearded sex hunk. However you personally interpret Arthur Maxson, there is no denying that he is a venerated, popular, beloved figure in the BoS. He is the blood heir of the organization’s founder, a powerful warrior, a brilliant tactician, and a charismatic negotiator. He is responsible for reuniting the East Coast BoS with the Outcasts, leading the new, stronger BoS with a sense of shared purpose. There is a damn good reason his name is Arthur and he named his ship The Prydwen, echoes of King Arthur and the legends of his glorious kingdom of Camelot. Arthur Maxson is so beloved that many view him as a demigod, a messiah sent to lead the BoS into a mighty and prosperous future.

So I’m sure nobody’s going to be upset when some wasteland jackass recruited a month ago stumbles in with a synth, kills him, and takes over his job. Right?

It doesn’t matter that it’s “honorable.” It doesn’t matter that it’s done “by the book” via obscure BoS rules. There is no codex or litany or rule so binding that it’s going to overcome the cult of personality around Maxson. There is no way that the BoS is going to accept the death of Arthur Maxson, a man whose reverence borders on worship, especially not when he is immediately replaced by a wastelander, or a synth.

The death of Arthur Maxson removes the unifying glue that’s been holding the BoS together since mending the rift with the Outcasts. Maxson’s death eliminates the one person that both sides of that conflict agreed could steer the organization in the right direction. Some level heads may try to keep the focus on the mission and the Brotherhood tenets, but Maxson loyalists will never forgive the new Elder for his death, and that amount of passionate righteous anger will not be quelled by appeals to the rules. The new Elder’s war on the Institute is basically over before it begins, when the forces splinter and start infighting over the change in leadership.

And this is if the new Elder lives long enough to actually give any orders. I give them around 24 hours after the duel before some angry Maxson loyalist “accidentally” pulls the trigger and “tragically” empties a clip into their back.

24 seconds, if it’s Elder Danse, the dirty synth abomination.

4. The Assassination of Arthur Maxson (Figurative)

The Elder ending of BB falsely pretends that Arthur Maxson is the biggest and only problem with the BoS.

In the Elder ending, as written, the conflict of BB is considered completely and totally solved by the death of Arthur Maxson. The core problem, that Danse is a synth and considered an enemy by the BoS, has not gone away. But by getting rid of Maxson, this apparently no longer matters. Nobody else is going to take offense to Danse’s nature or protest his presence. Nobody else is going to attack him or try to follow through with Maxson’s prior orders. Nope, that meanybutt guy who gave the order is gone, and everybody else is going to welcome Danse back into the fold like nothing ever happened.

I touched on this a little bit on an ask about Maxson a few weeks back, but a lot of people seem to believe that the FO4 Brotherhood of Steel is the way they are purely because of him. That he is the one making them treat non-humans as second class citizens at best, and enemies to be slaughtered at worst. That it’s his fault the BoS is so vehemently against synths and the Institute. That he is the one influencing their imperialistic tendencies, and treating the Commonwealth like territory to be conquered and people to be ruled over by their betters.

He’s not. That’s the Brotherhood of Steel, guys.

The charitable, altruistic, virtuous BoS that many of us met for the first time in FO3 were outliers. Lyons’ group was literally disowned by the rest of the faction because their kindness to wastelanders had gone so far astray from the “core” tenets. The BoS as a whole has always been exclusive, isolated, and seen themselves as “superior” to the average wastelander. They have long disliked or outright hated non-humans (and even Lyons’ BoS in FO3 use ghouls, feral or not, for “target practice” if they get too close!) The rigid dogmatism of the BoS is not something that Arthur Maxson started, but has always been part of their fabric.

Now, it’s true that Maxson is absolutely going hard on the BoS tenets, and extremely dedicated to upholding them. His BoS are the way they are and act the way they act because he believes that this is the way it should be. Is it possible that a different leader may be a little more flexible? Absolutely. Could a skilled Elder eventually show them the benefits of a softer approach and a more generous worldview? Totally. Is getting rid of Maxson and replacing him going to make that happen overnight, or going to make the rest of the BoS who supported him shrug and follow suit?

Nope.

Blaming Arthur Maxson for everything unsavory about the Brotherhood is unfair to him and also foolishly ignoring the deep, massive problems that are far older than he is-- problems that plenty of its members wholeheartedly believe are not problems at all. Getting rid of Maxson does not make the BoS kinder or gentler. Even pretending Maxson isn’t as personally beloved as he is, any new Elder who steps in and starts trying to fundamentally alter the way the BoS operates and what they believe in is going to face some major, immediate pushback.

Like, a full clip of bullets in the back type of pushback.

In the face if it’s Elder Danse, the godless freak of nature.

5. The Un-Redemption of Paladin Danse

Last, and my personal least favorite!

At first glance, Paladin Danse is a steely jackboot, a die-hard Brotherhood loyalist who fully and firmly believes in their cause. Many immediately dismiss him as a humorless brute, or completely ignore him because they think that’s all there is. But if you spend any time with Danse at all, you’ll notice a sort of weariness in him. He is tired, overworked, and his years of service are starting to weigh on him. He has watched friends, comrades, and mentors die in horrible and gruesome ways, and he suffers from PTSD. Though he has always been told that his own sacrifices, the sacrifices of his brothers and sisters have been” worth it,” he’s starting to question if that’s true.

After telling of the incident where he personally executed his best friend Cutler, who’d been turned into a super mutant, the Sole Survivor is able to console him:

Player Default: You did the right thing. Danse: {Somber} It's what I was taught. I don't know if it was right.

This line is an excellent summary of Danse’s entire character arc. He learns to question whether to believe what the Brotherhood has taught him, or to believe in himself. His gut feelings. His sense of justice and his own ideas of what’s right and wrong.

(In the interest of not turning this into an essay about Danse’s character, I won’t even get into how this also applies to his beliefs about his worth as a person. But keep in mind, that dimension is there, Danse just covers it up by making everything about the Brotherhood.)

During Blind Betrayal, after getting the orders to execute him and hearing Haylen’s plea for mercy, we may expect Danse to be ready to fight back or flee. But when you confront him in the bunker at Listening Post Bravo, he’s compliant and suicidal. Danse is so deeply poisoned by the BoS’ rhetoric that his own feelings or will to live don’t factor into the conversation. He demands that you follow your orders and execute him, because he believes, as the BoS does, that all synths are dangerous and must be destroyed.

Danse: {Stern} Synths can't be trusted. Machines were never meant to make their own decisions, they need to be controlled. Technology that's run amok is what brought the entire world to its knees and humanity to the brink of extinction.

{Confident} I need to be the example, not the exception.

Through various dialogue options, if your charisma is high enough, you are able to talk Danse off the ledge. He is able to consider, at least, that the BoS’ merciless judgment of him is wrong and that what he was taught isn’t right. He is a thinking, feeling, self-aware synth, and that makes him as much a person as any human. Danse is no danger to humanity-- and maybe, most synths aren’t either.

Danse is an example, not an exception.

Later on, if you manage to get him out of BB alive, Danse shows further acceptance of his nature. His approvals about synths begin to soften slightly (or many of them do, at least… it’s not perfect.) He is still struggling with his identity and reconciling it with his former hatred, but his dialogue suggests that he’s on the road to being more open-minded and understanding. Along with this, Danse learns that he has value as a person beyond the Brotherhood. He no longer needs to define himself with BoS beliefs or judge himself by how useful he is to them. He learns that he is worth caring about, worth being friends with or being loved because of who he is-- not what he is, in any regard.

[SIDENOTE: Many players, myself included, are frustrated that Danse’s arc leaves off sort of midstream there. Due to the open-ended nature of the game, we don’t get a real conclusion to his arc-- even though much of his idle dialogue doesn’t change and he still espouses pro-BoS sentiments ( an unfortunate by-product of writing for a video game) there is every indication that he’s started down the right path, but understandably has a ways to go.

Also, Peter Jessop agrees with us.]

Meanwhile, in the Elder ending, Danse doesn’t get a redemption. His entire character arc, actually, hits the skids and does a total 180.

He never leaves the BoS. So scratch the need for Danse to ever think about himself as separate from them. He never needs to question what they’ve taught him or whether they’re right or wrong. He never needs to find any worth in himself beyond his use to the BoS. Why would he? He might be the Elder. The BoS is all he needs to care about anymore. The BoS is all he ever needs to be, ever again.

And I think, most horrifying of all, this Danse never needs to change his mind about synths. On the contrary, one of the surviving dialogue files includes Danse’s speech to reassure the rest of the BoS of his stance:

Danse: I want to make one thing clear to everyone. This body might be synth, but my heart and mind belong to the Brotherhood. The Institute is still a tremendous threat to the Commonwealth. They possess technologies that need to be confiscated or destroyed. And even if that means I have to pull the trigger on my own kind, I’m willing to make that sacrifice.

Elder ending Danse doesn’t grow more understanding on the nature of synths. He doesn’t accept that synths are people, or anything more than technology run amok. He won’t even accept that for himself. Elder Maxson wasn’t wrong about synths-- they’re the enemy and they need to be destroyed.

But, see, he was wrong about Danse. It’s okay for Danse to exist in spite of his nature. It’s okay for him to never fully accept his own personhood, and to outright deny it to his kind. Because his body is a machine, but he’s different from the rest because his heart and mind belong to the Brotherhood.

He’s the exception, not the example.

CONCLUSION:

The Elder ending of Blind Betrayal is dumb, contrived, stakeless, character-derailing powergaming crap at its finest and I’ll happily dance on its grave.

People give Bethesda a lot a shit for their writing-- whether it be stuff they left out, stuff they left in, or stuff that they never, ever could have made work due to the limitations of writing for a video game. Plenty of it is well-deserved, or at least worth a discussion. But from the minute I found out about its existence, I have always wanted to extend a congratulations to Bethesda for cutting the alternate Elder ending of Blind Betrayal. It was a good choice. A very good choice to cut a very dumb plot that would have fundamentally altered the story they were telling, and characters that I’ve grown to love. I think the writers deserve some credit and a hearty handshake for the wisdom of this decision.

Now as for why Nick Valentine isn’t romanceable--

[twisted-crumpets]

The soft Vil and kissing headcanons I'm- 😭😭😭😭😭 Could I have headcanons for NRC having a ball and MC just walks up to Riddle, Azul, Vil, Idia and Malleus (seperately ofc) being like "I've decided that you're gonna be my date for the ball 😊". I know I picked like, the 5 worst characters for this, imagine the audacity and guts you gotta have to pull that on Vil and Malleus 😂

Pff MC strolling up with guts of steel

I- Imagine like slamming down a corsage or smth and being like “you, me dance a lil, get to know each other, maybe smooch idk” to Vil 😂😂

Also, thank you very much for liking my Vil headcanons, it made me smile.

━━ Riddle Rosehearts ━━

To say that Riddle wasn’t stressed out of his mind would be a complete and utter lie.

After spending a good chunk of his time dedicated to scolding Ace and chasing Floyd the poor crimson leader was staring at his watch, panicking as the seconds tick by.

Hearing soft footsteps, he whipped his head ready to berate whoever was dawdling in the dorms and not laying out the table for the upcoming unbirthday party, but froze upon the sight of his darling.

“Oh! Love, I’m sorry you have caught me at a bit of a bad time. What is the reason for your visit?”

He was not at all prepared for his darling to demand his presence at the school ball and couldn’t help but splutter as his face slowly began to turn into a shade that could rival his hair.

“I- you... do you have any sense of decorum or poise?”

Ignoring the blush smeared across his cheeks, Riddle began to criticise the “invitation” and how it did not comply with the rules of the queen of hearts.

However, he soon quietened down when his love teasingly asked if that meant he was rejecting them, reducing the strict dorm leader into a flustered mess.

“That most certainly was not a no!... I just, I believed that we were automatically going to arrive together... I didn’t expect to be asked so abruptly.... I... let me try this again.”

Clearing his throat, Riddle knelt onto the ground, surprising the dorm members who were slowly filing into the room, sweetly holding onto his dearest’s hand.

“Darling, it would be the upmost honour of the highest degree to accompany you to the ball.”

Laying a kiss onto the back of their hand, he couldn’t hide the smirk beginning to grow onto his face as he amusedly watched their face grow as brightly as his own.

━━ Azul Ashengrotto ━━

Due to the rise in contracts during the exam season, Azul’s paperwork began to increase as well and the poor octopus could already feel every part of his back creak in protest everytime he leant down.

Opening the heavy door to his study, his darling was not surprised that he barely even looked their way before pressing his nose against his documents, scanning their contents tiredly.

Attempting to gain his focus, his darling decided to demand that he join them at the ball.

His response was lacklustre at best, not even taking his eyes off his his work to reply.

“Hm? Ah yes, of course my treasure.”

Suddenly, his quill paused in its journey across his contracts and he froze, dropping it against the pristine desk.

At first, his response was “hmmm? Ah yes of course, my treasure.”

That was until, the demand finally processed in his mind, then he just stood wide eyed and froze, dropping his quill.

He gasped at his darling, his azure eyes getting increasingly smaller in shock.

After a few minutes, his darling was finally able to call his name through their giggles, and he snapped back to life.

“Oh my angelfish~ what a tempting command. But, I can only make wishes come true if they are a request.”

Smiling coyly, he observed his darling floundering for the proper words to ask him.

Crooking a gloved finger, he beckoned them closer, mischief practically glowing in his eyes, and gently pulled them into a slow kiss.

“That is a deal I could simply not turn down. Alright, I will gladly join you, my pearl.”

━━ Vil Shoenheit ━━

As a deep lover of all things intricate and organised, this was nothing short of messy.

Fabrics ranging in colour, texture and pattern covered every inch of his room, and Vil was extremely critical of which would be worthy to be used to decorate the dorm room.

He revelled the peaceful silence that lingered in the room, which demanded complete and utter focus, until his darling came barrelling into the room.

“Ah! Fairest no! You could’ve sullied the fabrics... whatever possessed you to come stumbling in like an elephant better be of high importance.”

Returning to his work, he did not expect shaky warm hands to cup his face, and he slowly moved his gaze to their face, observing the rosey flush due to their exercise prior.

In a shocked trance, Vil watched as his darling bolted from the room, after loudly proclaiming that he was coming with her to the ball.

Snapping his manicured fingers, his poor love was dragged like a sack of potatoes over the shoulder of his loyal huntsman, who overheard the events that unfolded with a wide grin.

“My dear, whilst your confession was executed rather... uniquely, I believe I must be the one to give an answer on whether or not I shall attend with you.”

With a cat-like smile, he basked in the nervous gaze of his darling which bounced around the room, whilst he pretended to find his nails exceedingly interesting, before finally accepting with sophisticated air.

Striding up to his darling briskly to tenderly cradle their face, peppering sweet kisses and giggling at the look of bewilderment and shock that graced their face.

━━ Idia Shroud ━━

Finding Idia furiously slamming his fingers into his keyboard, fully enamoured with the happenings on his computer, was not new.

Observing his hunched and focused figure, his darling decided that it was due time for him to take a break and attempted to tear his eyes away from the harsh glare of the screen.

“Oh pixel, I promise I will stop right after this round don’t worry.”

Unfortunately, he couldn’t even press a single key when he heard his lover announce that he would be attended the ball alongside them.

Turning a blind eye to the blatant ‘game over’ on his monitor, Idia’s hair began to burn a vibrant assortment of deep reds and he muttered incomprehensible half sentences, his current state akin to a phone after being dropped into a pool.

“You... me... public... together... d..dancing..”

Like a mouse, he burrowed his way inside the cozy depths of his hoodie, squeaking out his agreement, before flinging his arms around their middle and smooshing his face into their stomach in an attempt to distract them from his vermillion hair and face.

“.. I would love that very much thank you.”

 ━━ Malleus Draconia ━━

For Malleus, midnight strolls are the highlight of his day.

From exploring the picturesque ruins of castles he might’ve known once upon a time, to marvelling at the loyal gargoyles that remain standing guard at the entrance, that frequently remind him of the two guards of his back at his dorm.

Although, he couldn’t deny that, the main reason for his enjoyment in his nightly activities was when doing so with his truest love.

On this day, instead of the usual lighthearted air between them, a nervous yet determined one replaced it, filling the horned boy with curiousity, which grew as he gazed deeply into the eyes of his love, who appeared to be summoning every ounce of courage to look back into his.

“Truest, what is ailing you?”

Nothing could quite prepare him for the explosive torrent of words that spilled from their lips that took his brain a whole series of seconds to decipher.

When it finally clicked that he had received that invitation, no one could’ve possibly smiled brighter or laughed merrier than he, as he whisked his beloved into his arms, pressing his lips against theirs passionately.

Pulling away, his chest rumbling with laughter, he cheekily beamed at the dumbfounded expression that graced his love’s features.

“My my, inviting me so suddenly, and with such a demanding tone too. Why this is an interesting declaration, and I would be a fool to not accept. Very well my truest, I accept. You best do well to not be late, I am looking forward to this.”

I’m so sorry this took so long, school said no❤️

I hope you enjoyed your meal!

[crane--here]

dying light cut/unused voice lines and the context behind them

masterpost (part one) // (part two)

so while looking through dying light footage recorded in 2015 and listening to voice lines taken directly from the files, i realized a lot of them were cut and never used or heard in the actual game. i've decided to compile all the ones that fans might find interesting, as they give us a better glimpse on the characters and their interactions with each other. they're all sorted chronologically to the main story quests

i'll be intertwining lines that are still used in-game with the ones unused. the unused lines will be marked in bold

"Awakening"

starting off with the first story quest - we already have a line cut from rahim during the very first time we meet him (referred to as cin_meetingrahim in the game files). his very first line is never heard in the game, but stringing everything together the conversation between him and kyle would sound like this:

" - This fucking comm range is shit, I can't raise Mark at all... - Hey I'm looking for the... Are you the boss? - What am I too young? You got a problem with my age? [...] "

not much to comment on here. it was most likely cut due to inconsistencies with the actual cutscene - the first time we see rahim he's not even fiddling with any radios, he's looking through binoculars out the balcony

we then have several unused quips from his parkour test (rahim_schooloflife and some other being rakim_schooloflife in the files):

" Try to stay up on higher spots. Outside you've got to BE LIKE A CAT! Anything goes wrong, get your ass up to the roof. " " Piece of cake, homie. Just walk carefully, and don't look down~ " " And remember, wanna get down quick and safe, jump into the trash. " " See you in a minute! " " We've marked a safe path with some arrows, follow that path. " " Okay, that's it. You're a 'freerunner' now. Now come meet me, I'm waiting at the first tower. " " Okay, now something a little harder. You're going to shimmy along the edge there. Do that and I'll actually be impressed... for a change. "

small fun stuff like that :). it's also important to point out the last two seem to take place in a completely different location, for whatever reason

"First Assignment"

rahim actually radioed crane back in 2015 while he was running errands for spike (blackout_11):

" - Hey, Crane, guess what? I'm up on a balcony, and I got eyes on you from here. Looks like you're doing okay. For a newbie. - Gee, thanks. - Just try and get back here in one piece, alright? I don't want to have to train somebody to replace you. "

and he additionally has one line cut from this exchange:

" Fighting these bastards used to be a lot easier. Don't know how they're getting stronger, but they are. "

and we can see from the footage that spike has longer exchanges with crane, too

jade has cut lines where she radios kyle after he talks to spike about brecken's failure (blackout_40):

" - Crane, this is Jade. Did you talk to Spike? - Yeah, I'm heading your way. - Good, because we still don't have enough antizin and now we may have to trade with Rais. His warehouses are full of antizin but trading with him is like playing Russian Roulette. So we need to talk with Brecken, hurry up. "

"Airdrop"

jade has a few more lines urging crane to hurry up with getting to the second drop and these specific files are named jade_airdrop_08

a bit of dialogue between crane and jade (cin_destroyingantizin) seems to be cut so that it's more consistent with the actual cutscene:

" [...] - None? Fuck, FUCK! Alright, get back here. The nightmares are awake, don't let them see you. If they do spot you, stun them with the UV flashlight and haul ass to the nearest shelter. - Oh shit, they must've heard me... Jade, I saw it. I saw a Volatile. - Okay, okay. Just focus and get back to the Tower before those monsters get you. "

i understand why these strings of lines were cut, as it just erases the tension from the first encounter with volatiles

"Pact with Rais"

jade has a few of her lines cut from when she radios crane (pactwithrais_00):

" [...] - You know I met Amir right after the outbreak. I didn't know him for that long, but he was the best, most decent man I've ever known. I loved him more than I believed I was capable of, and he was like a brother to Rahim. If I said I didn't wish you had died instead of him, well I'd be lying. - Jade, I-I... - But I just want you to know that I don't blame you, Amir knew the risk. "

blunt honesty and no nonsense. god i love jade

here's an interesting one, crane seems to have an unused line when confronting tahir in the garrison (cin_kingofslums):

" - Haven't I seen you somewhere before? - Sorry, pal. I think I'd remember that. "

i kind of wish it stayed in the game, mainly due to the delivery of the line. kyle has this very badass low "back off" tone to it

after crane turns on the antennas rahim radios him (antennas_09 in the game files). truth be told, back in 2015 they had a longer talk with each other:

" - It was you, wasn't it? - Rahim? - The antennas! Brecken told me. Communication is crystal clear now. - Yeah, that was me. And now I'm on my way to see Rais again. - And get the antizin? - That's the deal. - Good job, man. This helps everybody, but especially Dr. Zere and Dr. Camden. They can hear each other without static for the first time since... well ever. See you back at the Tower! - I'll be there as soon as I can. "

to add onto that, there are also a couple of lines unused where rahim warns kyle of the infected mutating more:

" - O-Oh and one more thing, you probably already know, but... - But what? - The Scouts are saying they're running into the tougher infected types more often. They're evolving Crane, I even heard Dr. Zere talking about it. - Okay Rahim, I understand, don't worry. "

CRANE SOUNDS SO SOFT IN THESE INTERACTIONS IT MAKES ME MELT!!!

he also has a few unused "climbing antenna" voice lines named player_antennas_13 (perhaps there was a third one planned?):

" Oh God, it feels like I'm back on the monkey bars back in grade school. " " Safety harness? Who needs a safety harness? " " Flip a few switches... No problem... How hard can it be? "

i really recommend listening to these yourself, because there's no way to describe how out of breath and sarcastic and just DONE he sounds here

here's a fun fact: when crane is forced to make the pick-up for karim, he's faced with that one gunman in the gas station. however it looks like originally rais's squad was taken out by a goon, according to an unused voice line by the name of courier_obj_finishthug_journal_0:

" The bandits got killed by this huge overgrown Infected. I killed the giant goon and now Karim wants me to bring the blueprints back to him asap. "

rais has a cut voice line where he actually swears for the first time ever (rais_courier_21):

"Do you take for a fucking imbecile? Did you think I wouldn't notice? How many times must I explain this to you..."

due to how it's numbered and what voice lines are after this one, we can deduct it's what rais was saying to his men he'd shoot later on

"Siblings"

jade has a cut line where she expresses her trust in crane when she radios him about meeting near the school (jade_explosives_35dlg10):

" And listen, Crane. I know I can trust you now. You've proven that. Thank you, for this and for everything else you've done for us. "

ouch!

there's one cut voice line said by crane during the school section (cin_jadeexplosives):

" [...] - Holy shit. That's plastic explosives, right? - Yeah, yeah this will change everything. We blow up that hive and we'll own the night. "

i think it's a very fun quote, shame it never made it into the final cut

spike and crane also have an interaction with each other (primehunting_02) that, while present back in 2015, seems to have been lost to time when the enhanced edition came out:

" - Crane, you there? - What's up, Spike? - Just FYI, if you need me I'll be at the ferry station, helping Morgan prep the barge. Strangest thing, he said he got shaken down by some young man, who sounded an awful lot like you. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you? - H-Hey, I-I've gotta run! I'll talk to you later, Spike! "

"The Pit"

we have an unused line from brecken after zere's truck gets attacked:

"GODDAMMIT PUT OUT THOSE GODDAMN FIRES! And see what we can salvage from Zere's truck!"

there's also a conversation between crane and brecken, which you can still find in old footage:

" - Crane - look, I know I've been hard on you. But after what happened to Rahim... and now Dr. Zere, you have to understand... - Brecken, there's no apologies necessary. And don't worry, I'll bring Zere back in one piece. - Just be careful, okay? And I'm sorry about Rahim. I know you were close. Hell, I loved that stupid kid too. "

there's also an additional voice line when contacting the ministry of defense:

" O-Okay just listen. There's this scientist in here named Zere and he's been doing research on a cure, and he's really close, I've seen the research. If you bomb the city just... just think about what would happen if the virus got out of the quarantine. You might be destroying our one chance at stopping it. "

all these voice lines are named warehouse in the files

rais has a cut voice line after kyle punches him square in the face (cin_arena01):

"Is it so hard to hold... ONE MAN?!"

crane also has an unused voice line when taken into the pit (arena_desc_0):

"Rais took my weapons and put me in a fucking zombie circus. If this is it for me I'm not going down alone."

and so does rais (rais_arena_03):

"Crane, come over here and patch yourself up, I want to talk to you."

when escaping the pit it looks like we were originally supposed to be contacted by brecken on the way back (runaway_03):

" - Where have you been? What the hell happened? - Zere... Zere's dead... "

(all voice lines were found on sounds-resource)

[achliegh]

The Major League

Masterlist

TW: Food, swearing, first date, if there are more please let me know.

Baseball Boys meeting and falling in Love

What could go wrong… ;)

Beta: @punkkkkboi

Most Characters belong to: @lumosinlovelove

James and Lily’s house, Hogwarts 2020

How was James so good at this game? It’s such a weird thing to be good at. Sirius was sitting on the couch, Lily was right next to him while their curly haired friend sat on the floor playing Octo-Dad. It was the weirdest game Sirius has ever laid eyes on.  He and Lily were sharing some popcorn with various things added to it to add some interesting textures. Like gummy bears and m&ms. Lily also had a single serving tub of cream cheese for some reason. He didn’t ask. 

Remus was due to show up sometime soon, they were all hanging out today because Lily wanted to see Sirius and Remus get along for her own two eyes. Sirius wasn’t super stoked about it, but watchin James play a game where he was an octopus was pretty funny. 

They were watching him for a while, he was getting so frustrated, screaming at the screen in spanish when he would lose. His face was so red and his hair was wild from him running his fingers through it. Lily just watched, smiling at her beloved husband. Giving him suggestions that she knew would get him to mess up. Eventually James gave up and curled up on the couch with his head in Lily’s lap to pout. 

“Stupid game.” He had his mouth full of popcorn and was just staring forward as he grumbled. “I could have beat it!”

“You were pretty good at it, rather impressive.” Sirius takes James' old spot on the floor and picks up his controller to go back to the main menu to find a new game to play.

“I’m here! I brought dinner!” Remus walks in the door carrying a couple to-go boxes from the cafe the four of them always go to and maneuvers his way over to the dining room table. Setting them out one to every chair. “Pick the right chair and you get the right order, I have no idea what Sirius always ordered so I just got what he ate last time.” Remus sneaks a peak into a box and sits at that chair as everyone else files in. 

“I think I got James’.” Lily is looking in the box she sat in front of and deciding whether or not she should eat it or trade for her usual. “I’ll keep it, a Hot-Beef sandwich sounds food-I mean good.” She blinks a couple times. “Am I far enough along to claim pregnancy brain?”

“You’re asking the wrong people, Red” James laughs at Remus’ comment and kisses her hand, opening his box to find her food. He was never a fan of these fancy sandwiches but he would make due for her. 

“I need to hang out with Ink more often, you three are clueless.” She smiles at the three completely different looks she's getting. Sirius is offended, James is alarmed and Remus is agreeing as he nods his head. 

“I haven’t seen Ink in a couple of months, what's she up to?” Lily and Ink have been best friends since elementary school. They were inseparable all throughout school, Ink was Lily’s maid of honor in her wedding and even gave her and James the tattoos on their ring fingers that they have so when they aren’t wearing their rings for work people still know they are taken. 

“She's great actually, she has officially opened her own shop! Her and Marlene are running it together with Mary and I think they are hiring a new person here soon! Her name is Andy I think?”

“Andromeda!? Whoa wait a second.” Sirius wipes his face with his napkin. “Andy is my cousin, she was exiled from the family for some secret reason and I haven’t seen her in years!”

“Well she is working at Ink’s shop so you can come and see her!” Lily smiles brightly at him and he returns it, feeling rather excited at the thought of seeing his cousin again. 

“What's the name of the shop?” 

“Olive and Otto, it's named after her late parents so be respectful.” She shoots him a warning glance. 

“Your family throws people out of the family?” Remus looks at Sirius with a bewildered look.

“Yeah, it comes with the old world views and rumors in the tribe.” 

“Can I ask which tribe you’re from?” Remus doesn’t know a lot about Native culture at all so he wasn’t sure what was acceptable to ask and what wasn’t. He genuinely wanted to know more though.

“Well, we were given the name Navajo by Eurpoeans but we call ourselves Dine’.” He looks at Remus and takes a drink from his straw. Remus nods and they keep eating, having silence fall over the two of them. 

“I think I remember you talking about her.” James looks at Sirius. “That was right after we painted the school mascot statue thing pink, right?” Sirius starts laughing and nodding.

“Those two weeks of dentition were worth it. Dumbledicks face was priceless.” Sirius and James launch into a conversation about all the shit they did at school. Remus didn’t go to the same school as these three so he has no idea what they have done. 

“What about the time we stole all the teachers' copies of textbooks from the lounge and sold them to students for $50.” 

“Or the time we wore the girls' uniforms because your pants had a hole in the knee and were told to change so we stole Lily and Ink’s skirts from their dorms!” 

“You guys lived in dorms?” Remus breaks up the conversation looking at them confused. “Did you go to Illvermorny? The private school downtown?” All three nod. “Wow.”

“What school did you go to?” Sirius thought Remus went to their school but it's so big he just never knew he existed. 

“I went to Rowena School for Delinquent Boys…” 

“You were a delinquent?” Silence and then laughter bursting out of Sirius. 

“Yes, I got in trouble for arson when I got mixed up with the wrong people so, yeah I was a delinquent. My parents never understood why I was sent there after one crime but.” He shrugs. “My guess is because I came from a poor neighborhood but who knows.” He takes a bite of his bread that he dipped in his soup. 

“Well it does explain your scar a bit, it makes you look… not scary but I don’t think most people would mess with you.” 

“I got it before I got in trouble, playing baseball with rocks when I was in middle school. It gave me my second concussion, if I get one more then I can’t play sports so… don’t touch me above the shoulder…. Unless you’re Lily.” He smiles when Lily winks at him. 

“Oh I didn’t know.”

“Never told you.” Remus smirks at Sirius and it annoys him. 

“How did you meet James and Lily?” He just goes back to picking at his food with his cheek resting in the palm of his hand, resting his elbow on the table. 

“I met James at a camp, I think it was our junior year?” James nods. “James had just moved here and went to the Batters Up camp, I think it was held at Greenhouse stadium? Anyway, he was getting made fun of by some brat from Sytherin and I stood up for him. Then I went to his house for dinner and probably ate the most I have ever eaten in my entire life.” He closes his togo box because he's done with his food and picks up his cup to drink his sweet tea. “Lily I met at a museum, the Divination one on 58th street. I was there with my school on a weekend and she was our tour guide, we started talking about how dumb the measuam was before talking about what books we were reading and then we were friends. That was after I met James, so I heard her complain about him a lot.” 

“Yeah, that was before James and I started studying in the same group and after he learned ASL, which I still can’t believe he did. Especially for me.”

“I’d do anything for you.” James says before she even fully ended her sentence, making Lily’s cheeks go a bit pink as she tries not to smile. 

“I know, that's why you get a haircut every month.” James starts laughing his usual loud full hearted laugh. Making Lily’s smile brighten even more. Remus wants a love like that, he wants someone who would do everything for him, someone who would look at him the way Lily and James look at each other. He wants someone he would do everything for, someone who he wouldn’t hesitate to follow everywhere. 

They all went into the kitchen together, throwing out the leftovers and recycling their boxes. Making some virgin daiquiris so Lily doesn’t feel left out. She sits on the counter, James leaning his back against her between her legs as they watch Sirius and Remus argue about the ratio of ice in the drinks.

“They are going to be the bestest of friends aren't they?” Lily whispers in her husband's ear as she wiggles her hands into his front pockets. 

“Oh definitely, if they don’t kill each other first.” James says back, wincing at the insults being thrown between their friends. 

“No you idiot! It's half ice, a third water and a third mix!” Sirius is holding the bag of mix up in Remus’ face who is looking rather unimpressed making Sirius all the more angry. 

“It's a third ice, a third water, and a third mix.” He was speaking calmly but spitting his words out like they were poison darts. “But do whatever you want, I don't care.” He waves him off and goes to stand next to James. 

“No, you do it.” Sirius grabs Remus’ wrist and yanks him back, slapping the bag of mix in his hand and hopping on the counter next to Lily with his arms crossed. He has got rather hot from being angry and puts his hair up in a ponytail to keep it off his neck. 

“Good, that's what I wanted.” Remus mumbles to himself and makes the drinks quickly, handing everyone their cups with metal straws and rinsing out the blender in the sink. He looks at Sirius who is drinking his daiquiri. He narrows his eyes when he finally notices Remus looking. 

“Fine, it's better. Shut up.” 

“What can I say, I’m always right.” He smiles to himself feeling great that he made Sirius look stupid. 

He was so easy to mess with. 

Three Broomsticks Coffee Shop, Hogwarts 2020

Noelle was sitting at a table waiting for Thomas to show up, she finally agreed to go on a date with him after years of him asking. She has always had an attraction towards him, he's funny, charming, respectful, and very good looking. She just never felt like it was the right time to say yes, she heavily  relies on her gut feeling to make decisions and she never got that solid yes feeling when he would ask before. 

Thomas and Clay came to see her after class one day, they only saw each other for a couple minutes but in those minutes Noelle felt in her gut that she should invite Thomas out for coffee. She didn’t know what it was but seeing those two bozos together made her feel something weird in her chest. 

So, meeting Thomas here after practice sounded like a great idea. His practice wasn’t over until late and she just came form rehearsals herself, she was in such a hurry she grabbed her sweatpants and put them on over her tights and leotard before driving here. She chose a corner booth because she doesn’t really like a lot of attention on her and she knows Thomas just brings attention with him being the Eagles heartthrob and all. 

She enjoyed listening to people's orders and guessing what they looked like. She herself was drinking an iced coffee with a little bit of stevia in it. She should probably eat something but she doesn’t have the money to buy anything right now so she would eat when she's home. 

“Can I have an iced matcha latte with a blueberry muffin?”

“We are out of blueberry muffins.”

“Chocolate chip muffin then.”

“Umm, it appears we are out of those too.”

“Banana nut?”

“None.”

“Fine, I’ll just take the drink then! So much for tea and a muffin.” Noelle snorts, this guy really wanted a muffin. Since she didn’t know his name she would just call him Muffin Man. She opened her phone to text Thomas to ask where he was, ever since Clay convinced her to give Thoams her number she hasn’t regretted it. Clicking his name to open their messages a cup is sat down across from her.

An iced matcha latte…

“Oh my god!” She starts laughing while Thomas sits down. He raises an eyebrow at her but smiles his signature grin. He was wearing an old tshirt with the Cubs logo on it. She never noticed he has earrings before, maybe he doesn’t wear them when playing… or to her ballets. Maybe she's just oblivious and never noticed the small gold hoops in his ears. 

“What's so funny?”

“You’re the Muffin Man!” She laughs into her hand. 

“You heard all that? I just wanted a muffin.” He puts on a pout and she calms down. 

“That's all I’m going to call you from now on, Muffin Man.” 

“Giving me pet names already?” She feels her cheeks heat up, rolling her eyes. She tries not to let her smile show by drinking from her straw. “I should find one for you, something perfect.” 

“Do as you please but yours will forever be Muffin Man.” 

“Plan to be with me forever then?” He leans forwards on his forearms crossed on the table and smirks at her. 

“Who says we are together?” She mirrors him, his smirk falters a second before turning into a smile. 

“You asked me on the date, that has to mean something.” They both giggle a little while looking at each other, once their giggling calms down they just keep looking at each other. Taking in each other's features like it's their favorite pastime television show. 

“Maybe we should actually talk instead of just stare at each other. What's your family like?” Noelle says all of this while still glancing over Thomas’ face, never changing her position. Thomas doesn’t move either, just speaks without breaking eye contact that they have now started to hold.

“I grew up living with my parents, older brother Eric and my grandma. She likes to meddle in Eric and I’s relationships. I think she will adore you. Also I have a question, why are you taller than the average woman and Logan short as hell?” Noelle breaks their staring contest by laughing again. 

“Sydney and I are both really tall, we got it from our dad, I think she is 5’11 so an inch shorter than me. Logan and Aubry are both around 5’6 or 7. Also fun fact. I am the only person out of my siblings to have brown eyes.” 

“Huh, so you’re the black sheep out of the family?”

“No, I think that's Logan honestly. He has never really meshed super well with everyone but he's my little brother, I protect him with everything I can.” 

“My brother Eric, he's a business consultant with the ‘American dream’ life, a wife, a couple of kids, a dog, a cat, a white picket fence. He is definitely the black sheep in our family. Mom and Dad have their dentistry while my Grandma works at a fancy place. Honestly I don’t know what she does to make money.” He takes a swig of his latte. 

“I never knew my grandparents on either side, all dead before I was born.” 

“I’m sorry.”

“From what I heard they wouldn’t have liked any of us kids, so it's probably for the best.” Noelle starts messing with the brown braided bracelet it was a supposed gift from her grandmother to her mother. She didn’t believe it. 

“Hmm, well how about we talk about something else? Like… Clay?” He mentally slaps himself in the face, why in the world would she want to talk about Clay. 

“I like Clay, I need to talk to Logan about why he-”

“They talked.”

“What?”

“Clay and Logan already talked it out. Logan has feelings for Clay’s brother now and I think they might start dating soon. I think they would be cute.”

“I’ve never met Clay's brother but if he looks like Clay then I see why Logan would go after him.”

“Do I have a surprise for you!” He grabs his phone and pulls up a picture of him and Leo together, turning it to face her. “That's Leo, his brother.” Noelle just stares at the phone for a moment. Like she is fitting a puzzle together. 

“One of them is adopted?”

“Both actually, adopted together from a foster home.” 

“Cute. Wait, did Leo introduce you to Clay?”

“Well, he was at the same table as Logan so I just got a bit too drunk and begged Logan to help me woo you. Finn volunteered Clay to help. Apparently he was a matchmaker in their highschool.” They both let out an amused breath. Thomas decides to take a risk and reaches for her hand. He goes to just hold it but she surprises him by intertwining their fingers. He feels butterflies. 

“Thomas, I want to tell you something. I need you not to make a scene about it.” Noelle looks up at him, her brown eyes sweet with a flicker of worry in them. He furrows his brows but nods. “I have actually liked you for, well if I’m being honest, since I met you that evening on the bridge.” She sees his entire face light up, squeezing her hand. 

She remembers the night they met very fondly. She had just moved to Hogwarts, this was before Logan moved here for baseball. Thomas was a rookie on the Hufflepuff Hornets team. She was invited to a party and got overwhelmed by how many people were there so she decided to take a stroll around the Hufflepuff campus, stopping her walk on the walking path bridge that goes over the small creek that runs through the city. 

Thinking she was alone she was telling herself to calm down when a stranger approached her. Tall man with a blinding smile, he approached her without fear and Noelle thought this was going to end badly with unspeakable things happening. Instead he told her to be careful, a lot of odd people come out to the bridge at night. 

She wasn’t sure how to respond, she also couldn’t look away from the soft, kind eyes of this man. He held his hand out to her to help her find a better place for a breakdown. She took it without thinking, he led her to a little sitting area near the campus library. She let go of his hand and looked around. She noticed him staring at her and asked what was wrong. Then he introduced himself, she did the same and they sat in silence until she decided it was time to go back downtown to her dorm at the art academy. He waved her off and she never expected to see him again. 

Now here she is, holding his hand once again four years later in a coffee shop with no muffins. She felt the same way she felt that night. 

Safe.

[hyenahunt]

Werewolf - 6

Writer: Nishioka Maiko

Season: Summer

Proofreading: 310mc (JP)

Translation: Bella & hyenahunt

Hiyori: This is truly worthy of some super sleuthing! As the great detective that I am, you should just leave it to me, Natsume-kun!

[Location: Seisou Hall Common Room]

Hiyori: Jun-kun! Aren't you so glad we got to see that just now?

Jun: You mean the cat sittin' all cozily out in the courtyard, right? Yeah.

It was real cute... though it ran away when I tried to pet it. Wonder if it got lost and wandered in?

Hiyori: If it was a lost cat I would have loved to welcome it into my home...

But I can't do something as irresponsible as that, what with all the unpredictable travelling we do for work.

And besides, we can't have our Bloody Mary getting jealous, of course!

Natsume: ......

Hiyori: Hm? If it isn't Natsume-kun! Right as I was thinking I could feel some despair in the air!

Jun: Oh, you're right. Heya~

Hiyori: What's the matter? You shouldn’t be spreading gloomy vibes all over the place, you know? They'll just infect everyone around you, you see.

And I was in such a good mood, too! What a foul weather!

Natsume: I’m in an extremely bad mood right NOW. Leave me ALONE.

Jun: Hmm. Well then, wanna play some game again? Pick something fun and maybe your mood'll clear up a bit, whether you win or lose.

If you'd like, I can let you win, too? You could even pick something you're a pro at if you want — wouldn't bother me.

Natsume: I'm not in the MOOD. I won't feel like playing games for as long as I have all these worries weighing on my MIND, you KNOW.

Hiyori: Oh, that’s no good now, is it? If there's something troubling you, you should come have a heart-to-heart with me! How fortunate you are, to be blessed with advice from me of all people ☆

Natsume: ...Are you joKING? No way. You're not the least bit reliaBLE.

I don't approve of you inserting yourself into other people's affairs in the first PLACE. We call that "meddling," you KNOW?

Hiyori: Heheh. Tweak the meaning slightly and even meddling can turn right into care!

Everyone would be so much happier if they'd look instead at the bright side of life ♪

Not to mention, I'm always the one who soothes Jun-kun's woes. So knowing that, you should just kick back, relax, and tell me everything!

Jun: You're usually the source of my woes to begin with, Ohii-san.

Hiyori: Feeling bashful, are we, Jun-kun? You're so cute when you are ☆

Jun: Bashful's the last thing I am, actually....

Natsume: HonestLY. I don't understand how you can stay so needlessly optimisTIC, Tomoe-senpai.

Hiyori: Yes, yes. You see, this is what you'd call an adult's composure. I'm on a different level entirely when it comes to experience — after all, I'm basically your senior in life!

Jun: Well, putting Ohii-san and his advice aside...

If you're at your wit's end over something, Sakasaki-san, it might help to ask around for opinions, y'know~?

In times like these, you could totally have some kinda breakthrough just by looking at it from a different angle.

Natsume: A breakTHROUGH…?

(It is true that asking Sora hasn't gotten me anyWHERE, and I don’t even have an inkling of what the problem is in the first plaCE. I'm well and truly STUMPED.

Hrmm… These two were with me when Sora started acting strangeLY, so perhaps they might know someTHING...)

But it literalLY, physically pains me to rely on the two of THEM...

Jun: Sakasaki-saaan? You kinda said that out loud, y'knooow~? Please keep stuff like that to yourself.

Natsume: I'm sooo sorRY. That was on purPOSE ♪

Jun: Man, both you and Ohii-san are such pleasant people, huh.

Natsume: But it's exactly as you SAY. I feel completely and utterly STUMPED.

You SEE, it's because of Sora that I'm so glooMY.

We met him in the kitchen some time ago, RIGHT?

Jun: Yeah. We did, now that you mention it~

Natsume: Since THEN, Sora's been acting oddLY. He's been aloof for some reaSON.

As you might exPECT, it's worrying ME. He ran away in the blink of an eye when I went to visit his room just NOW.

Hiyori: Hmm~ Are you sure it's not because of you, Natsume-kun?

Like maybe you said or did something to upset him. That's my deduction, anyway!

Natsume: I'm sure it isN'T. Sora only acts like this at the dorms; he's his usual self when we're doing WORK.

He's not the kind of person who does a total 180 between his public and private life eiTHER.

If I'd really done or said something to HIM, then it'd be strange for his attitude to change only based on where we ARE.

Jun: Mmm... It does sound like a real mystery...

We're not gonna find any answers standing around thinking about it, so why not just straight-up ask Harukawa-kun why he ran away that time?

Natsume: Absolutely NOT.

Jun: You're practically pulling your hair out over this, so why not? Isn't hearing it straight from him the quickest way to get a guaranteed answer?

Natsume: I certainly could force him to tell me exactly what's going ON...

But that wouldn't be FAIR. Sora doesn't belong to ME. He's his own perSON.

If he doesn't want to talk to ME, then I'm not going to corner HIM.

Hiyori: Ah-ha~ ♪ I can see right through you. You're trying to put up a front, aren't you! You don't want to let your adoring junior see you looking lame in the slightest, correct?

Natsume: God, you're so annoYING...

AnyWAY, that's THAT. If Sora's decided he's not going to talk to me about IT, I'm not going to make him, BUT...

If I could just figure out what's going ON, then I might be able to do something about IT.

You two saw him that day too, didn't YOU? Did you notice anything OFF? Anything's better than noTHING… I'm not expecting that much from you, anYWAY.

Jun: Easier said than done.... Nothing really happened that day, right? I can't think of anything that could've been—

Hiyori: Heh heh heh.... Interesting.... Reaaally interesting!

Natsume: What? Did you figure something OUT, Tomoe-senpai?

Hiyori: Nope, not in the slightest! But I do believe Sora-kun's hiding some sort of important secret!

Hiyori: This is truly worthy of some super sleuthing! As the great detective that I am, you should just leave it to me, Natsume-kun!

In the name of my dear old grandfather, I'll solve this mystery for everyone! After all, only a single truth prevails ♪ [1]

Natsume: ...Just what is he so obsessed with this TIME?

Jun: The detective mangas I've been lending him, I'm guessing?

Ohii-san, I'm just saying but you got things a little wrong, y'know?

Natsume: (Sigh) I feel like reaching back into the past and punching myself for even trying to talk with THEM...

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Translation Notes:

[1]: Hiyori references two famous detective manga series in this line — the first is a reference to The Kindaichi Case Files, where the main character's catchphrase is "In the name of my grandpa!". The second is from Detective Conan, with "One truth prevails!". In both cases, he gets them slightly incorrect, hence Jun's comment: お爺さま instead of じっちゃん (a more formal way of saying grandfather), and 真 相 instead of 真実 (both meaning truth but pronounced differently)

✦✦✦✦✦

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[gb-patch]

Ask Answers: January 5th, 2021

How exactly can we get the option to gift cove a bracelet at the start of step 3? I really only get that option with having a ponytail-black shirt-black pants-no accessories cove but i dont know the specific requirements for the option to show up

Cove’s gotta wear a bracelet in Step 2. If he doesn’t it means him liking bracelets isn’t a very long-standing trait and so the MC wouldn’t think to get him one as a gift.

I am very sorry if this was asked before but I have noticed "Our Life: Beginnings and Always" and "Our Like: Now and Forever." Did I miss something? Is "N&F" going to be a sequel or DLC? Are we going to see a geriatric Cove? (haha) Thank you in advance for the reply. ^_^ 

Our Life: Now & Forever is a new game in the franchise, but it’s not a sequel. It’ll have a new cast, new story, and new setting. It will still have all the best features of the original game and be about creating your own character/growing up from childhood!

Is there a specific reason why Cove gets so flustered and has to jump out if bed and walk it off when they share a bed in step 3? It seems a bit over the top for something they've already done twice! Once with the late night visit when Cove finds out his mom is coming and once in the RV.

Is just because they are older and the implications are different, even though the crush was already there in the RV/latenight visit scenes? Or did I miss something that made Cove more reluctant or more apprehensive towards sharing a bed/touching?

Sharing a bed with the person he likes/love is different for him at eighteen than it is at thirteen. Some things get easier when you grow up, like he’s more comfortable sharing food, but some things get harder/more complicated to him. Sharing a bed is one of those for Cove. It feels a lot more intimate and meaningful as time goes on, rather than less of a big deal.

Hello! First, I wanted to thank you and congratulate you for this amazing game. I enjoyed every single second! In a year full of stress, this was a little cozy light. Do you have any plans to make it available for other languages? Thank you again 💕 

Thank you! I’m afraid the game is still in pretty active development so we can’t consider translating the script in it’s semi-incomplete form. And we’re not a big enough company that we can promise translations will definitely come when the game is done, unfortunately. We can see what things are like when all the words are truly set, though.

Did Cove's name come from that Cove restaurant on Holden beach? Whenever I search up his name I always get those results haha 

No, haha. His first name was based on his character and the game’s theme, his last name is a reference to something of a personal joke.

Will the NSFW DLC have CGs too?

Yep!

So, to start off, I need to thank you guys, from the bottom of my heart, for creating Cove Holden. I want every single one of my MCs to be able to get engaged and married to that precious angel, so I was wondering how transitioning into step 4 using save files will work? Will I be able to load up a save file saved right before the end credits after step 3, or will I need to load one from before the transition section after step 3? I’m sorry if this has already been answered somewhere, but if it has, I haven’t been able to find it. Thank you!!!!!! 

Thank you very much c:. You’ll be able to load any save file, unless it was taken as the credits were actually rolling, and the Step 4 epilogue will simply start going once you’ve played through whatever was left of the main game and seen the credits. There are rare cases where a save file breaks between updates, but generally continuing where you left off should work for people.

Hi! I absolutely adore our life, and I was wondering is there a way to have Shiloh remember the MC and Lizzie in step 3?

I’m glad you like it! Sadly, no matter what you do Shiloh will act the same in that scene.

Hi! I'm the Australian that asked about ever including an Aussie VA, do you have any future plans for Our Life 2 or any other games to include an Aussie character and VA? 

Right now we don’t have any guaranteed future Aussie roles. But we don’t have fully developed character lists for our upcoming games yet, so that may still change.

Will OL2 also follow the tradition of "Blonde Adult That We Cannot Date"? 👀

Haha, maybe. There isn’t one right now, however we still have a lot of side characters to plan.

Hey, are the houses in the game furnished based on items in the Sims 4? I’ve noticed some similarities, but I’m not sure if it’s just a coincidence. (If it is, that’d make me building it in TS4 MUCH easier...)

For me, I use real world pictures as references as well as text notes. I loved Sims 2 when I was young but haven’t gotten into a new Sims game since. I don’t believe the artist checks Sims 4 when creating their work, though it’s not impossible. Maybe they do.

is it possible to still get your name in the voiced dlc [I'm not sure how you would do it, is it from patreon ??] or is it too late ?? 

Currently there’s no way to get your name voiced. But we are looking into opening up a method for that one more time later this year. You can keep an eye out for that!

Will we be able to ask Derek out to the dance if we get his DLC? Not a Derek fan but I'm planning to surprise my friend with this 

Yeah. Taking Derek to the dance is part of his DLC.

Hi! I have a question I've been curious about, if you're comfortable with answering! If Cove and the MC remain just friends into Step 4/MC dates one of the other guys, will Cove canonically be in a relationship with/interested in somebody else at that point or shortly after? Thank you!

He won’t. There’s not really anyone in his school, and certainly not the neighborhood he grows up in, that he’d be into other than the MC. As a pretty newly independent adult he hasn’t had enough time to truly find a special someone in Step 4. It takes a while for him to make that kind of move, haha. It’s totally fine to headcanon that sometime after Step 4 he finds love with someone else, but it won’t happen in-game.

i just wanted to share this cute little playlist that i made about cove! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5wM7GNiJh5eRqhvLBperfQ?si=4FocdBsNTpeF053yOwaLSA

Cool! Thanks for sharing it with us.

No, no, no create longer ask answers please. 😌

The ask answers are not too long. If anything I'm greedy and wish they were longer... I'm already subbed to your guys patreon and I still can't get enough 👀 I'm in love with you guys 

Will you post more of those long form ask posts? I love them 🥰

Haha, thank you for these messages. I’m glad you’re enjoying the content.

——————————————————————

Thank you very much for all the questions! Also, if you prefer to just see the main posts without all the asks/reblogs, feel free to follow our side account instead: GB Patch Updates Blog

[heyitssmiller]

Chop It Like It’s Hot

A Worst Cooks in America O’Knutzy AU

The Sweater Weather Discord group helped me come up with this idea like two months ago, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since. All credit goes to @lumosinlove for her amazing characters!

Chop It Like It’s Hot Masterlist

Chapter 1: Don’t Go Bacon My Heart

The Day Before the Competition

Interviewer (off camera): Finn O’Hara and Logan Tremblay for their introductions.

Logan: * taps on microphone* Is this mic working?

Finn: How do you still not know how to work a mic? You deal with them all time.

Logan: I signed up to compete in a cooking show, not to deal with your chirps.

Finn: You love ‘em. *winks*

Interviewer: So basically all we want from you guys is a brief introduction for the viewers. I’ll ask some questions, but most of this should be you guys just talking. We can edit things out later, so don’t worry about anything like that. Why don’t you guys start with your names and careers and we’ll go from there.

Finn: Yo, I’m Finn O’Hara, and I’m a terrible cook. *finger guns* Although I guess that’s a given, seeing that I’m on this show.

Logan: *mumbles in French, head in hands*

Finn: This asshole – shit, no – fuck! Sorry, I probably shouldn’t be cussing. This is a family-friendly show.

Logan: Dear God, please stop talking. I’m Logan Tremblay, the unfortunate boyfriend.

*Finn pouts*

Interviewer: And you guys play hockey?

Logan: Yeah, we play in the NHL. Gryffindor Lions.

Finn: That’s how we met, actually. Through hockey. We played together at Harvard, then got drafted to the Lions about a year apart. We’ve known each other for eight years and have been together for three of them. Can’t seem to get rid of this one.

Interviewer: And you’re not worried about being rivals on this show?

Finn: Rivals is a strong word… I mean yes we’ll be competing against each other instead of being teammates, but we know going in that it’s not personal. Just a little healthy competition.

Interviewer: So what made the two of you sign up for this show?

Logan: We didn’t. Our teammate Dumo and his wife Celeste did. They thought it would be funny. *pause* They’re probably right.

Interviewer: Out of the two of you, who is the worst cook?

*Finn and Logan point to each other*

Logan: You can’t be serious.

Finn: You once cooked pasta so much that it turned into literal paste!

Logan: You tried to cook pizza rolls in a toaster.

Finn: That’s what it said in the instructions!

Logan: It said toaster oven, you - *more French*

Finn: English, Tremz. How many times do I have to tell you that? I guess we’ll find out once and for all who the better cook is by the end of the next eight weeks, right? *mouths “it’s me” to the camera*

Logan: Whatever, Fish.

Interviewer: I think we’ve got all we need guys, thanks. Start time for tomorrow is 10:00 am, but plan on being here forty-five minutes to an hour early to get ready. We’ll see you then.

Competition Day

“Are you nervous? I’m nervous.” Finn stated, running a hand through his hair and looking around at the studio they’d be in and out of for the foreseeable future. There were cooking stations everywhere and he could already see tools and machines that he had no clue how to use. There were twelve other contestants that he didn’t know and the crew scattered everywhere, running back and forth trying to get everything ready. “God, how am I sweaty already? Is this normal?”

Logan rolled his eyes but still reached over to grab Finn’s hand, squeezing it lightly. “Relax. It’s not so bad.” Finn smiled down at him, glad that they were at least here together. How in the hell did he get so lucky?

“Besides, you’ll be sent home soon enough. So don’t stress too much.”

Finn laughed. “Wow, I hate you so much right now.” He betrayed his words with a quick kiss. “You’re going down.”

Those green eyes flashed at the challenge, but right as he opened his mouth to respond-

“Good morning, recruits!”

All heads turned towards the voice. Three figures stood towards the front of the room: one they both recognized as the producer, who was flanked by who Finn assumed to be the chefs, seeing that they were wearing chef’s outfits. Chef’s uniforms? Did their uniforms have a technical name? Finn made a mental note to google that later.

Anyways, one was a short woman with dark ringlets tied back in a ponytail and an undiscernible expression on her face. The other was tall, blond, and had legs for days Jesus Christ-

“Welcome to your first day of boot camp! This is chef Dorcas Meadowes and chef Leo Knut; they’ll be your team leaders. We’re going to start with some footage of you all walking into the kitchen, so if you all would wait out there until you’re allowed to come back in. Cameras will be rolling, so be ready! After that, our chefs will explain the first challenge and then you’ll start cooking.” He clapped his hands together. “Alright, let’s get this show started!”

“Why did they make us come in here just to send us back out?” Logan grumbled, following the other shuffling contestants out into the hall.

“Probably easier to give directions to the main studio instead of saying ‘hey, just wait out in the hall.’”

Logan hummed noncommittally. “I guess.” He wasn’t overly excited to be here; most of this (besides the initial push by Dumo and Celeste) was Finn’s idea. And god knows he could never say no to Finn. One look at that pout and brown puppy-dog eyes and he was done for. Logan didn’t like cooking, but he did like Finn. And they’d probably remember this for years to come. It didn’t matter what he was doing, as long as he was with Finn and making memories with him he’d do just about anything.

“Wonder what the first challenge is.” Finn mused, his eyes locked on the doors.

Logan laughed. “Always so impatient.”

“I’m a New Yorker,” Finn grinned, leaning into his accent. “It’s in my blood.”

The doors opened and contestants began filing back into the kitchen. Finn made sure to wave enthusiastically at the chefs with a wide smile. Logan noticed the tall one (god, he’d already forgotten the guy’s name) give a little wave in return as the other chef commanded the attention of everyone else in the room.

“Good morning, recruits, and welcome to boot camp! I’m chef Dorcas Meadowes, and this is chef Leo Knut. He’s the rookie of our crew, but don’t worry – he’s still qualified to teach all of you. Even though that’s not saying much.”

There was a smattering of laughter and chef Leo smiled, revealing dimples Logan could see from where he stood. “Hey, y’all. I’m very excited to see what makes all of you qualified to be put on this show. Who knows? Maybe you’ll give me more gray hair.” Dorcas laughed and ran her fingers through the tuft of gray hair at his temple.

“When did you get this? I don’t remember seeing it when we were in culinary school. Is it from Iron Chef?”

“Nah, this is from having Gordon Ramsay come to my restaurant.”

“Truly a terrifying man.” She shuddered. “Anyways, you guys be nice to this giant ball of sunshine. Even if he’s new, he’s still able to eliminate you from this competition.”

“In order to pick our teams, we need to see what kind of skills you have.” Leo winced. “Or don’t have. So today, we want you to make your favorite dish. Easy enough, right?”

“Oh god,” Finn murmured into Logan’s ear. “What’s my favorite dish? Do I even have one?”

“Finn.”

“You all have an hour to complete this task.” Dorcas said, glancing down at her watch. “And your time starts… now!”

“Fuck.” Finn stated emphatically, dashing off to the pantry.

Fuck was right. God, what was Logan going to make? He was wracking his brain for something while he grabbed two aprons from the back. He tossed one to Finn and took the station beside him before hurrying to the pantry. Chicken was always a safe bet, right? Celeste made a barbeque chicken recipe that was to die for. That couldn’t be too hard. It was just chicken and barbeque sauce. And maybe green beans on the side? He could get those canned ones and they’d taste fine if he rinsed them. This was fine.

He guessed on the temperature for the oven. 350 seemed good. Then he dumped two chicken breasts into a pan, poured the barbeque sauce over them, and put them into the oven.

“What are you making?” Logan startled at the soft voice, turning to see chef Leo at his station.

Blue eyes.

Logan blinked, Leo’s question forgotten. “Quoi?”

“You speak French?”

Why was his brain refusing to work all of a sudden? Get it together, Tremblay. “Uh, yeah.”

“What are you making?” Leo asked for the second time, but now it was in French. Weirdly worded French.

“Barbeque chicken.” Logan responded in French, then switched back to English. “What in the world was that?”

Leo flashed him a grin. “New Orleans, born and raised. We speak French there, too. Now tell me how you’re making that chicken.”

“Uh.” He had never said the word ‘uh’ so much in one sitting. Merde. “I put it in a pan, spread barbeque sauce over it, and I’m cooking it at 350.”

“How do you know when it’s done?”

Was this a trick question? It felt like a trick question. “Uh.” Fuck. “It has to get to a specific internal temperature, right?”

The chef nodded. “And what’s that?”

“145?"

Something in Leo’s expression flickered, but Logan couldn’t figure out what it meant. “Well, good luck. Logan, right?”

“Yeah.”

“See you at the judging table.” He said with a dimpled smile before moving to Finn’s station, which was already a mess. “Oh my. How are you doing over here?”

Finn laughed a bit hysterically. “Not good. Not good at all.”

“Ok. What’s going on?”

“Well I’m trying to make carbo’hara, and –“

“Really, Fish?” Logan called from his station. “That’s what you’re making?”

“What’s carbo’hara?” Leo asked as he watched Finn put bacon in a pan.

“Oh,” Finn waved a hand carelessly. “It’s just carbonara, but a pun on my name, O’Hara. Get it?”

Leo laughed, crossing long arms over his chest. “That’s terrible.”

“Yeah, but it makes me happy. My parents used to make it every night before my brother or I had hockey games.”

“Oh, that’s right. You guys are hockey players.”

“Go Lions!” Finn cheered, taking a spoonful of butter and throwing it into the pan with the bacon.

“Are you putting butter on bacon?” Leo asked with a raised eyebrow.

Finn responded with full confidence, “I didn’t want it to stick to the pan.”

“Ok. Got it. I… I look forward to seeing what you make.” Finn watched as Leo bit his lip and tried his hardest not to laugh.

Cute.

Finn felt his cheeks flush and blamed it on the steam from the pasta.

The last thirty minutes of the task were absolute chaos, but both boys got it done. Finn’s looked messy, which accurately summed up his cooking style. Logan was pretty proud of how his looked; he just hoped it tasted good. He gave Finn a smile and a fist bump. “Ready to be judged?”

Finn laughed, looking down at his plate. He grimaced. “Not really.”

“We’re all bad cooks. Chances are someone else’s dish is worse than yours.”

“That… actually helped. Thanks.”

***

 Finn was chosen to be judged before Logan. He brought up his plate with a sheepish smile and placed it on the table in front of the chefs. Dorcas raised an eyebrow while Leo prodded the pasta with his fork.

“It’s carbo’hara.” Finn stated with pride.

“Well, Finn…” Dorcas met his eyes. “This looks like a mess, but let’s see how it tastes.”

Finn cringed as they both took a bite of his food. Dorcas frowned as she chewed and Leo tilted his head, a confused expression on his face.

“I don’t know how you did it, but this solidifies in my mouth like glue.”

“Oh god, please don’t eat any more.”

“You definitely put a lot of effort in and you have a lot of potential,” Leo said with a small smile. “I think you were just a little too ambitious for this first round and it got away from you.”

“That’s fair. Thanks for the input.” Finn grabbed his plate and made his way back to his station. He wasn’t too upset by those reviews – he already knew he was a bad cook. But he had potential, so at least he had that going for him.

Logan grinned at him back at his station. “I can’t believe you served the judges glue pasta.”

“At least I’m not serving them canned green beans.”

“They taste just fine, thank you very much.”

“Lo, they’re professionals. You’re not getting away with something lazy like that.”

He definitely got in trouble for using the canned green beans. Dorcas looked down at them like they were worms. Leo gave him the ‘I’m not mad, I’m disappointed’ look, which was even worse, please don’t look at me like that.

“Canned food is a no-go, huh?”

“Definitely.”

“And this chicken isn’t cooked all the way.” Leo said, showing him the pink meat. “You said earlier that you’d cook it until it reached 145 degrees, but chicken needs to reach 165 at a minimum.”

“I’m sure it tasted fine, though.” Dorcas added. “You can’t really go wrong with pre-made barbeque sauce and chicken.”

Ouch. Logan grabbed his plate. “Right. Thanks.”

Finn was predictably cackling at his station. “Tremz, they couldn’t even eat yours. Celeste is going to be so disappointed in you.”

“Shut up.”

 ***

As soon as they were back into their hotel room, Finn kicked his shoes off and faceplanted into the couch. “I can’t believe that took so long.”

“Yeah,” Logan sat down and grabbed his take-out. “Who knew cooking all day would make us so hungry?”

Finn made grabby hands at the other food container. Logan laughed and handed it to him. “I haven’t been this hungry since playoffs, fuck.”

They ate in silence and were finished in record-setting time. Finn collected their trash and stood up to throw it away. “So blue team, huh? I’m kind of surprised they put us on the same team.”

“Me too. But Leo seems like a good teacher, so I’m glad we’re on his team.”

“Yeah, he seems so young, too.” Which sounded ridiculous to say; Leo couldn’t be that much younger than them. “If he’s already winning competitions and starring in cooking shows at that age, he must be pretty good.”

“Winner of Iron Chef America, Chopped, Guy’s Grocery Games…” Logan read off his phone with a low whistle. “He graduated culinary school early and opened his own restaurant a year later.”

“Damn.”

“There’s a video of one of his competitions on here.”

“Play it!” Finn said excitedly, flopping back down on the couch and peering over his boyfriend’s shoulder. Logan gave him a strange look. “What? Maybe we’ll learn something useful.”

“I think this is going to be way too complicated for us, but ok.”

So they sat on the couch watching cooking competitions for hours, learning skills and techniques that went way over their heads. Logan wordlessly switched to Leo’s cooking show Cajun Cooking, watching episode after episode of the blue-eyed chef teaching traditional New Orleans recipes.

Little did they know that halfway across the city in his own apartment, Leo Knut was watching Youtube highlights of the Gryffindor Lions, keeping a sharp eye out for number seventeen and number ten.

[merakiui]

Morning and Day Teams Playing Among Us HCs

The 14th Department decides to play Among Us. (Part 2 can be found here.)

Morning Team (Mane)

🧩 Ghilley 🧩

Ghilley’s good at sneaking around in real life, so you better believe he’s a pro at using the vents. 

Whenever he’s the impostor, his main tactic is to kill someone while they’re doing a task. He normally goes for Jamie because he can’t get used to the controls. Anyone who’s in Admin swiping the keycard better watch out if they can’t get it on the first try.

He’s only played a few times with the others and the manager, but he’s able to memorize the map as he goes along. Sneaking around all the time, even in the game, helps a lot.

He moves fast after he’s killed someone, so whenever there’s a body report no one ever suspects him. Somehow he finds a way to make it as far from the body as possible. 

He’s always trying to trick everyone during the debate so they never really know if he’s the impostor or not. 

Whenever the Reapers suspect him, he’ll just do that famous laugh of his. 

“Am I the impostor? I don’t know. Maybe I am, and maybe I’m not. Ufufufu!”

It’s really hard to determine if he’s guilty or not because of how casual he is when playing. 

Sometimes he’ll throw out small hints so that the others will falsely accuse an innocent crew mate. He’ll say the most misleading things, which ends in an incorrect ejection. 

 His go-to color is black with the machete hat because it matches the sneaky vibe he always emits. 

☀️ Ell ☀️

Poor Ell. He’s so bad at Among Us. It’s not even funny.

For one, he can’t lie, so whenever he’s the impostor everyone knows right away. 

“It’s not me, guys!” And then he proceeds to sneeze and everyone votes him out.

Him and Jamie stick together because they don’t know what else to do. When he’s a crew mate, he’s one of the first killed because he spends so much time trying to find his way around the map.

Ell does his best to get all of his tasks done so that the others will have a chance at winning. 

Him and Jamie vibe in the dead chat. While everyone’s accusing one another, they’re just chilling. It’s honestly kind of fun.

Sometimes he’ll follow Youssef around when the two of them are in the same game. He’s learning so much from his older peers. If only he could actually get better at his gameplay. 

Youssef is really nice about it, too. He’s more than willing to help Ell in finding his tasks. That makes Ell very happy.

He tried to use the vents once and Licht caught him. 

His go-to color is cyan because it reminds him of a clear sky, and he wears the halo hat.

🐴 Jamie 🐴

Just like Ell, he’s also not good at the game. 

Jamie can’t wrap his head around all of the tasks and locations. He was downloading files and someone killed him. Now he’s stuck floating around the map as a ghost. 

“What just happened? Am I dead?”

He’s so confused.

Jamie stops and checks the map religiously so he can make it to his tasks. He’s always passing electrical trying to find the wires. 

When he was the impostor, he didn’t understand anything other than kill the crew mates. So he did just that and it failed miserably.

“What’s venting? What am I supposed to do with these fake tasks? I need the real tasks, right?”

Everyone votes him out as soon as they hear him say that during the meeting. They don’t even need to debate the location of the dead body.

It’s not his fault he can’t adapt to how fast the game moves. One minute he’s trying to swipe the keycard and the next thing he sees is Ethan twisting his avatar’s neck. He’s doing his best, though.

His go-to color is yellow, and he wears the bird nest hat.

💋 Licht 💋

He’s definitely flirting with the manager through voice chat. It doesn’t matter if the game’s ongoing; he’s going to make a few sly remarks regardless.

“If we win, we should go out to celebrate. Just you and me, darling.”

Licht just doesn’t shut up when he’s playing. Even when everyone’s supposed to silently work on their tasks, he’s busy starting a conversation with the air. No one ever replies, though the manager has begun to humor him.

He’s so upbeat and encouraging��usually just flirty half of the time—that the others have trouble figuring out whether he’s the impostor or not.

Licht’s actually pretty good at keeping his role a secret. That is, until the manager makes a comment.

“Wow! Who’s the imposter this time? They’re really good!” To which, Licht responds with, “Thank you, darling. You’re not so bad yourself.”

Kind of sus of him to say that, and nearly everyone votes for him. Even if he’s not the impostor, he still responds to the manager’s compliments.

He’ll follow the manager around when he’s a ghost, internally hoping they won’t get killed. It’s better to watch and listen as they try to work through the evidence they’ve found.

When they are killed, he tries to make their ghosts kiss. Licht seems to be playing a different type of game.

His go-to color is purple, and he wears the cherry hat.

Day Team (Die)

🎹 Theo 🎹

He’s glued to June so much throughout the game that everyone suspects he’s the impostor. But he’s just trying to protect June. He wants to be able to vouch for his friend in case the others plan on voting him out.

Theo’s actually decent at Among Us. He’s able to study the map and then follow it to his destination. He’s one of the first to finish his tasks so that he can help lead June to his.

When he’s an impostor, he won’t kill June or the manager. The rest of the Reapers are fair game, though. 

He’s surprisingly good at being the impostor. One time he and Nine were the impostors and he sabotaged the entire game. He made everyone vote out Nine so that he could win and impress the manager with his gaming skills.

He’s kind of scary when he plays. There’s a cold calculation in that warm expression of his, and it’s rather deceptive.

He goes after Nine the most. R.I.P. to Nine if he ever finds himself in the same lobby as Theo.

Theo has no problems defending himself, June, or the manager during the discussions. He always seems to have a solid alibi. If he’s put on the spot, he’s calm and collected about it, listing out his tasks and everything else that makes him innocent.

He’ll use the vents only when he needs to. Theo likes to sabotage the oxygen and the lights because it’s convenient. 

He once mistook June for someone else and killed him. That made Theo incredibly sad. :(

His go-to color is blue, and he wears the chef hat.

🌹 Louis 🌹

He’s not against playing video games if it’s with his friends. But too much screen time can be bad for the eyes and complexion. Besides, why look at a bright screen when he can ogle at his reflection all day? Truly, the latter is far prettier.

He’s not good at the game, but he’s also not bad either. Louis can do his tasks, vouch for those who were with him, and explain where he was when the body was found—albeit with his usual dramatic flair. 

“Ethan, why are our names red, but the others aren’t? Perhaps we’re special? Well, I wouldn’t expect anything less than perfect for someone such as myself!”

Ethan’s about ready to strangle him when Louis pulls mindless stuff like that.

Unlike the others, who play to win or to impress the manager, Louis plays for fun. He doesn’t care much about winning or losing. It’s the enjoyment that matters the most, right?

Louis tends to get distracted when he’s playing. The reason for that, you may ask? He noticed himself in the mirror and is now dedicating his time to admiring his features.

When this happens and he goes AFK, he’s killed. When he’s the impostor and he gets sidetracked, he completely forgets about killing.

He’s also vibing in the dead chat, spreading words of encouragement to himself. No one understands what he’s complimenting himself on, but at least Louis seems content.

Louis might not play as often as the others, but he still sets aside time for it. Though that time may get interrupted by his endless self-love.

His go-to color is white, and he wears the crown hat.

♞ Ethan ♞

He plays with intense strategy. 

Ethan likes to cut to the chase during the meetings in order to weed out the impostors. 

“I’ll keep it simple. Name your tasks and your exact location before the body was reported.” He takes the lead in most of the meetings.

He’s very diligent with his tasks. Those who don’t complete their tasks are on his radar. 

When he’s the impostor, he goes for those who are the easiest to kill off. Either that, or they’re just useless. Louis almost always finds his character dead at the hands of Ethan. 

He’s not too shabby for an impostor. Ethan knows how to use the vents to his advantage, and he never seems bothered when the others accuse him. He keeps his tone in check, so no one knows if he’s telling the truth or not.

Video games may not be a hobby of his, but he doesn’t mind playing them with the manager if that’s what they want.

When he and the manager are the impostors, they’re an unstoppable force.

He can’t believe he actually enjoyed even a second of Among Us, yet here he is. 

His go-to color is red, and he doesn’t bother with wearing a hat.

💥 June 💥

June loves playing Among Us! Not only is it fun, it also reminds him of some elements in those noir films he likes so much. A mystery is more fun when it’s played out amongst your friends.

In the beginning, he was a tad clumsy with his tasks and his role as either a crew mate or an impostor. He’s just trying to get the hang of things, but it didn’t necessarily work out in his favor.

He prefers being a crew mate over the impostor because he likes trying to figure out who’s guilty. It makes him feel like the main character of a mystery-action film.

Sometimes he’ll say the wrong things when he’s the impostor. But in the heat of the moment, he’s just excited to play more.

“It couldn’t have been me! I was hiding in the vents! Haha!”

June once received lots of baked goods from Theo a day after they all played. Theo claimed he had wrongfully killed his friend and wanted to make up for it, but June had already forgotten about that incident.

June doesn’t really suspect anyone whenever he plays. He’ll just go along with what the others say, working off of their evidence to create a conclusion of his own.

He enjoys it when the manager is in the lobby because it means they’ll be able to play together.

When June and Louis are dead, they’re typing to each other through the chat, bonding and having a grand time. They seem to forget about the game and just talk about whatever until one side wins.

His go-to color is orange, and he wears the sheriff hat.

[fanfalc-616]

The Rights Of A Nindroid

Chapter Thirteen- Variation One

(Prevoius chapter here)

(Discord Here)

This chapter was originally an RP with @ablackswansweet, and there are two versions- one from both character’s POV. I have Swan’s permission to post this.

Zane warily eyes the young adult who enters alongside Martha. Does she intend to hurt him to force him to do something?

“What do you want?” He questions, hating the resignation in his tone.

He really has begun to give up.

The blond seems oddly excited, considering the circumstances. It looks as though he’s barely containing himself as he comes up to Zane.

He leans into the nindroid’s personal space, studying him closely in a way that once again makes him feel like a studied lab rat.

"I want to learn how you work." The blond smiles deviously. He then grabs Zane’s face and moves it around to inspect it from different angles, and Zane tries to cover up his winces of pain as some of his exposed sensors are touched.

The blond takes a few notes in a notebook before returning to Martha’s side, still with an evil expression.

Zane tries to hide his sigh of relief when the teen leaves. It had taken a lot of impulse control to stop himself from attempting to bite the blond- being manhandled in such a way is a very unpleasant feeling.

“Haven’t you done that enough?” He protests, shifting in his bonds to the best of his ability. “With everything you’ve done to me, I doubt that any competent mechanic would need any more research.”

He glares at the two while he speaks, wishing he still had his faceplate- if only to better emphasize his look of displeasure.

The young man laughs a little, seemingly more to himself than to anyone around him. Yet once again, there’s still an almost cruel aura around him that puts Zane on edge.

"Thing is, Original, I'm not exactly a mechanic. I'm just really, really interested by your wires and gears. And how well they respond to… Certains stimuli," he says.

The teen takes a few more notes before looking to Martha, seeming to wait for approval. She gives it with a nod.

Zane doesn’t quite grasp what is happening until wires are hooked up to him, the blond still seeming to almost shake in his excitement.

He then steps in front of the control panel and looks back to Martha.

Zane feels a wave of unease take over him. Something about this situation is concerning him, and it’s more than the fact that they likely plan to hurt him.

They haven’t given any orders. They haven’t asked any questions. And yet it seems that they plan to hurt him anyway.

They claim that this is training, but at this particular moment, it seems as though this shaping up to be more torture than an attempt at teaching.

“To begin with, my name is Zane, not Original. Second, if you are so interested in ‘wires and gears’ perhaps a robotics course would be a more healthy outlet for you.”

He’s well aware that his words will make no difference, but he attempts to convince the teen to leave him alone anyway.

After a few moments, he adds, “Why are you doing this? I can assure you that I have never meant to cause harm on any innocents.” He glances over at Martha on the last words, noting her displeased expression.

“You can begin whenever you like.” She tells the blond, who hums in response.

"Hey, Original?" He calls out, waiting until Zane looks at him to continue. "You talk a lot."

The young man then pushes a button, and Zane finds himself squirming in his bonds at the uncomfortable feeling. This is far from the worst they have done or can do, but it is still not a pleasant feeling.

He watches as the blond writes something else down, and starts to try and reason with the teen, trying to convince him to stop. He even uses proper manners, but it still seems to have no effect.

When his requests to stop are left ignored, Zane decides to take a new track.

“I suppose I am talking a lot,” he admits, “but not nearly as much as an old friend of mine. Jay couldn’t stay quiet if his life depended on it.”

While starting up a friendly conversation might seem illogical, Zane hopes that it will perhaps give him some insight on the one hurting him. Information about the blond may give him an opportunity to convince him to stop- and perhaps small talk will help him prove that he is seintent.

"Heh, yeah. I had a guy like that in one of my foster homes." The blond smirks, seemingly at the way Zane is surprised. "Didn't end well for him either. No one like a constant source of useless noise, don't you agree?"

Zane isn’t quite sure why he finds him so humorous, but he chooses not to dwell on it, instead trying to find an appropriate response to the words.

"How is your old friend doing now?" The blond smirks as he turns up the voltage, staring Zane dead in the eyes.

Zane struggles to keep a hold of himself, gritting his teeth and trying to maintain the conversation.

And endless source of constant noise? That could be a way to describe it, but Zane has always been fond of Jay’s rambling.

“I haven’t seen him in a while- I’ve been a little…” He glances down at his chains, wincing. “... tied up.”

At this point, it’s likely that the blond has a game of his own if he’s still choosing to continue the small talk- and the large smirk on his face confirms it.

He pauses a moment before continuing. “I don’t think I caught your name, either. What do you go by?”

The blond wears a faux-surprised expression for a moment before answering. "My name's Kyle. He/him, I guess. But I don't think you're going to need to know that."

He returns to slowly upping the charge of the voltage, seeming to reveal in the uncomfortableness that he’s causing.

"Tell me about your other old friends.” Kyle still doesn’t look away. “You said you were dating, right ? How's it like ?" That menacing smile doesn’t fade, and while Zane isn’t quite sure where he’s going with this, surely playing along for the moment couldn’t hurt.

He forces any sign of pain down, attempting to keep up a polite and friendly facade even as the pain increases.

“It’s nice to meet you, Kyle.” He lies. “I don’t recall mentioning that I was in an active relationship, but I suppose that the background research you must’ve done would cover that.”

It is obvious that they know about his boyfriends- how else would they have known to show him what they did in the sensory manipulation?

The pain is still increasing, and it’s becoming harder and harder to pretend as though he’s not hurt.

His breathing has begun to grow heavy, and he’s sure that there are flickers of winces being shown, but he still does his best to maintain his friendly appearance.

"Yeah, I read your file before coming here. Big fan, by the way." Kyle still wears a cruel smile, but it starts to turn more menacing, an evil nature with more purpose. "Wonder how they feel about your self-sacrificing nature," he snarls.

But then he pauses, gritting his teeth. He seems to be trying to keep a hold on himself, but Zane isn’t quite sure what could have triggered it.

Unless… is it possible that his self destruct could have harmed more the way it did Martha?

Zane doesn’t have time to dwell on the thoughts, as he’s suddenly blasted with electricity, and he’s forced to bite back a cry of pain.

Thankfully, it’s only high for a few moments before Kyle lowers it, allowing Zane to regain his composure with a relieved sigh.

Kyle redirects the conversation again. "So, your old friends ?"

Zane decides to instead address the major concern of what may be a part of Kyle’s hostility.

“When I was fighting the Golden Master, I meant no harm to any innocent people. I was built to protect those who cannot protect themselves. I… I understand that in some ways, I have failed this function, but I do my best to help those in need.”

Breathe in, breathe out. Keep calm. He can’t let the pain overtake him- he’s begun to sense that that’s what Kyle wants.

He debates saying more, but chooses to remain silent, waiting for a hopefully diplomatic response.

Kyle sighs and gives him a sharp glare that confirms Zane’s hypothesis. It was likely that his sacrifice had-

He’s cut off from his thoughts by a spike of electricity, and it takes quite a bit of willpower to prevent himself from shouting out at the pain.

Unfortunately, it appears that his pained reaction pleases Kyle, who is now smiling again.

"You didn't answer my question, Original. How was life with your… Boyfriends ? Kai Smith, Jay Walker and Cole Brookstone, yeah ?" He smiles as he emphasises the last names, a menacing threat behind his words.

Zane feels everything in his body go rigid, and with his concentration now centered on the others, he knows that he is having more acute reactions to the pain.

He hates the small whimper that escapes him, but he ignores it in favor of speaking, addressing the underlying threat of his words.

“You do not touch them.” He snarls. “If you hurt them, I swear on the First Spinjitzu Master that I will hunt you down to the ends of the-“ Zane finds himself cut off with a cry of pain as the voltage is jammed up.

"Calm down. I didn't even actually threaten them yet," The blond mutters to himself. Thankfully, it’s not long before he lowers the voltage, and when he does Zane is able to breathe again.

But his panic is still running high. He had all but directly said that-

"If I wanted to truly use them as hostages, I'd tell you I know which shop they go to every two weeks to buy supplies and food, which is the one at the end of the main avenue."

The voltage begins to increase, and Zane wants to be listening, but he can only just make out his words, in too much pain to think straight.

"I'd tell you we have live feed of them almost every day and everywhere they go."

Zane hates the loud screams escaping him, but he can’t even focus on them, all of his attention forcefully grabbed by the pain and the threats, the way he threatens the ones he loves-

"Or… I'd tell you how one of them already got arrested once, and how easy it is to transfer prisoners or fake an accident."

Zane can feel the way his body is reaching the maximum limits of what it can handle, he can’t handle much more of this, this will kill him, he can’t possibly-

When the power is shut off, Zane finds himself sobbing, thankful that it’s gone, the pain is gone, but he still has fear running through him, fear of what could possibly happen to the ones he loves.

Kyle walks up to him, and Zane hates the fact that he flinches, and he hates even more the smile the teen wears when he does.

"Don't you dare threaten me or her ever again. Remember who holds the power here," the blond mutters in his ear before going back over to Martha, checking his notebook.

Zane doesn’t have it in him to be ashamed of how much he had screamed when the voltage was on maximum power- or at least, what had felt like it.

He wants to retort, to tell the boy that will protect his boyfriends to the death, to tell him that he is more than a machine, to tell him that he will threaten him again if he has to.

But he can’t find the words. He’s too tired to come up with proper sentences.

The part of him that spends too much time with Kai urges him to tell the teen a string of insulting curse words, but Zane ignores it.

When the two leave the room, Zane doesn’t even bother saying a farewell.

What’s the point in it, anyway?

[benisasoftboi]

Unorganised thoughts on Trails of Cold Steel IV:

WHY ARE THEY CALLED CLASS VII?

WHO ARE CLASS VI?

Anyway - I started playing Trails in August, and I’ve finally, finally caught up (yes I know Hajimari I can’t read Japanese) and like... what do I do now?

It’s a fantastic series and I’m so, so glad I picked up Trails in the Sky on a whim last summer

This game was long. Is it longer than the other ones? It felt that way

The best part was the first chapter because Rean wasn’t in it and yeah I still don’t like him!!! But seriously, it was astonishing how much more I was enjoying things without him

I audibly groaned when goddamn bonding points returned in the second chapter

Actually that was a lie, the best part was Any Time My Angel Estelle Was On Screen

I missed her so much

I let her get the final hit of the game against the boss because she’s the best

Speaking of angels I caught three Wazy cameos!!!

Also Gilbert came back and if there had been a camera on me... I quite literally teared up a little I was so thrilled

I hate the curse it is dumb and rips all the nuance out of the characters. People do not need a goddamn evil curse to be swayed to extremes by overzealous nationalism. Trails I know you are better than this, I played Sky and Crossbell

Fav new location was Milsante (liked Alster too, though). I really like going to tiny little outposts and villages in JRPGs, they make the world feel more real

What the hell was up with the Osgiliath Basin? As in, Giliath Osborne??? Is this going to be a Hajimari thing?

Oh yeah, HOT TAKE, Alan Richard >>> Giliath Osborne. I was reading an LP of Sky FC while playing the game, and Richard’s motivation is clearer and less over-complex, more sympathetic, and he’s just generally a far more human character

Alan Richard best political antagonist in the series fight me (Rufus Albarea distant second)

For best supernatural/cult-y antagonist I’m stuck between Weissmann and Joachim. Or maybe Campanella lol

Oh uh speaking of characters named Georg I will never not hate everything about the George and Angie subplot. Angie should have died and George should have stayed evil, or it shouldn’t have happened at all. As it is, it was a complete waste of time - you could take it all out and NOTHING would change

Angie would have been the perfect character to sacrifice as well, she’s just important enough that it would feel like ‘oh shit’s getting real’ but not so important that it’s unbelievable

(like Olivier. I could not fully believe they’d actually kill him, and the moment Laura told me ‘they never found the bodies’ I was like, oh, so they’re definitely all still alive, cool)

I mean, it would be a Bury Your Gays, but honestly... there are things I like about Angie, but is anyone really looking to her as a lesbian role model? I hope not. Yikes

So yeah I guess I hate George now for getting my hopes up and then being boring. Shame

I did the Towa romantic ending, of course. I genuinely think she’s the best match for Rean, of all his love interests

Chaaaracters

Rean: Still the least interesting person. Not a good sign when I’m sadder about the robot dying than the main protagonist yeeting himself into the sun (side note, the two endings thing? Unnecessary and dumb). There is no reason girls would like him this much, blah blah I’ve said it all before. Liked his new hair. Honestly would have respected it if they’d had the balls to kill him off. I basically never even used him in battle lol, Juna became my new team leader

Juna: Honourary protagonist imo. I’ve changed my mind since CS3, she’s my fav new Class VII without a doubt. She’s just really good and full of personality and depth and OH GOD WHY IS SHE CRUSHING ON REAN WHY FALCOM WHY

Kurt: pls falcom don’t try to force this aroace king into a nonsense ship with Sully I liked her but what are you doing, anyway Kurt is great and he got cool new swords and he got to hang out with Mueller, who I adore, I love Kurt

Altina: I also love this little bunny. Her relationship with Millium is so lovely and seeing her grow and become her own person made me so happy and OH GOD WHY IS SHE CRUSHING ON REAN WHY FALCOM I LITERALLY SAID SHE HAS THE BEST RELATIONSHIP WITH REAN OF ALL THE GIRLS BECAUSE SHE DOESN’T DO THAT IN THE LAST GAME WHY DO YOU HATE ME????

Musse: Yeah I’m still not sold on Musse but I liked her better this time! I like a smart, confident girl! Just stop being weird about your teacher and we’d be golden!

Ash: Good boy. Sweet boy. Ash and Joshua game now Falcom

Alisa: Still cannot believe she’s presented as the deuteragonist by the marketing - but you know what? Solid arc, she got some closure with her parents, maybe she and Jusis can get together for tea and complain about their messed up families. She’s never going to be a character I like all that much, but I don’t dislike her. I just wish she hadn’t clearly been written as ‘Rean’s love interest’ before anything else

Elliot: I love Elliot, I really do. I mean, I wish he hadn’t been flanderised to the point of speaking in music puns half the time, but he’s a solid, consistently pleasant character

Laura: Goddamnit Falcom please give Laura anything resembling an emotion regarding her dad dying. Also you tell me she’s kind of oblivious and stuff but we never see it. I like Laura but she really could have been more

Machias: I love Machias, fight me fan base. He’s so funny to me. It feels like, at this point, all he really wants is a nice office job, near a nice coffee shop, where he files papers and sometimes gets to yell at corrupt rich people, but NO, he has to run about in dungeons and fight monsters, and are you FUCKING kidding me, ANOTHER crazy snake cultist!?!? It’s great, he’s the only one who’s just done with it all and love it

I low key headcanon that he and Jusis are kinda dating at this point, but we don’t see anything because the games are from Rean’s POV and they don’t want to tell him because they know he’d be weird about it

Jusis: I still really like Jusis! He’s interesting, and his surrogate brother-sister relationship with Millium is so sweet (yes, I saw that bouquet catch, Falcom, and I hate it, stop it, gross). Awesome to see him confront his brother, obviously I let him have the final blow. Rufus was a great antagonist. Jusis has some of the best development over the games, and is also really fun to use in battle (apparently I am the only one who feels this way though :/ ah well)

Fie: I was surprised by how much I liked Fie’s confession scene, seeing as I don’t like Rean/Fie at ALL. Fie finally gets to have feelings about her dad, and we see her working with Zin at the end! Very happy for Fie, best girl

Emma: Ahhh I still find Emma kinda dull and exposition heavy, but she also had a nice arc, I liked her relationship with Rose, all good

Rose beat me at Vantage Masters for 40 minutes lol

Gaius: It’s still extremely funny to me that Gaius became one of the most important people on the continent *off screen*. And he still doesn’t really do anything. He has his own airship now, I guess. Justice for Gaius

Sara: Kind of faded from relevance after CS1, but I do really like her all the same. And I loved her speech at the end

Crow: At the end his hair got darker and everyone was like ‘you’re back to normal!’ and I literally did not realise he was meant to have been looking different

But anyway Crow is a really good character and I literally never didn’t enjoy him. I love the bit where Jusis and Machias team up to call him a cringy edgelord, because they are right. Crow is fantastic

Towa: Towa has never done anything wrong in her life and all of Erebonia should pay for her therapy

Patrick: I cannot believe how much I love Patrick now, compared to CS1. He’s just such a sweetie. Good boy

Elise: Take her to the sun with you, Rean. Pointless character

Alfin: Is she the heir now? I hope so. She’s such a funny character, not my fav, but I enjoyed her

Angie and George: Should have died, moving on

Celine: I love her, but did she really need a human form? No, no she did not. Great character though

Tita: Special mention, because you know what? I do not like this version of Tita! Like I said, I was reading FC recently and she was so much better there! Now a third of her lines are just her saying ‘Agate’ in various different tones. And it feels like she’s lost a lot of her confidence, where’s the little girl who followed us up Carnelia Tower? I would have preferred them to just not bring her back at all

Duvalie: Haha I love Duvalie she’s great. Stop implying that she’s crushing on Rean. Literally WHY would she. Ugh

Rose: Everything about Rose is great, I would play a full game about her backstory. More Rose

Ships!

Obviously I like Machias/Jusis because I am BASIC

I didn’t like Olivier/Schera back in Sky, but you know what? They sold me. It’s cute (even if I feel Schera’s character was neglected in favour of Being A Love Interest, sigh). Though I’m not sure when Olivier made the switch from ‘Schera is one of many people I flirt with’ to ‘Schera is my one and only’?

But am I the only person who’s kinda on the Oliver/Schera/Mueller train? I’m not normally into OT3s, but Olivier and Mueller have one of the best dynamics in the series, and Schera and Mueller would probably get along great if they were ever allowed to properly interact. And you know Olivier would be down

Like I say, I do not like Jusis/Millium at all, it’s not a ‘I like another ship better’ thing, it just massively skeeves me out because of the maturity difference 

Ash/Tatiana was unexpected but adorable

Patrick/Elise, because I want Patrick to be happy and Rean to be mad

Also Elise/Alfin, sorry Patrick

I hope Anton and Sharon really do get together. Sharon deserves unconditional love and Anton deserves a happy ending

Sharon also deserves to hook up with Sara like once

I also sort of feel like Sara/Claire would be fun

I’ve actually like Gaius/Linde from CS1, I’m happy it’s kind of a thing now!

If Lila/Maybelle is the LET’S GO LESBIANS Trails ship, then Emily/Theresia is LET’S GO BABY LESBIANS

Vincent/Margarita. They’re both horrible people. At least this way no one else has to deal with them

Joining my Kloe/Josette in the ‘crack ships I love that have very, very little canon basis’ is Fritz/Kairi, based on their interactions in that one mission and then that they’re eating together at Mishelam. It’s pretty much just a height differences thing, lol

Miles/Elnan. I have literally no justification for this

Other stuff There was this one scene where Gaius says how nice it is that Mueller cares about Olivier and Mueller just snaps his head round and the scene ends, and I don’t think it was meant to be funny but I laughed for like a full minute

The intro to the music at Mishelam is extremely creepy to me

I love the Pom Party mini game a whole lot

There were... a lot of typos in the second half of the script. It’s massive, so I’m not mad, but I hope there’s a patch at some point

BERYL BERYL BERYL BERYL BERYL I love her

Uh if we’re still doing romance next arc please give us a gay option, no Crow did not count

I hate divine knight battles! I really do! That last one against Ishmelga was really hard and not in a fun way! In a ‘this is bullshit fake difficulty’ way. Please don’t bring them back!

The true final battle, though? FANTASTIC, now THAT is a final boss! One of the best in the series, like that’s such a fun gimmick!

I got it trapped in break state and spammed Heaven’s Kiss/Quick Star, because I’m a strategic gamer 

I am embarrassed by how long it took me to recognise Lucy

KLOE CAMEO!!!

Oh and I assume Kaela is going to be important next arc, since it’s in Calvard?

I love Thomas??? And Rosine???

Why was the grandmaster reveal hidden behind watching the ending twice, why do that? Great scene, though

My theory is that she is Aidios, I will cling to this for as long as possible

I probably have like a million other things to say that I’m just not remembering right now. Look forward to random shouts into the void about it in upcoming weeks, followers

I really enjoyed this overall, despite the problems I mentioned above. It was just fun, I like the cast, the gameplay is great... just a solid game

Trails is a really fantastic franchise - not perfect, but what is? I’ve had such a fun time with it over the past half-year, and I cannot wait to see what happens next. Thank you, Falcom, the localisation team, the VAs - stellar job all around

This is normally where I’d end on a joke but like. Nah, I’m just happy. Cue ‘The Whereabouts of Light’

[senotsuri]

Way back when, I posted an image of an OC, who fairly recently got a full name (she only had a surname back then.) So, with Eliza’s name finally figured out, I realised I hadn’t actually given my overview of the game that spawned her; Champions of Vestroia.

Time to lose my mind, I guess.

Some fore-knowledge before we get into this.

I am, by all means, a legacy bakugan fan, not a reboot fan. I’ve only seen one double episode (the become-smaller-child episode, which was cute, and Outer Demons, which has a super good premise, but the execution is. something.) By all accounts, CoV is essentially my introduction to the world of the reboot, and I’ll come to this later.

I played both the first game (Bakugan Battle Brawlers, specifically the Wii edition), and the... third game (Defenders of the Core, shortened to DOTC, also for the Wii. The second game, for anyone curious, is Battle Trainer, a DS exclusive.) This will come up later, of course, but I want to point out these two as they’re basically my control group for the quality here (not for the battles though; different battle system and all.)

I am incredibly stay-at-home. A lot of people I know irl I don’t have contact with, and most of them don’t live in my city. This is only important when it comes to the protagonist and literally no one else in the game, but I thought I’d mention it anyway.

So the game begins with the character creator. This is pretty standard stuff, honestly. My one issue with it is just-- this is probably my fashion sense speaking, but the fashion in the game is very... for lack of a better term, naff. There aren’t many options that look good, personally speaking. This is ignoring the issues where the protagonist loses their name, mid conversation, or is referred to as if I chose the male option instead of the female option. These issues are likely just oversights, by all accounts, but talk about jarring.

The first time you see your character is where 3. comes in. The protagonist, no matter what you chose (I have two save files, in case there was a difference. There isn’t), will always be a football/soccer player. Are you one of many, many people who isn’t sporty, who is trying to play as themselves? Sorry, your character is sporty, and you can’t do anything about it.

In the legacy games, this was never really a problem; your character was never seen doing anything other than brawling and interacting with other characters. Whether they played sports, or stayed indoors and wrote fanfic, the game let you decide on that for your character, by not having them do either of those things: your character only battled, or snuck around in DOTC’s case.

Once you stop playing football, you get to run to your best friends, and I guarantee you, you won’t immediately guess who they are unless you somehow already knew.

I mentioned BBB and DOTC being my control group on quality. Bringing the character creator back into this, the NPCs are laughable in quality. Any character who has the same model as you (older child. There are only two other model types: adult, and younger child) will look like a remixed version of your character. Had it not been for some characters having special eye shapes, you could practically cosplay any character in the game, because they were made the same way you made your character.

This includes your two best friends.

You could easily make the same character (minus clothes) as one of your best friend characters, without knowing it until you saw them.

While, yes, BBB and DOTC had the characters from the legacy anime in them, the fact that your best friends are nigh indistinguishable from any other character in the area, because you could easily make any of them in the character creator, isn’t... great.

Speaking of that. Characterisation is questionable, to say the least. Whatever bakugan you have in your first slot will answer to you the same as any other bakugan you have in your first slot. If you started off with Howlkor in the front of your party, and you replaced him with, say, Barbetra, Barbetra will act the exact same as Howlkor did, and it’s really something.

There’s only (?) Armoured Alliance bakugan in the game, other than Dragonoid, Pegatrix, Trox, Hydorous, Nillious, and the afforementioned Howlkor. That’s a small roster, by all accounts, so having varied dialogue depending on the bakugan would make sense.

The characterisation of the other characters is also a little funky in places. Your best friends don’t brawl, and I honestly forgot about them for a portion of the game. The tournament brawlers are practically as faceless as the villain minions, and the villains- oh the villains...

Preston. I don’t like Preston, at all. He’s a villain from the moment you see him, and the whole “try to find Preston” section in Helena Heights makes me want to punch someone. When you fight him in the Parasol HQ, his dad being the CEO, it’s fairly clear that Preston is little more than a tool for him. Sometime later, you fight Preston again, this time as the final tournament’s final battle, and he’s laughably weak compared to the other challengers. Remember, this kid fights you with Leonidas.

You’d think Leo would be good, but I’ll get into the butchering that happened to my death dragon later.

Anyhow, he fights you, assuming his dad will enjoy him defeating you. With the power of you’re the player character, you beat him, he hands all of his bakugan to you, and gives up on brawling for good. Kinda.

The next time you see him... hoo boy. In Old Town, on the way to defeat dear detestable dad, you come across Preston. He offers you help, and when player character is understandably suspicious, Preston complains that... one of his toys was taken away because you beat him, and now he wants Revenge On Dad.

I wish I was joking. His revenge, by helping you defeat his dad, isn’t because he’s obviously neglected by his dad (company taking priority over him, the CEO’s son), and then is used as a minion to try and get rid of you. It’s not out of bitter feelings because his dad doesn’t care about him, no, it’s because his dad took his ball away.

What’s worse is how player character reacts: “Oh! :) You’ve learned that bakugan aren’t just tools! :) Yes you can help me, despite the fact that you learning this sounds less than genuine and definitely not last minute! :)”

This is a level of stupidity I’ve only seen in DOTC Mira when Spectra tricks her into giving him Drago. He’s literally sulking and moping about over his ball, and then he sees the player character, immediately being manipulative so that player character can take down his dad for him. 

Leonidas also forgives him, and has the same reaction as the player character.

Speaking of Leonidas! I think everyone’s been excited for Leonidas in general - we all love a shark headed death dragon, and we wanted one in the reboot for ages.

I refuse to call reboot Leonidas Leonidas. This is like the Shun Kazami debacle, but one I’m substantially more angry about.

Leonidas, in BBB, was untrusting of everything, wanted to throw down with everything in sight, had no fear of anything because “I don’t fear weak [humans]”, and literally came from hell. He eventually grew to trust you and others, to calm down and enjoy himself at his own pace, and was willing to have help from others, showing anyone around him that his origins aren’t the be all and end all about him.

Leonidas, in CoV, is immediately trusting of the first human who showed a hint of kindness, has a weakness to all attacks in the game, comes from Vestroia (not the Doom Dimension), and forgives the human who threw him away when he didn’t win the battle against you for him.

Ignoring the fact that Leonidas just doesn’t look good in CoV, I’d say he got bastardised. That’s not Leonidas, it’s just a dragon with the same name.

The main villain is the CEO of Parasol, an energy company that, assumedly, used to use solar power. Upon finding out that bakugan battles give off incredible levels of power, they turned to using bakugan, forced to battle, to generate power. These guys literally dug into someone’s house to try and get Leonidas. They’re evil.

On the topic of the battling for power generation; this has a decay effect on Vestroia, as it happens, as battling energy would usually go back into Vestroia, which would be recycled and reused.

The CEO doesn’t bend the knee to you until you break him, which is undoubtedly nice for a villain; I was honestly expecting him to give up, but he doesn’t. You beat him into a corner.

But as my introduction to the world of BP, through CoV, is lackluster at best. Obviously the game is meant for those who have seen the reboot, and don’t mind being completely disconnected from the story, because CoV is self contained, and Dan only shows up to be the tutorial giver (as a jpg, no less).

From what the game tells me about the setting; bakugan are often exploited by adults, bakugan do not like adults because of this, but can’t tell when a human child is manipulating them, unless another child removes them from that situation (the lack of agency here is somehow worse than in the legacy series, who knew).

Despite bakugan being around for 18 years in the setting, no one seems to be aware that they’re living beings, other than the main charcter, as if BP humans are equivalent to Legacy’s Vestals. I was already aware of Vestroia and Earth sharing a location in space, but the fact that drilling deep enough causes bakugan to appear on Earth seems... really weird? Schrödinger’s Bakugan Summoning Pit, but they exist on every digging site possible. Bonus points to all bakugan being able to speak, and they do speak a lot, but only to the player and whoever is around the player in a cutscene.

I’m missing a lot of things, such as battle items being the worst sometimes, I’m aware, but at this point I’m tired of rambling, so let me end off in a comparison.

CoV has, in my opinion, the same replayability levels as Pokemon Shield; I couldn’t replay either game to the end, and I wouldn’t recommend either to anyone unless they were desperate for a new game to play, and had nothing else to chose.

[chiropteracupola]

Tagged by @dratandbotherbotheranddrat, thank you so much my good buddy!  I just dredged this up out of my drafts after ...several months I think, terribly sorry about that!

1. why did you choose your url?

It’s meant as a variation on ‘bats in the belfry’, which is one of my favorite sayings and also probably a good description of the state of my own mind a lot of the time!  I made an attempt at making it sound Fancy™ to give it maybe the feel of a vampire mansion? *shrugs*

2. any side-blogs? if you have them, name them and why you have them.

@cool-as-steel, for treasure island things.  Mostly because I love the look of people’s Very Consistent Aesthetic Blogs, but I like memes and pictures of capybaras too much to keep my main blog Pretty. 

also a secret second sideblog, but you’ve got to go on a quest to find that one before you get to see what’s in it.

3. how long have you been on tumblr?

More than a year for reading people’s blogs somewhat obsessively, and for my actual account, only since early February.

4. do you have a queue tag?

Nope! Never queued anything in my life and I don’t intend to start.

5. why did you start your blog in the first place?

I’d drawn some fanart of thescarletpaperback‘s characters that I wanted to share with him, and also I thought that maybe I’d come across some other people who wanted to talk about Treasure Island with me, since I’d been driving all my irl friends up the wall with shouting nonsense at them.  (And I did!)

6. why did you choose your icon/pfp?

I love a soft mothman... I thought it was distinct enough to be nice-looking even at the very small size, since a lot of my other art files got blurry and indistinct when I tried them out. 

7. why did you choose your header?

It’s a photo I took last year, and I’m very fond of it just color-wise.  (Oh, and by the way, it’s not color-edited!  Everything was on fire, so I got that scary-pretty red sun and gray sky.  It’s really nice to look at, but also a sign that the air quality is Way Hecked Up.)

8. what’s your post with the most notes?

tiny jopson... WHY...

9. how many mutuals do you have?

I don’t know and I do not wish to do math at this time.

10. how many followers do you have?

144 (*vine voice* who ARE you people?)

11. how many people do you follow?

129

12. have you ever made a shitpost?

Probably?  *shrugs*

13. how often do you use tumblr each day?

Too often.

14. did you have a fight/argument with another blog once? who won?

Not that I remember?  I am not very confrontative and if someone makes me upset I usually just block them and go about my business. 

I’m not going to call my relationship with a certain boat show fandom a fight, because they barely know I exist, but I also have blocked the entire show tag, so there.

15. how do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts?

Many of them make me unduly stressed.  An occasional few, I reblog.  *shrugs*

16. do you like tag games?

Very much.

17. do you like ask games?

I think they’re fun!  I like asking people things and telling people things!  Conversation!

18. which of your mutuals do you think is tumblr famous?

ltwilliammowett/fleur-de-paris... I find it completely bananas absurd that this Cool and Fancy Person thinks me worth their time!

19. do you have a crush on a mutual?

Platonically, maybe. 

20. tags?

Hm, anyone who’s interested, I guess?

[masked-buffoon]

Chapter 10: Truth and illusions (Part 4)

Warnings: violence, child abuse

Author notes: it is so cliche that the main character never knows how to take care of a child... The main question is... Do we like cliches...?

The boy had quickly agreed to play with me while his mother and Yosano-sensei had an "adults talk". He had led me to the living room next door and, when I had asked him what he wished to do, he had answered that he wanted to draw. After just enough time to grab paper and crayons, there he was, quietly occupying himself while I was watching, and yawning. The doctor had been wrong, Sakunosuke-kun was not an imp, not the devil in disguise. I had overheard her thoughts earlier. He was simply a kid and, even though I had no experience with them, it was not too complicated understanding their desires. I only needed to rely on my ability, after all… Which did not mean I was good with children.

"Look, look…! What do you think, Kasumi nē-san?" He excitedly shoved his doodle towards my face.

Years of acting allowed the most genuine smile of admiration to turn my lips upwards.

"It's lovely...!" I exclaimed "You're such an artist, Sakunosuke-kun!"

Immediately, a pout formed on his chubby face and he lowered it, as though he was going to cry.

"You're a liar… You don't like it…"

What had I done wrong for him to see through me…? Even the best businessman could not detect I was acting…! I was at a loss for words when tears actually started gathering in his eyes. The first sobs were about to come out from his throat, when I crouched in front of him and put my hands on his cheeks.

"Don't cry…!" I demanded, not quite knowing what I was trying to accomplish "Why would you cry…?"

"... Because you don't like the drawing…" He mumbled.

"I didn't —"

I stopped myself. My lie had been discovered, so assuring I did like his drawing would only make me sound fake. I frowned slightly.

"How old are you, Sakunosuke-kun?"

"I'm almost eleven…!" He declared, rather proudly.

"Eleven? Then you're a small adult." I stated, to boost his ego.

"Right…! Dad said so too…!"

"Then, I can talk to you like an adult." I let go of him "Sit next to me."

He obeyed, and I took his drawing from his hands.

"This is what you made."

He nodded.

"And I… Am not quite fond of it." I admitted.

Tears came back to his eyes.

"Don't." I calmly told him "Let me tell you something useful, as an adult."

"What is it…?"

"Not everyone will like you or what you do. It is very hard to understand that, but since you're a little adult, you do get my point, right?"

"Mmh… Because… Everyone has different tastes…?"

"That's exactly what it is. If you know that, then do not be sad that I don't like your drawing, for, what matters most is that you like what you do…" I smiled slightly "Do you like your own drawing?"

"Very much…!"

"Then you shouldn't cry because of me."

He agreed and, surprisingly, I found myself patting his hair. He was ten years old… Just like Ruriko-chan when I had been thrown away. I regretted not having been a better sister, sometimes…

"Do you want to play hide and seek, nē-san?" He suddenly offered.

I immediately saw an opportunity to search the house as I would be searching for him.

"Alright, Sakunosuke-kun. I'll count…! So you better hide well…!"

"You'll never find me…!" He claimed.

He had no chance to hide from me, for my ability would find him immediately. However, seriously looking for him was not my current purpose. Swiftly, I covered my eyes and started counting until one hundred.

"I'm coming…!" I warned him, playfully.

And I searched for the young boy, I explored the mansion up and down. Obviously, I had already found him; he was hidden in his room, upstairs. It amused him to think he was so good that I could not see him. At the very least, he was having fun. I discreetly checked that Yosano-sensei was still talking to the mother to venture myself in a closed room. Or, rather, it was a locked one. Nevertheless, no lock could resist me and I quickly picked it up. It was Taikin-san's office. Whatever the man was hiding, I would discover it, for the sake of protecting that boy.

As I grabbed a file, however, I wondered why I was so determined to fulfill that mission. Or, rather, I did not care much about the mission, not as much as I cared for the boy. His smile warmed a heart I believed had long been frozen by an all too cruel world, and his presence was enough for my being to feel at ease. He was appeasing. With him, I did not feel tormented by my issues; I did not care about the Armed Detective Agency, nor about Dazai, nor about me… Even my annoying ability seemed a very meaningless matter. I only wanted to preserve his innocence. It was such a simple purpose, yet it gave my mission a whole new meaning. Caring about others suddenly seemed so easy to the ever-doubting person I was.

My fingers trembled in excitement as I turned the pages of the binder, looking for any kind of clue about Sakunosuke-kun's father. According to my own research, Taikin-san was a successful businessman whose main possession was his enterprise, a very prosperous technology business. His last invention was a chip which would, in the future, replace our cellphones. The chip would be inserted in our forearm and we would access data directly from our brain. Or was it a holographic screen? I did not remember the details, but I had to admit he had futuristic ideas, although they had already been seen in works of science fiction. Even so, why would one want to hurt him? Except for his well-deserved success, he had never hurt anyone and seemed like a nice person. Every month, he would make a donation to charities and had even financed a school in Ethiopia. A quick look through his ledger did not show any kind of embezzlement either. I had no idea who could resent him, nor why. On the surface and even as the leader of an important business, that man was perfect.

"I'm so bored of waiting… Nē-san really sucks at this game…!"

I remembered the game of hide and seek with Sakunosuke-kun and hurried out of the office. As soon as I closed the door, the boy was in front of me, his big eyes full of questions as he saw me. I cracked a smile.

"There you are…! I looked for you everywhere!"

"You're so bad at finding people…!" He laughed at me.

"That's because you're too good at hiding." I poked his nose "What about trying again?"

"No!" He declined my suggestion "This time, you'll hide…!"

"Sure thing, then." I grinned "Let's see if you can find me~"

He started counting and I took the opportunity to disappear from his sight. Trying to investigate more would make me look suspicious. For the moment, I would have to focus on playing with the boy.

A random room would serve as a hideout, so, the moment he could not see me anymore, I opened the first door on my left and entered the room. It was rather large. A bed was placed against the wall on my right and, in front of me, a bay gave access to a balcony. Further, a large wardrobe seemed to contain someone's clothes. On the nightstand, a picture distracted me from the game. It was Yumiko-san, with Sakunosuke-kun. They both looked bright and happy… However, Taikin-san was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he had been the one to take the picture, after all. As I put the frame down, loud gunshots made me jump in surprise and dropped it. Unfortunately, it broke on the wooden floor and, cursing my clumsiness, I crouched down to pick the glass pieces up. I most certainly would have to call a maid… And I had to hurry; that shot did not predict anything good. Where was Sakunosuke-kun…?!

A last thing caught my attention. There was a second picture, right behind the main one. My eyes widened when I finally saw it. A woman wearing a colourful kimono was holding a crying child. The look on her face was tired, but her eyes, as blue as a field of lavender in summer, shone so brightly with happiness that I hardly recognised her. She was Ogawa Eirin, my mother. And the crying child…

"My first love… May you be happy with the sun of your life."

It was me. It was my name, and the date written under the note only served to confirm it. I pursed my lips. Sadly, the only thing I remembered from that woman was how she had avoided me each time she had seen me… Taikin-san's wish had never been fulfilled…

Another wave of gunshots erupted in the mansion, bringing me back to my current mission. I had to find Sakunosuke-kun before anything could happen to him. I shoved the picture in the inner pocket of my coat, and rushed out of the room. I could not utter a sound to call him. If the enemy was in there, I would reveal my position and any attempt at surprise would be ruined. I decided to use my ability, despite how exhausted it would make me feel.

"Scared… I'm scared…!"

His thoughts led me back to the living room, where Yumiko-san had passed out, holding her shoulder in pain. Yosano-san was holding her close to her, a seesaw in her free hand, ready to defend themselves against anyone who would dare approach them.

"What happened?" I asked, nervous.

"We were attacked, suddenly…" The doctor answered me.

The glass of the former windows, shattered on the ground, proved we had indeed been targeted.

"Are you unharmed?" I inquired.

"I'm fine, save for a few scratches here and there. Yumiko-san is okay too… Her prosthetic arm saved her."

My eyes widened as I saw she was not bleeding. Instead, a kind of oil dripped from her wound. I simply nodded.

"I have to find Sakunosuke-kun. We were playing hide and seek and —"

"Ogawa… They took him…"

"What…?" My throat was suddenly dry "I thought… I… How…?"

"They came in and looked for him. When they went out, he was with them." She sighed "I'm sorry, I was on the verge of death… My ability saved me…"

"Don't apologise, sensei… This was only due to my negligence, after all…"

But then, whose thoughts had I heard…?

"Save me… I'm scared…"

The boy was still here, after all… But he was in a different place. I took a pain reliever, a useless attempt to get rid of my headache, and focused. I had made a mistake. The voice came from another floor, which meant the boy was above me. I climbed the stairs and opened the door of the targeted room. It was closed.

"Sakunosuke-kun…! It's me, Kasumi nē-san…!" I called.

"... Who…?"

I frowned and forced the door open. In a corner of the room, poorly decorated and left dusty, the boy was crouched down. However, his clothes had changed. The ones he was currently wearing were old, worn out.

"You are not Sakunosuke-kun…" I muttered slowly approaching me "Shh, don't be afraid… It's alright, I don't want to hurt you…"

"Who are you…? How do you know my brother…? And how did you find me…?"

"You have so many questions…" I smiled at him "My name is Fuyuno Kasumi, and I was hired to protect your brother and your mother… I found you because… I had an intuition. What's your name?"

"Kitaro…" He said, timidly.

"Kitaro-kun…" I repeated "Alright… Don't worry, I'll protect you too…"

Gently, I took him against me for a hug. He was sobbing against my shoulder, the poor thing… In him, I was sad to recognise my younger self…

[freshlybakedspiderbread]

I brought up hanyang type 88 here and i said i’d explain, so here I am!!

okay so first off here’s a bunch of likely useful context about girls frontline. There is this feature in the game called digimind upgrade, or mod 3, where certain t-dolls can be upgraded past the normal maximum levels and stats, and at the same time gaining whole new abilities and also a new design. Basically a reinvention. There are like hundreds of playable characters in the game, and only a fraction will get mod 3s, typically the ‘main characters’ who are relevant to the major ongoing plot.

two things about getting a doll who has the ability to do digimind upgrade, to actually do that. One, is that it can be very costly in terms of in-game materials. like, maybe i just played the game wrong but I would have to grind for weeks in order to amass the materials to upgrade just one doll to mod 3. So even though by now there are dozens upon dozens of dolls who are capable of this feature, i’ve only actually done so with like, less than one dozen. A normal player probably has to be picky.

secondly, and this is the big one, every t-doll’s mod 3 comes with story cutscenes that become available for you to view upon upgrading them. Personally, i think most of the only worthwhile mod 3 stories are the ones that are associated with the actual major characters of the main story, especially since their upgrades actually happen in-canon and their mod 3 stories fill in blanks or otherwise expand upon the regular story chapters.

for the t-dolls who aren’t major characters that get digimind upgrades, their associated stories tend to follow a very basic pattern. They’re feeling like they are falling behind other T-Dolls in abilities or are otherwise experiencing a drop in confidence in their abilities, but then find the resolve in them to either change themselves or stand by an aspect of themselves, and this leads them to heading to the lab to get upgraded. obviously theres some nuances here and there depending on the character, but a lot of them, from what i saw, follow this basic pattern.

hanyang type 88 has a mod 3 but i certainly never wanted to see it. Firstly, using the feature at all takes up resources are kinda precious so i wasn’t just gonna use it on anyone. Secondly, she is just one of many one-off t-dolls that basically dont ever show up in any actual main story cutscenes or even funny events. Thirdly... you saw what she looked like in the linked post, i was in no rush to make use of her.

That being said, even if you don’t ever upgrade a t-doll, simply having them in your possession allows you to at least view the first of four parts of their mod 3 story, which nets you a small amount of those materials needed to see the rest (its a pretty fiendish system, huh o_O). I was lacking in some materials to upgrade a doll i cared about, so i just mucked around, eventually happened upon type88 again and decided that instead of just immediately feeding her to the furnace, I’d watch the first chapter of her mod 3 story. I watched it, it made me just curious enough to look further, and well. ...I got into it. Exactly what I got into, i shall now just elaborate and summarise the whole thing in my own way! Warning, it’s long!

(disclosure: my summary will bias towards my own preferred interpretation whenever any aspect is somewhat vague.)

The story starts with type 88, or as she is called by others in griffin base, Ai, working her shift in the base’s cafe, because what else would she be doing.

i hate looking at her! Anyway, its just a pleasant peaceful day and Ai is taking the logistic person, kalina’s order when suddenly in the middle of a conversation, Ai freezes in place and starts making worrying sounds.

kalina here and the t-dolls present in the cafe are concerned, and talk about how Type88 has actually been crashing like this more and more frequently lately, yet has not reported any of this to the maintenance crew despite the advice of her friends. They try rebooting her on the spot, but it has an even more concerning effect, because she starts erratically acting like she doesn’t recognise the others, and talks about how she is a maid in “Jiangcheng Cafe”. Afraid that her neural cloud (her mind) has been scrambled, they put her to sleep and bring her to the repair bay.

Its in the repair bay where they explain exactly what is wrong with type88. She is a fairly old doll, and her processing capacity has been severally clogged up for a long time. Her internal memory is overflowing because many large sections of her mind is filled with very large encrypted files (memories that she stored away). she is likely to keep crashing and possibly even cease functioning entirely one day if those encrypted files are not deleted, but nobody is really keen on just deleting parts of her mind without her consent. For now, kalina just opts to try and decrypt the files and see what they are.

And from here, we watch type88 memories from her perspective. Sort of. Kind of. It gets complicated later but for now, we view the first memory of her life, not as a combat t-doll type88, but...

...as 59898, a doll designed to be what is basically a ‘crash test dummy’ for testing artillery technology in a research station. With a purpose like this, 59898 has an (ostensibly) rudimentary AI. Her learning ability is intended to be used to better aid the results of their testing, but she also knows how to understand and even imitate specific human gestures in order to better respond to instructions or conversation, even though she herself has no voice module to speak with. She is assigned to assist one specific person.

first off, i was pretty shocked right off the bat that this story above so many others actually has unique assets to it. The above two sprites don’t show up anywhere else in the game, i don’t think. Secondly, this woman’s name is only ever spelled with those white squares, so I’m stuck with having to just calling her ‘the pilot’, as dry as that sounds... I just don’t want to type out weird characters every time, or call her ‘triple cube’...

Anyway, so 59898 is assigned to help this woman in testing artillery tech (stuff like mechs and tanks). I should mention really quick that in the game’s story, during this point of time is when world war iii is happening, but that’s just a backdrop for robots to eventually gain more prominence. Anyway, we move on to the second memory, where some time has already passed. At the beginning of this memory, the pilot is visibly depressed, which 59898 takes note of.

Her ‘comfort mode’ consists of patting the pilot on the head, who while surprised, actually is grateful. She feels comfortable enough to talk about her worries aloud to the doll, mentioning how she is a war refugee and has to make a living in the research base because she can’t go back to her home in china, at least not before making enough money for a very expensive and exclusive train ticket. She continues to talk at length to the doll...

...not that the test doll is capable of responding to anything she says. The pilot insists that she’s happy just to have someone listen to her though, since she feels like she can’t really express her feelings to any other person on the base. Despite that-

That aside, the pilot says that referring to 59898 by her serial number all the time feels a bit weird, so she decides to give the doll a name. (I sure wish the story would give this woman a name too, other than ‘three white squares’ but oh well...)

She talks more with Jiangcheng Ai, or just Ai, after that, asking her if she’d like a change of clothes sometime, like some casual clothes, or an old maid outfit from an old cafe job she used to have (I guess they had to throw in any explanation for that outfit somehow) Point is, more and more time passes.

As time passes though, and we go into the third memory, the pilot brings up complaints to her superiors about how the more recent testings, becoming more increasingly intense and frequent, are putting a great strain on Ai, and even repairs can only help maintain her chassis so much. She insists on wanting to take Ai’s place in the testing, but they refuse because, well, Ai’s entire purpose is to take the strain of these tests so that the human pilot doesn’t have to, and the doll is just a tool there to pave the way for the pilot to eventually take over the mech in action

The next time Ai wakes up from her most recent repairs, the pilot is there to greet her, and Ai can tell straight away that she’s unhappy and tries to comfort her again. The pilot is not surprised at this and talks about how this is how Ai has been since they first met. She goes on to say how all the other people on the base don’t know her half as well as Ai does. Ai tries to understand and determine what the pilot’s intentions with saying all this is, but she cannot do so and can only listen while offering ‘executing - affirmative nod’.

The pilot talks about how once the war is over, she’d like to take Ai back home with her, where they could go to all sorts of gatherings, and the pilot would introduce Ai to her friends.

Ai reviews her personal data, confirming that she has no owners or obligations other than the pilot, so she executes another affirmative nod, and the pilot says this:

As Ai tries and fails to further determine this, something bad happens! if you’ve read this far, i’m sure you’ve already guess what happens next...

At that exact moment, a warning goes out and the research base is being attacked by nebulous enemy forces. With no time to talk anymore, both the pilot and Ai head out into their first real fight.

They spend a good long while repelling enemy forces, working well together and apparently using all sorts of wacky anime weaponry like beam blades and whatever ‘retrograde evasion’ is!

obviously though, you already know this isn’t going to end well for them... When the pilot takes a breather, Ai moves to protect her, but at a critical moment, a sudden high-speed projectile comes her way. In the next instance there’s a crash, and we move onto another memory. Where its all fire and debris, and Ai can’t move.

^ this text box actually repeats several times, indicating that she is repeating her scan for life signs over and over. She gets an internal warning from her systems (differentiated with red text) that she has insufficient power and it warns her to immediately cease ineffective operations. [Unable to detect owner life signs] repeats again.

At this point, uuuuh, its a little stupid actually? because two humans show up, reusing generic ‘bad guy’ sprites from other events that don’t match the current environment and situation at all (one is in a suit and the other is in casual clothes). but the reason they’re here is to provide exposition out loud about what happened. It looked like the human’s mech took a hit for the doll and was blown to bits, though they talk about how that doesn’t make any sense.

Ai at this point tries to execute a bunch of different actions like hugging [target not found] and screaming [no relevant module] but they all fail, and her internal systems tell her that her power is running out and she will cease to function in 30 seconds.

So in those last 30 seconds, Ai decides to quickly review her internal files. the damage she took has corrupted her memories and she doesn’t have the time to properly go through them, so she executes a ‘simulated processed records’, which basically mean she’s just filling the blanks of those memories herself with simulations.

And I have to say. I was decently into and enjoying this little story so far, but its this part that’s the reason i became forced to make this stupid giant post. the first ‘memory’ loads up, and we see the pilot.

Different ‘memories’ of the days spent with the pilot are loaded back to back, each are very short and only last a few lines. Across these files, the two of them talk comfortably with each other, Ai is invited to go get coffee with her, the pilot talks about how going alone is boring and would rather spend time with Ai, Ai saying back with her own words that she always likes spending time with her, etc etc etc.

And then finally, she loads one last ‘memory’, from earlier that same day, before the explosion and the fighting.

and she shuts down.

i passed by this scene the first time all calm, but an hour or so later when I was in the bathroom replacing shampoo bottles, i started thinking about it and I literally started sobbing. And then again later that night when i was in bed. I hate this game!!

so that’s the ‘end’ of that, and the next scene opens, once again in griffin base’s cafe, except...

Ai is sporting a brand new (ugly) look. She says she’d like to take kalina’s order but she was just leaving on other business, as she likes keeping herself busy with all sorts of work around the base ever since she got upgraded into a gundam gajinka. and after she leaves, kalina talks with the other dolls about how Ai used to have some cache issues because her neutral cloud was too full, but upgrading into this new chassis easily fixed that and even allowed her to make use of her old locked away abilities.

Because of the way this scene in the cafe opens up exactly like the very first one at the beginning, it makes me believe that this final scene is also a simulated ‘memory’, that is, Ai filling in the blanks of her corrupted memories with what she wishes to be reality. And i feel confident in believing that because after the scene fades to black, we see more of her internal system monologue.

She (the system) says that the priority execution is to preserve those encrypted memory logs. She does so, and the neural cloud upgrade is complete with confirmation of no loss files. With no risk of deletion in this new form, she executes the command to unlock the encrypted memories. And finally...

[spiderbread dies]

i still wouldn’t use her in gameplay because i can’t stand looking at her design but  i told you all i eat up robot with feelings stuff and this is like prime example of exactly that... and if i didn’t make this post, i think my own neutral cloud’s cache would be at risk of overflowing x_X!