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mitigatedchaos · 4 years ago

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Review: SAC_2045

(~3,700 words, 15 minutes)

This post will contain some minor spoilers for SAC_2045.

Summary: You may have thought SAC_2045 was a poor entry in the Ghost in the Shell franchise - actually, it's just intended for younger audiences.

Previously: Standalone Complex 202045:1-4 (superseded)

-☆☆☆-

And what did you think of the remaining episodes of GitS:SAC_2045?

[ @irradiate-space ]

Standalone Complex

There's a certain indescribable feeling associated with Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex as a work, an artistic touch related to the director associated with it, independent of other considerations. SAC_2045 has it, which isn't too surprising since Kenji Kamiyama is back.

SAC_2045 is Standalone Complex. For a brief moment, while watching it, I inhabited my pre-2016 personality and outlook. I can't tell you how much that means to me. Since the arrival of streaming I've tended to bingewatch series, but on the first run-through I decided not to bingewatch this one.

If you approach this show as season 4 of Standalone Complex (Solid State Society being season 3), it's underwhelming. Now, viewing it again, it's become obvious that a conventional season 4 of Standalone Complex was never the intent of SAC_2045 to begin with.

For those of you who have delayed until now, the English dub has been uploaded - it released without one due to the pandemic. They bring back a number of the voice actors from the excellent Standalone Complex dub, though having already watched it with subtitles, I didn't feel the need to confirm the dub's quality.

Sustainable War

To properly describe a new theory of war is the same thing as to invent it. While the idea of war as a for-profit industry has been kicked around for some time, it's generally assumed that this is a kind of parasitic relationship on the part of the war-making industry.

As time goes on, warfare becomes more abstract (partly because warfare happens where it can happen), much like society itself is becoming more abstract as information moves more quickly and humanity gains access to more energy.[1] In SAC_2045, "Sustainable War" is part of the context of the world and its current issues, but we aren't really told how it works - if it's similar to contemporary information warfare and a blurring of the lines between state and non-state actors, it's bound to be quite confusing.

I believe my earlier assessment of "Sustainable War" is correct. The key feature of sustainable war, the reason they say it's safe if you leave it to the experts, is likely that it involves AIs constantly forecasting against each other and moving units around with few direct confrontations. The goal would be to lock in a victory without having to fire a shot, except for small skirmishes that don't escalate to major incidents (due to the AI forecasting).

The presence of armed separatist movements even in Japan may also indicate that the ruling institutional bodies are engaged in a kind of Post-International Politics,[2] which treats all international relations as fundamentally existing between subnational entities - however, I believe that later information suggests this wasn't their original intent.

What makes it "sustainable"? Since if done correctly, very little is actually physically destroyed, the cost is less than conventional warfare, and thus the war can continue indefinitely. Why does it threaten humanity with destruction? Because there's an awful lot of military hardware waiting for someone to actually pull the trigger.

Season 1: Ep. 2

So what is the intent of the series' creators? I think they may be telling us through this dialogue between Togusa and Section Chief Daisuke Aramaki in episode 2.

Aramaki: Seems time has toughened you up. Togusa: Is that supposed to be a compliment? Aramaki: It is if you want it to be. Togusa: Then thanks for the kind words. “I made the right decision by choosing this line of work over my marriage.” That’s what you’re saying? Aramaki: Perhaps. [...] Togusa: They're bringing back Section 9? [...] Aramaki: But my takeaway from the proposal is this: The PM's reason for the urgent reforming of Section 9 takes priority over his personal motives. I believe his true objective is meeting the Americans' demands for the dispatch of special resources. Togusa: So it's as the Liberals feared? An American-born Prime Minister would be no more than an American puppet? Aramaki: I've yet to meet him in person, so I can't really say. But this is an opportunity to have the Major and the rest of you undertake a major operation for me once more. Togusa: What sort of op? Aramaki: Over the past few years, I have searched for an answer on how to deal with a society in turmoil. I'd like you people to lay the groundwork that will help the next generation find that answer. Togusa: I don't know what a man in my position can contribute, but I'll humbly offer whatever assistance I can.

Those of us who cried, Kamiyama, tell us the future once more! based on Standalone Complex's prophetic analysis of a memetic crime wave were bound to be disappointed. SAC_2045 is less rooted in the near future than in the now - cyberbullying, endless war amidst historic prosperity, employment suppressed by automation, savings eaten up by the complex machinations of finance, and a breakdown of national borders? That's today.

Those of us who hoped for a Ghost in the Shell: Unicorn, a psychically overpowering work that synthesizes the full body of Ghost in the Shell into a single coherent form to elevate us to a higher level of understanding, should have tempered our expectations. To reach each new philosophical level is more difficult than the last - to achieve that with Ghost in the Shell of all things would have required a multidisciplinary genius near the limits of current understanding.

Kenji Kamiyama is just an anime director. And anyhow, Gundam Unicorn was a book before it was an animated series. And who among us even knew we'd have to write a book before 2015? Ghost in the Shell was well-understood enough, so I instead wrote 25,000 words worth of hypothetical country and became a blogger, like the infamous Scott Alexander.[3]

If we approach SAC_2045 from the lens that it's a humbler work designed for younger audiences, however, some of the creative decisions make more sense.

Purin

Just how old is Purin, the MIT grad who joins the team later on? If I had to guess, that's '23歳' on that profile she provides, and Ishikawa notes that she 'skipped a few grades' on her way to a PhD. But she acts like someone a lot younger. She's enthusiastic and we're assured she's intelligent, but seems to be lacking social training. For example, she makes the mistake of assembling an era-accurate music player for Batou combined with a playlist after consulting the Tachikomas to find out what he listens to. There are two ways to take this.

The first is that she's intended as a relateable character for someone who would make this class of mistake. It's the sort of mistake I might have made at age 13-14, meaning that the show would probably be aimed at someone that age or lower. Overly enthusiastic, doesn't understand romantic relationships, impulsive, poor reading of boundaries / poor modelling of others outside of certain domains, impulsive in a way that causes social screw-ups? Yeah that could certainly apply to an ADHD kid of about that age.

And all of a sudden the tone of the first five episodes with the gun-fighting, the literal Agent Smith, the decision to place the focus in America, and even the mystery of the series being much simpler than Standalone Complex 2nd Gig's plot regarding Asian refugees in Japan make a lot more sense. This is Ghost in the Shell for kids!

Wow, I didn't think that could be done!

...is what I should say, except that around the time I acquired the ability to futurist shitpost, and I used that ability to predict that it would.

Purin II

The second reading is that the youth of the future are fucked up. She probably has some tricked out modifications, both cybernetic and genetic. Now usually you would tell someone to try to become a well-rounded human being. But...

The global economy has crashed. Batou mistakes her for a robot - creatures that look like pretty young women are a dime a dozen. In the dating market, she would be competing with full sensory immersion VR pornography on the one hand, and at the upper end of society where cybernetics are more widely available, likely women with a similar appearance but decades more experience and professional standing.

Note that in the original Standalone Complex, the team take down an 80-year-old Russian spy with the full prosthetic body of a 20-year-old. Full cyborgs aren't common then, nor are they in SAC_2045 (though cyberbrains are ubiquitous), but if the economy recovers that may change, and the sector she's trying to get in to (full-time salaried government rather than marginal private employment it would seem) is going to be very tough to enter either way.

So Purin may have to be over-optimized even to just appear on the screen. In fact, she says,

"Just so I could work at Section 9, I moved most of my sentimental memories to external storage."

Youch! It's no wonder she's socially maladjusted. Just how much of her social learning (in particular key events necessary to rebuild logical inferences on the boundaries of behavior on the fly) has she locked away?

Purin III

But you know who Purin looks like? Notorious internet personality, Gamer Girl Bath Water seller, and IRL video game character Belle Delphine.[4]

Or rather, it's the other way around - 2D animation compresses real detail into suggestive abstraction, letting your mind fill in the rest. Going from those impossible 2D shapes to 3 dimensions creates strange results, like training your machine learning algorithm on the salient features of a cat's face, applying it to human shape, and putting pink hair on the result. Belle Delphine adopts that otherworldly kind of appearance as part of her act.

Technically, this a stylistic choice. Within the framework of SAC_2045, this is what "a 23-year-old female" looks like.

Purin is in fact so non-threatening that her big red coat obscures her figure. I'm gonna go with younger audience. Now if only I could remember what pronoun she uses.[5/☆]

Motoko

With a full prosthetic body, outward signs of human-like aging are almost an artistic expression, much like in a world with cheap tissue engineering, visible scars are a choice.

When she was first introduced in the original Ghost in the Shell manga, we don't know how old Motoko Kusanagi is. It was once said that her name is analogous to "Jane Excalibur," which in English would be an obvious alias. In the first movie (from 1995), she's cool, almost cold and robotic.

In the original Standalone Complex, Motoko has a more mature personality than in the manga, but she has a clearly adult look by the standards of anime. Seriously, check out this fantastic character design (combat suit), although admittedly the better-known "leather jacket and bathing suit" design is more ridiculous, fashion-wise.[6] (Fortunately, she gets pants in her much more stylish second season outfit.)

ARISE starts off with a young Motoko Kusanagi in a chaotic post-war period before the Section 9 we know was assembled. This shows in her character design, but it really shows in her personality. This was actually why I had joked about an even earlier Ghost in the Shell.

There is a sense in which the 2017 live-action movie's Motoko is even younger. Scarlett Johansson is a killer cyborg with amnesia. She doesn't even have one day of formal combat training.

Motoko 2045

Ilya Kuvshinov designed SAC_2045's Motoko Kusanagi.

Yes, that Ilya Kuvshinov. You could be forgiven for thinking this is a teenager that hardboiled assassins Saitou and Ishikawa in the background have been hired to bodyguard.

Despite this, Atsuko Tanaka has resumed her role as Motoko's voice actress. Standalone Complex's Motoko looked 25 and felt mid-30s. SAC_2045's Motoko looks 16 and has the voice and attitude of 40.

This may make more sense than you might think.

Through Whose Eyes?

Throughout much of Ghost in the Shell as a franchise, Togusa, the only non-cyborg on the team, who is pulled from a police department instead of a military background, tends to be character used to help the people of our time relate to the future. He's the guy that doesn't know the things we also don't know, so in explaining concepts to Togusa they're explained to the audience.

In SAC_2045, most of the team are off doing cool cyborg things in America. Aramaki (whose in-world function is to create the bureaucratic environment within which Section 9 operates) tasks Togusa with finding them. The original Standalone Complex first aired in 2003. It's been 17 years since it was created - a similar situation to finding someone that reached adulthood who was born after 9/11. And during this time, Togusa's life has changed - the family man is now separated from his wife. And the world has changed - Togusa is now working for a private security firm. Togusa's role in the first five episodes isn't to guide the new viewers.

His purpose is to guide or stand-in for the old viewers.

The New Viewers

"Do you still hold a grudge against the Major and the others for leaving you behind?"

For the original viewers, SAC_2045 is your world, too. Togusa is there. Togusa is you.

The new viewers are Purin. Enthusiastic and smart but awkward and not confident in their skills. How could they measure up to these much more talented and experienced characters? (Also consider who is going to watch any sort of Ghost in the Shell - it's probably going to be a moderately bright and introverted kid, who is the kind of person that may be more comfortable socializing with people outside of their age band.)

But Motoko is visually separated from the rest of Section 9. Batou, Saitou, Ishikawa, Boma... they all have a much more adult look in keeping with their appearance in previous versions of Ghost in the Shell. What gives?

Batou is sort of a cool adult male figure - this is actually a pretty natural use of the character and his sense of humor as previously established in other Ghost in the Shell properties. We especially see this come through in 「PIE IN THE SKY - First Bank Robbery」 episode, with the old folks and the 21st century bank robbery.

Motoko's difference in appearance is because she's acting as a bridge between the two. The new viewer (as represented by Purin) is supposed to grow into being like Motoko as they gain confidence and experience. (The characters aren't each limited to a single role, of course.)

But SAC_2045 is still a work that's shared between two groups, similar to how the excellent Into the Spiderverse features both the teenage Miles Morales and an older Peter Parker that has lost his way, with the loss of the vibrant young adult Peter Parker being what starts the plot going.

The Last Quarter

With this framework, the rest of the work should express its nature as targeted at a younger audience itself. Watch the last few episodes through this lens and you'll see how much sense it makes. One takes place at a school. Even the bizarre 3D style that resembles recent video games makes more sense. If we take Togusa's earlier conversation with Aramaki as a discussion of SAC_2045 itself, later on there's even a sort of acknowledgement that Ghost in the Shell is a difficult work for someone of a young age.

So with that context in mind, does it work?

Standalone Complex

If I remember correctly, years ago, when I was perhaps 15 or 16, I was watching a tiny CRT television some time after midnight, and I saw the thirteenth episode of the original Standalone Complex - NOT EQUAL. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. I was immediately taken by it. And, from what I remember, I immediately understood it.

It was as though it were made just for me.[7]

To me, Ghost in the Shell is like a textbook. I thought that as a creator who has reached a place where I am able to be involved in that kind of work, I'm in a position where I have to convey its contents to a younger audience. Well, I knew it would be a lot of work, but I figured it would be my way of giving back to Ghost in the Shell. I thought that I needed to accept the baton and offer Ghost in the Shell to a young audience, to the same degree that Ghost in the Shell raised me to be who I am.

- Tow Ubukata, in a 2015 interview, regarding ARISE

For many people, Ghost in the Shell is a profound influence. I felt that it lifted me to a new level of understanding.

SAC_2045

But what about SAC_2045?

I can't view Ghost in the Shell with new eyes. When I first saw it, I wasn't the kind of person that casually memes futuristic ethical dilemmas as a means of practicing politics.

Compared to the anime I watched back when I was 13, would I have watched SAC_2045? Yes. Is it more philosophically and politically sophisticated? Yes. Would I have found it memorable? I think so.

Would a 13-year these days watch it? That's difficult to assess. I bet someone who does data science for Netflix could tell us, if they wanted. I'm sure Kenji Kamiyama and Shinji Aramaki are considering the same thing.

2017

How does it stack up compared to the rest of the franchise?

For most enthusiasts it's going to be one of the weaker entries, though it certainly does a better job explaining itself than ARISE.

Compare it to 2017's live action movie, however, and I think we'll find it isn't the weakest. The reason is that the writers of Ghost in the Shell (2017) decided to tell a story about bodily consent in which becoming a cyborg is a form of trauma. On some level this may have been a reasonable decision, but they didn't commit to the concept sufficiently fully to execute it well enough to carry the movie - and simultaneously, they dumbed down parts of the regular Ghost in the Shell material for American audiences. As a result the movie flopped both financially and artistically - except for the visuals.

In fact, I wrote a sequence of posts (1, 2, 3, 4) on how to rewrite the live action movie as an actual Ghost in the Shell property. I feel no need to do so for SAC_2045 - and I can't even think of what changes would need to be made.

I look forward to the second season.

-☆☆☆-

[1] It's short, but that's a concept in this post. "Advanced by Left-Wing theorists, Ninth Generation warfare sees all acts as existing on a spectrum of political violence. Most acts of ninth generation warfare consist of extreme pranks."

[2] If we accept the idea of "Fifth-Generation Warfare" as motivated by a desire to prevent the enemy from using their conventional military assets, then a corresponding theory of international politics would involve preventing enemy factions within foreign governments from taking control of those governments' institutions - effectively treating all countries as in continuous level of conflict analogous to a soft civil war.

[3] There is a kind of technique to this, but in my case I substituted ADHD for raw IQ and conscientiousness, which is part of why my posts are so much shorter than, for instance, Moldbug's. In any case, technically, Scott's blog posts on the matter amount to roughly a mere 11,600 words, and the book of the black forest amounts to approximately 26,000 words (which I'm told is entertaining reading), but I'm sure if we go looking we can find an additional 15,000 words worth of worldbuilding from a man known for writing 16,000 word blog posts.

[4] Would it be more of a legal liability to sell regular water with GGBW branding, or actual GGBW that could prove to be a potential health hazard?

[5/☆] There's some future strand lurking beneath the surface here that I can't quite put into words; a culturally divergent moe meltdown where an appearance this ridiculous becomes normalized among some sub-population. To quote the Funko Pop Hatred post,

There are questions about the anatomy of anime people and their internal organs, and particularly about what sort of impact-dampening alien meta-material their softer bits are made out of, but at least homo sapiens gokuensis looks like it’s a branch off a similar starting hominid! Whatever transhuman engineering company was responsible for manufacturing the creatures in the typical harem anime has some weird ideas about human beings, but we’re clearly in their ancient lineage somewhere.

Under Late Safetyism, everyone is a declawed catgirl.

Anyhow, I don't want to alarm you, but I can't guarantee that this won't be the future somewhere. Both Purin and Belle Delphine resemble Xiaoice, "The AI Girlfriend Seducing China's Lonely Men." (2020)

[6] Motoko's ridiculous outfits are a major flex on the non-cyborgs, who aren't indifferent to ambient temperature and whose natural bodies may have unflattering features. Similarly wild fashions can exist in places like Second Life, a 3D digital platform with mostly user-uploaded content. Presumably they're also a flex on every Japanese salaryman who still has to dress like a normal guy.

[7] "It's as though it were made just for me" is also how I feel about the original game Mirror's Edge. Its follow-up, Catalyst, is also a personal favorite of mine.

#miti does media #longpost #flagpost #ghost in the shell #sac_2045 #standalone complex #review

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zombiescantfly · 4 years ago

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Halo and the Burden of the Extended Universe

Halo, as in the initial trilogy of games one through three, has been about one man, known only by his rank, traveling to exotic alien superstructures hanging in deep space, traversing their surfaces on foot and in a variety of human and alien military vehicles, and mowing down literally hundreds of enemies per level. Throughout that trilogy, we’re supposed to believe that these aliens, the Covenant, pose a great risk to all of humanity. We’re told, by way of the instruction manuals and some NPC chatter, that these aliens have pushed our own species, at the time a massive space-faring empire, back to the singular planet of our birth.

In all three games, we just barely make our way to the latest superstructure, clawing our way there against what's said to be insurmountable odds. We're constantly told that we're low on resources, low on time, we barely have a foot in the door while the Covenant have already made their bed. And yet, every single game, we win. Effortlessly. Constantly.

And not only do we win, but we prevent the total annihilation of all life in the universe no less than once per game, sometimes more! Untold hordes of enemies fall at our controller-wielding fingertips, but somehow we're meant to accept that this one is our last chance, for real, we swear. Still, problems come and go at the whim of an inattentive scriptwriter, built up to be the most important thing we've ever seen, left perfectly resolved at the end of a 20-minute level.

In every game, the goalposts are constantly shifting, pushed further and further back by writers who realize, sweat on their brows, that they've started with the destruction of all life in the universe and have to somehow amp it up from there. For three games.

To put it mildly, they are not successful.

What do we have to be afraid of? Not the Covenant, because even the worst weapons we have available to us can tear them apart. All life on Earth, the last bastion of our species, is put at risk a full three times over the course of two games, and every single time we, as the protagonist, turn our back on the problem and are promised it will be solved when we aren't looking. If the Halo rings are fired, all life in the universe dies! Except when it was fired in Halo 2 and only sent a standby signal before being deactivated. Except when it was fired in Halo 3 using a never-before-heard-of "tactical pulse" that is at perfect odds with everything it was stated to do in all three games.

There's no threat that sticks, no threat that matters. Everything the games have told us to be afraid of are continuously revealed to be utterly inconsequential. Even the moment-to-moment threats become routine, the moment-to-moment losses, unnoticeable. How many times have you gathered a squad of friendly Marines only to lose them all in the next gunfight? Well, don't worry, here comes a Pelican with four new ones, no questions asked. Yes, we're running low on fuel and men and supplies, but here you go Chief, you're special.

But why are we special? Who is The Master Chief? We know some things, but not a lot. We're a supersoldier, a Spartan. We have a ship's AI in our head who tells us what LZs to clear and does all the talking for us. Across three games, approximately thirty hours of gameplay, our main character has a mere sixty-eight lines of dialogue, and most of it doesn't pass the five word mark. Cortana, in comparison, has nearly six hundred spoken lines. Our hero is characterized only by lines like "boo," "green, sir," "I need a weapon," "understood," and "we'll make it."

Truly, a fascinating and deep character to go down in the annals of gaming history. A man brimming with all the personality of a cardboard box, all the empathy of a brick, and all the motives of a potted plant.

And yet, every Halo fan out there will tell you how cool he is, how haunted by his past he is, how deeply he feels the loss of his comrades, and how much he cares for his tiny blue Garmin.

Why? We played the same games, right? With all the same plot holes and haphazardly shifting priorities, the miniscule cast of named characters that never do anything to extend past their paint-by-numbers archetype? What are they getting out this that I haven’t?

Well, they read the books.

To them, Halo has an excuse. There aren't any plot holes, none at all, because you can just read this piece of licensed fiction to plug it. Are you still uncertain, well over a decade after the fact, just how much time passed between Halo 2 and 3? There's a graphic novel to answer that for you. What about the Arbiter, why didn't he stick around to try to form a proper treaty with humanity after the end of Halo 3? Read the book to find out. Okay then, the Flood invasion of Earth, how'd that get cleaned up so fast? Don't worry, watch the animated short.

This isn't how storytelling works.

You don't get to present a player of your game, a buyer of your product, with one third of a story and then tell them the rest exists as multiple books. You don't get to ignore key plot points that would bring your story together just so they can be sold off years later in a different medium.

External media, should your property have it, should be to expand on things the primary property has no room for. Hinted-at background events. Formative character experiences. Something tangentially related that still ties in to the main story. If it's really that important, tell your writers to make room for it in the main product.

Halo has the room for it. Each game will probably take a first-time player around ten hours for a first playthrough, and far less time on subsequent runs. These games are short, but they attempt to tell a story many times larger than they make room for. So make more room. End the focus on getting players in and out in a single weekend sitting. Let your characters talk to each other beyond exchanging stiff one-liners in cutscenes. Stop making every level a bombastic, breakneck setpiece and give the story room to breathe, to actually be told. If it’s the end of the universe we’re dealing with, surely you can spare us more than nine measly levels? Let us actually see the larger situation rather than being told about it. Do you really think Halo fans would complain about a campaign taking fifteen to twenty hours to beat? They love Halo, they want to spend time with it. Capitalize on that, and take the opportunity to finally, actually tell a story with all the parts in it instead of just a third.

Which brings us, finally, to Halo: Reach.

Certain Halo fans, largely the same group of them that defend the poor storytelling because “it’s in the books,” have a reaction to Halo: Reach that can best be described as ‘vitriolic.’ They don’t like it. Why?

Because it’s not like the book.

You see, while Halo: Reach came out in 2010, a book by the name of Halo: The Fall of Reach came out some months before the first Halo game in 2001. They are both about the same event, but with quite major differences. This caused quite a lot of contention at the time of Reach’s release, mainly from the part of the fanbase that believed they were going to get a one-to-one retelling of this book in videogame form.

They didn’t get that. Halo: Reach is an original story that tells the tale of a world’s final hours and one team of elite supersoldiers as they attempt to do anything they can to help delay the inevitable end. It’s not the most compelling story ever written, or even the most compelling version of that story ever told, but it’s effective. Even though we’re dealing with the imminent destruction of an entire planet, the story manages to stay small. Reach’s ultimate destruction is a common piece of wall graffiti or NPC combat barks, so the ending is known, leaving room for smaller objectives to take the spotlight. Rescue civilians trapped behind enemy lines. Delay an invasion force to buy evacuation efforts another hour. Clear the skies so supplies and medivac can go out.

Halo: Reach has almost no connection to the series at large, and it’s quite the breath of fresh air. As a prequel, its ending is a forgone conclusion, but it does what it can with the time it has. The messy, convoluted politics of Halo 2 and 3 are far in the series’ chronological future, letting you fight two enemy factions at once for the first time in the series, away from the plot point that sees them at war with each other. The end of the universe isn’t constantly being dangled over our heads for the third time in as many games, so the characters have a chance to sit down and swap banter, tell us who they are. They aren’t anyone too terribly compelling - Bungie still hadn’t quite figured out character writing - but they’re tested archetypes played well enough for the story’s demands. The threat is known and static, the stakes grow higher by way of the ticking clock drawing us ever closer to the planet’s inevitable end. There’s no faffing around with “trading one villain for another” because killing the first one would have ended the story too quickly, so a new one has to show up with no lead-in.

Even at the very end of that original trilogy, Halo’s story was too big for the time Bungie gave it. Its own plot points were shoving at each other, jockeying for position, knocking parts off themselves in an effort to fit into nine half-hour levels until all that was left were fractions of what you’d need to find in the books afterward.

Reach suffers from its own short length, but not in the same way. It suffers in that you can point to the characters and they say needed more setup, more time with each other, maybe another level or two here or there to really draw the relationship out. It suffers by pushing a little too hard at the “imminent end” angle, hurrying you through and skipping over hours of in-world time that probably could have been their own level.

But surely even the superfans saw that this was preferable? That a standalone story was the best way to go about things? Surely they understood that attempting to simply recreate the book would have ended with them not seeing any of what Bungie came up with for this new game? There’s a lot to like about Halo: Reach, and a lot to do in it that you can’t do in any of the other games. Surely even the most fervent defenders of the extended canon ended up coming around and being able to separate the two for what they both were on their own.

Of course, that’s not what happened. See again, ‘vitriolic.’ And so here we are at the question this whole thing has been building up to. When a company leans as hard into external supplemental media as Bungie did for Halo, is it then obligated to play by the rules and plot points outlined in those external entities? It’s a tricky question, mostly because up until that point, Bungie had gone ahead as if every book and animated short and comic and webisode was one hundred percent canonical. The reason superfans tolerated those gaping plot holes in the games is, again, because they weren’t holes at all when paired with their companion media. So now, in the far-past year of 2010, Bungie has suddenly decided that one of those sacred tomes of external knowledge is incorrect.

I think the easiest answer would have simply been to...tell the proper amount of story in the first place, but I guess it’s a little too late for that, especially now.

So what, then, is the obligation put forward by such a slavish devotion to external storytelling? Were they wrong to do something different? Were they right to forge ahead with something new for the benefit of freeing players who had never read that book and any other related to it from the web of multi-author canon?

I’d say they made the right move. Let’s talk about Star Wars.

Star Wars and Halo share many a talking point, the most obvious of which is just the sheer amount of additional stories they have stapled to them. Great news for fans who are into it, but terrible news for the actual IP holders. All they do is get in the way when the primary vehicle wants to expand. Disney felt it more than Bungie ever did, but Bungie felt it first: cut away the myriad stories clogging up the canon or you’ll never make anyone happy. Try to appease the superfans and get burned by not touching on every single node of criss-crossing plot webs that is the result of decades of overlapping stories by as many authors, while alienating newcomers by being forced to pay lip service to concepts and characters they’ve never heard of and have no attachment to.

Disney made the right call, and so did Bungie with Reach. What came next in Disney’s case isn’t relevant, and Bungie washed their hands of Halo entirely afterwards.

If your story cannot survive without the propping-up of half a dozen pieces of external media, you have failed to tell a good story. If your answer to questions about this story is to tell the asker to read a book, you have failed to tell a good story. I understand the appeal of that expansion, of being able to have a celebrated setting grow and reach new places, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of the setup. The world has to exist before it can be expanded upon. The story needs to be in place for its offshoots to grow. And that’s what Halo fails at, so totally and repeatedly. Bungie was too excited by the prospect of having an extended universe that they forgot to make a universe to expand upon. As a result, the actual core universe exists smeared across half a dozen mediums and dozens of individual pieces, with no true convergence point someone can present a newcomer with and say, “Start here.”

The Halo games are a patchwork mess of uninspired characters, unexplored concepts, unknown stakes, and uninteresting locales. Because they rely so heavily on their companion media to fill in those blanks, there’s nothing there to entice a first-time player to do it themselves. If a character’s inspiration comes from one book, the exploration of a concept comes from another, the weight of the stakes is told through an animatic, and the otherworldly locales are shown in all their glory only in the pages of a comic book, what is the game even for? If everything you need to know about the Master Chief, the Covenant, the war, and the Halos isn’t in the games, what’s the point of them? What do Halo 1, 2, and 3 actually stand to add to a universe seemingly defined elsewhere?

They become wastes of time. Wastes of potential. Other people - artists and authors working under contract for Bungie, not Bungie themselves - did all the heavy lifting to create these worlds and these characters. Does Bungie even know who their own characters are? Could the original writer for Halo 1 tell me everything the Master Chief has become through the works of a dozen other authors over the course of twenty years?

The books might be good. I wouldn’t know; the games didn’t inspire me to read them.

#words about games #halo #master chief #Arbiter #cortana #Bungie #343

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virtual-lara · 5 years ago

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GameSpot UK Adrian Smith Interview - Part One - Tomb Raider Chronicles

Interview appeared on Gamespot UK website, dated to 12th September 2000

In part one of our interview, Core Design's Adrian Smith talks about Lara's last adventure on a current gaming platform, Tomb Raider Chronicles.

GameSpot UK:

So tell us about the Tomb Raider Chronicles?

Adrian Smith:

It's the fifth in the series, I'm sure you know that, but it follows on exactly from the end of The Last Revelation. The Last Revelation for us was the last of the story of Tomb Raider and we ended TLR intentionally with Lara Croft missing, trapped in a pyramid in Egypt and presumed dead.

That gave us a clean sheet to start working with the next generation of Tomb Raider Games, which we've been working on for some 18 months now. So for a long time our focus has been with not only the current TR, but also with the future of the series, which may not even be called Tomb Raider at all, but may be called something entirely different.

GameSpot UK:

So what's the storyline behind Chronicles? Isn't Lara supposed to be an ex-Tomb Raider?

Adrian Smith:

The whole idea of Chronicles is to continue on with this premise that Lara is dead, which meant that we could have a little fun. The fact that Lara's body has never been found is the starting point for Chronicles and the game picks up three or four days after Lara's supposed death in the pyramids of Egypt.

There's a memorial service for Lara outside of Croft Manor and there are some very familiar faces there. There's Father Dunstan the family's priest, Pierre, Jeeves the butler - all the characters from the old series of Tomb Raider games. Everyone's there at the memorial service for Lara Croft sitting around a table, talking about her life and experiences. These stories form the four episodes of what player will actually play in Chronicles. The whole focus has been to do four episodes, four adventures from Lara's life. So you will have four very different looking and very different playing games. Each of these adventures is standalone and linear in so far as you start it, you finish it and the overall game is roughly the same size, which is about 15 - 20 levels. It's no smaller than we've done before - we've just done it a different way.

GameSpot UK:

Where will these four new adventures take place?

Adrian Smith:

We start off in Rome. It's a very familiar Tomb Raider game and the Rome level actually starts as a training level and then moves into a little adventure in its own right. The game mechanics are just as we know them, Lara running around doing what she's always done: running, jumping, climbing and looking for artefacts.

The next level is in a Russian submarine base and this whole section of the game is based around Lara being a little bit stealthier. It's not actually solving so many puzzles - it's more moving around trying to evade people using her wits and skills and then shooting them. So it features new weapons and it's more action-focused.

The third level is actually in Ireland and it features young Lara. So there's a whole episode played with young Lara which is something we've never brought in before - we had the training level in TLR but that was a very small part of the game. But, this whole level, you take control of young Lara and play her from beginning to end and it brings a different kind of game mechanic to it. You haven't got any weapons, so she has to use her cunning and agility to evade and trap all the baddies.

The fourth and final level is in an office tower block and again it's very different to the other three. It's got a different look, a different feel and very different game play. It's a very hi-tech level and this time Lara has a companion called Zip. Zip is there to guide her, give her information and help her through the levels and again it draws on using elements of stealth and the new AI. There are quite a lot of areas where she can't take guns because of X-ray machines and stuff, so Lara will be able to sneak around behind people more easily and knock them out, as opposed to running in all guns blazing.

GameSpot UK:

Why did you take this very different approach?

Adrian Smith:

The four levels are very independent and stand up on their own. Chronicles is also about combining all the elements we had in all the earlier TR games. I am pleased to say this will be the last one on the current technology. The reason being that, for the PC people, we will actually include all the level editors and all the tools we used to use to create the Tomb Raider series so far. So the consumers will be able to create, share and even pass around the internet the levels that they have created. We'll also be able to give out some of our favourite levels on the website that have never been seen and some of the old levels from previous games.

It is going to be the last game and is the focus of all the games combined together. This is not a new game - the new game is Next Generation. It's an evolution of TR4 into Chronicles. On the PlayStation we've pushed the technology forward, not so that the average consumer will see, but Tomb Raider experts will notice a difference. We've changed what was sensible to change and improved what we can.

GameSpot UK:

What major gameplay differences can we look forward to in Chronicles?

Adrian Smith:

In the game itself we've put in a couple of new moves for Lara. There's a tightrope walk, which we'll see in a moment, so Lara can actually negotiate her way across a tightrope. We've put in some parallel bars swinging so she can use parallel bars. We've put in a lot more interaction with the environment. She has new weapons. She has a grappling hook so she can throw the hook into the scenery and then grab the rope and scale it.

What we've also introduced is a lot more things that Lara can use and interact with. So she can go through drawers, she can open filing cabinets, she can look in cupboards and she can search all these items. The baddies have far more interaction with the environment too. They will walk round, sit down, move chairs and furniture. They might sit down and go to sleep, giving Lara the opportunity to sneak up behind them and maybe chloroform them or pull out the cosh and knock them unconscious.

We have also focused a lot on the inventory system. It was introduced in the Last Revelation but we've tried to make more use of it in this game. There's far more combining of items, collecting of items, looking at and investigating items and seeing how they can be put together and used. An example: getting some chloroform, retrieving a cloth, putting the chloroform on the cloth and she knocks them out rather than shooting them.

GameSpot UK:

Will there be much difference between the versions on different formats and will they be released simultaneously?

Adrian Smith:

Most of our focus has been around the PC version and the Dreamcast version. By virtue of all the changes for the PC version it means we're going to bring a much better Dreamcast version to the market. I should just say that it will be a simultaneous launch for the PC, PlayStation and Dreamcast, which of course it wasn't last year. You should expect to see it around about November 18th, Thanksgiving weekend in the US.

GameSpot UK:

So the big question is: is Lara really dead and will Chronicles resolve that issue after we've seen the first four episodes?

Adrian Smith:

I'm happy to say that at the end of the game we're going to have someone like a crony of Von Croy's come dashing out of the pyramid with some artefact of Lara, her rucksack or something, just to sow the seed that she isn't really dead. Which funnily enough leads me right on to Next Generation, which we think is going to be very different to what you'd expect to see.

Join us for the thrilling conclusion when Adrian Smith fills us in on the next generation of Tomb Raider games in part two of this interview.

All rights belong to GameSpot and/or their affiliated companies. I only intend to introduce people to old articles and preserve them before they are lost.

#Tomb Raider Chronicles #TRC Interviews #All Interviews #VL Posts

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maverick-werewolf · 6 years ago

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Just some werewolf (and writing) thoughts

I had another moment tonight. I get these moments sometimes. This one actually stems from my writing.

Why can’t people take werewolves seriously anymore?

I’m going to just clip this here because this is going to get very long and inane and now you’ll find out why I’m going to have to just tag some posts as “rambling.” Keep reading if you’re curious as to what’s bothering me. But if you don’t want to drown (seriously you will drown, I didn’t hold back) in unorganized walls of text, wait for this Wednesday’s werewolf fact instead.

Whether werewolves are from the beginning or turn into one, they’re jokes. Whether the person telling the story intended it or not - jokes. Ha ha, dog jokes. Sometimes that’s fine. I enjoy it, I even dabble in it myself. I’m not completely innocent of that, and I’m not completely bashing everything that does it. I think it’s fun and it can be really super cute and entertaining. Especially if it’s reached at a point later in a story or a relationship (I know some of you you know what I’m talking about).

But the problem is that werewolves have been degraded into just something funny, or something average. They’re just one of those monsters you randomly throw at your players in a tabletop session, or they’re a boss fight in a video game. There’s an evil pack of them your heroes have to slay. By default, no one takes them seriously.

Where’s the depth? Where’s the meaning? Where’s the horror, the torment? The challenge?

That’s another thing. They’re almost “normal” by the standards of a lot of settings they’re in. It’s “normal” for a guy to turn into a horrible man-beast that eats people. Yeah, that’s not really that scary, I’ve seen those before and killed like half a dozen. It’s not too uncommon out here in [insert setting/region], the only hard part is figuring out what werecreature the person is turning into while they’re seizing around in throes of desperate agony.

Let’s fight something bigger, badder, scarier. Werewolves are so blasé. And it’s not a setting they’re in, it’s werewolves as a whole - in popular culture. It’s part of the reason why we see all these people trying to “change” them in some way or another, to try to make them “different” or “unique” - and we’re back to bigger, badder, scarier.

Say for example you run a zoo. Someone sells you a tiger. A TIGER? But tigers are NORMAL! We’ve all seen tigers before. These enormous, endlessly majestic animals that can easily kill a man with a single effortless swipe of its massive paw, with teeth longer than your forefinger, whose tawny hide has since time immemorial stricken a primal fear into anyone who sees it - as it should. Yeah, those are boring. They’re not good enough anymore.

Let’s genetically engineer dinosaurs and bring them back instead. Tigers are so blasé.

Only then dinosaurs aren’t good enough anymore. A fucking tyrannosaurus rex? That’s not very scary. We’ve seen those now. Let’s amp it up a little more. Let’s genetically engineer a big freaky albino auto-cloaking horror monster dinosaur straight out of your nightmares because we’ve reached a point now where, to modern audiences, a T-rex is normal, and we need something - what? Bigger, badder, scarier.

And as for werewolves, where’re they? Down there on the bottom of the totem pole somewhere with the “lowly” tiger.

(note: this isn’t a dig at Jurassic World or its plot, I’m just using that general idea as an example :P)

Anyway, I love Jurassic Park with all my heart and soul and that isn’t even a very good comparison as to what exactly is bothering me.

So what do you mean, Mav? What’s got you so upset tonight?

I’m upset because I feel like no one will ever take werewolves seriously again. Not really. Yeah, some things might try, but they won’t get very far. Because in the end, werewolves will always be relegated to what they are now.

Werewolves are essentially one of the most primal and terrifying concepts that have captivated the imaginations and nightmares of mankind in some way or another for the entire existence of humanity, even since the days of cavemen. Throughout our collective history and across every single region of the world, we have werewolves.

But now the average person struggles to care about a story if it focuses on werewolves. What a silly, cheesy fantasy thing. Tell someone your story has werewolves in it and you’ve probably already lost them, because to them, the word “werewolf” carries a lot of connotations and assumptions that are premeditated and inescapable thanks to this greater hive-mind conception of them shaped over the years by overwhelmingly bad media, with far too few diamonds in the rough to change most anyone’s opinion about anything.

Because, to the average person, what are werewolves? They’re B-movie monsters. They’re old news (despite never really being much news at all). They’re some shirtless romance model. They’re a random encounter, or just that one boss fight earlier in the game.

They’re paranormal romance novel material or something similar that serious authors won’t touch with a ten-foot pole, because the second you have a werewolf in your story that isn’t just a one-off, lame, monster-of-the-week creature (hi, “Silver Bullet”), your story acquires a very, very specific audience and becomes one of four things: a young adult paranormal novel ala Harry Potter, a romance novel ala Twilight, a standalone horror quick-read, or a book no one wants to read because you can’t quite fit it into any of those specific boxes, and those are the only boxes in which werewolves are now meant to exist.

Oh yeah, or straight-up comedy.

Bring up werewolves in a conversation - what do you get? Any number of, or all of, these responses: Oh yeah, I saw [insert horrible movie here], it was really funny. Haha, [dog joke]. Hey what about were[whatever]s. Let’s talk about all these other wacky werecreatures and make endless jokes about those instead. How about wereannelids and werehumans? Oh I’m sorry, were you trying to have a serious conversation? Well then how about you answer this completely off the nut question instead? What would happen if a werewolf swallowed silver? Wouldn’t that be funny!?

What about discussing them in relation to some particular setting? Oh yeah, it’s just that ONE setting that treats them that way, right? No. No, it’s not.

My whole life, I’ve just wanted to find some way to encourage people to take werewolves seriously again. I don’t know why or how this became my passion, but that’s what it’s always been.

This blog has actually helped a lot. So thank you all.

But here’s my problem. And now things are about to get personal and move away from broader territory. I’m about to talk about writing fiction.

My primary means of showing the world that werewolves can be awesome, I had always planned before, was to write some novels about them and attempt to tell a story as deep, as moving, as powerful, and as emotional as I think one could tell with a werewolf protagonist. Those novels were going to be called The Prophecy of the Six, set in my world, Wulfgard. And my protagonist? My once favorite character I’ve ever made, Tom Drake. But now I’m struggling to love these things again, to the point of being deeply and emotionally upset with myself.

Because in my mind, he isn’t even “the werewolf” anymore. He’s barely even a scary monster anymore. Which, in my world, he is supposed to be all of those things. He is my ultimate werewolf, and beyond that he is the ultimate monster. Or at least he was/is in theory. For quite a while now, he hasn’t been. There are other werewolves, and for some reason or another or in some way or another, they’re better at being werewolves. They’re, put simply... better werewolves.

And I have to be reminded time and time again that werewolves “aren’t even that scary.” Which I know is a statement bred in the pop culture we have to work with today, and it’s statements like that that should - and sometimes do - spur me on to work even harder. But when I’m down, it’s hard to deal with. And there’s not really much to stop all of these things from coming close to breaking me. Breaking my spirit, in terms of the werewolf thing, and breaking my heart, in terms of my personal issues with Tom right now.

So next time you leave a comment on some story you read online that you really enjoy? Thank the writer simply for writing it. It’ll mean a lot to them. It’ll mean the world to them.

Being a writer can tear you apart. Being a writer is very, very hard.

And on top of that, next time someone talks to you about something that they’re truly and deeply passionate about, no matter what that thing is, do me a big favor...

Don’t shoot them down.

Even if, yes, their passion is trying to prove to the world that something as “silly” as werewolves holds a much deeper and more profound meaning than your average direct-to-DVD horror flick is going to convey.

#rambling #brain weasels #I hate being passionate about a thing other people dismiss #or don't take seriously #not that this is the only one of those things #you know what I'm talking about #personal stuff #please be excellent to each other

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laytonscreencaps · 7 years ago

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Kat's Dream - Analysis of a Scene

(Mildish spoilers, mainly vague references to the final case. I use LMJ to refer to the new series as a whole, MC for the game itself, Katrielle and the Millionaires' Conspiracy.)

I want to talk about the opening of MC, because not only is it one of my favorite cutscenes in the game, it serves as a striking contrast to MC at large. I find it an intriguing addition that hints at the unfolding of a larger story, one that, if the title is any indication, could shape up to be the new series' driving force. Buckle down for a long post that often segues into review of the game as a whole.

For the most part, MC is comical, light-hearted, and laid-back, offering a much more relaxed tone then previous entries in the series. There's nothing wrong with this. The whole "darker always equals better" mindset is, frankly, ridiculous. I appreciate and enjoy when dark elements are well-handled and well-placed in any story, but a comedy should never be deemed inferior to a more serious work on the sole basis of genre alone. The two have different goals and, often, different approaches to characters and story-lines. That said, MC is very comfortable as a character-based comedy where the majority of the humor stems from the heightening of characters' flaws, clever wordplay and banter, and playing around with stereotypes (with a pinch of physical and scatological humor thrown in there, too. The game draws from a wide variety of comedic genres and it's really fun to see different cases reflect different kinds of humor. "Ghost Busted" delights in Scooby-dooesque hijinks, while "Ratman Returns" pokes fun at the current superhero craze and its obsession with franchising).

Of course, MC isn't entirely estranged from its roots. Each case ends with a decidedly emotional resolution, culminating in the final case that, while not entirely original, succeeds in fleshing out a certain character in a genuine and heartfelt manner that is very much in keeping with the spirit of the original Layton games.

I personally loved MC's blend of comedy and emotion, even as I found myself longing for a more coherent over-arching story. The millionaire's conspiracy mentioned in the title does ultimately tie the cases together in a loose fashion, but for the most part these cases can be played in any order and each have their own set-up and resolution, acting as standalone "episodes". I would argue that Mystery Room handled its episodic structure much better than MC, but this has less to do with the structure itself and more to do with the nature of the cases. MC is just very small-scale compared to previous Layton titles and that's a rough adjustment. Yet examining the game as whole reveals that it is, indeed, setting up an even larger, presumably game-spanning story, one that figures only faintly into MC, but will no doubt continue to grow and take precedence as the series unfolds. This larger story is, of course, related to the main title, Layton's Mystery Journey, and the opening cutscene is our most candid look at what this larger story entails.

We open on an overhead of London, shrouded in fog, before cutting to a young girl, Katrielle racing through the streets in her pajamas. She stops when she catches sight of a man in the distance, Professor Layton. She call out to him, but the Professor merely touches his hat with an implacable smile and turns. As he walks away, Kat begins to chase after him again, continuing to call after him, asking where he is going. She finally stops, out of breath, as the fog closes in around her. Older Kat suddenly awakens in bed with a gasp, tears in her eyes.

This scene effectively establishes several important things for the player in a manner that allows the player to see for themselves, and to feel, instead of simply being told the necessary information:

Kat is the Professor's daughter.

Professor left Kat when she was young.

Kat doesn't know the Professor's whereabouts or why he left.

Kat has been deeply affected by her father's disappearance.

While this information has not a lot of direct bearing on the main story, it is still essential. After all, the Professor's disappearance is a large part of the reason why Katrielle decides to pursue a career as a private detective in the first place. Her relationship to the Professor shapes her as a character and it also allows her to play a pivotal role in the game's final case. Yet there is no resolution to the questions brought up in this opening dream sequence. In fact, we have even more questions to ponder by the time the game ends. The implications are clear: the mystery of the missing Prof is only beginning.

I would love to see the series delve deeper into this mystery, broadening its scope, storytelling, and character development, while remaining rooted in the character-based comedy established in MC. Honestly, this is one of my favorite forms of story-telling. In fact, MC with its focus on humor and character dynamics while simultaneously offering fleeting, tantalizing hints at a darker, deeper, over-arching story reminds me of the beginning of one of my favorite comic series, Jeff Smith's BONE. Long story short: three cousins are run out of their hometown and find themselves lost in a medieval, fantasy world. While the series begins by focusing almost exclusively on all manner of comic shenanigans involving the three Bone cousins as they adjust to their new surroundings, a larger story begins to unfold in the background, until it finally takes center stage and plunges the characters into the middle of a war with incredibly high stakes. All the while the comic elements and focus on character relationships are kept intact, serving as an amazing foil and complement to the more serious elements. I could see LMJ doing something similar and the idea has me really excited.

Of course, this isn't to say MC can't still be enjoyed on its own. I hope no one thinks I'm implying the game only finds its worth when connected to a larger story. Not at all. The game is enjoyable in and of itself without figuring the "mystery journey" into the equation. Comparisons are inevitable, however and the fact that MC strives to so fully emulate the gameplay mechanics of its predecessors makes the comparisons even more likely. MC is a lot of fun and sometimes emotionally candid, but the sprawling, rich mysteries of previous titles that tie everything together are sorely missed. There's nothing wrong with MC's structure by itself, but when placed next to its legacy the game feels oddly lacking. Always a problem when trying to continue an old series in a new direction. Changes must be made to keep the series fresh, but these changes will always be under the critical eye of comparison.

MC's lack of a clear over-arching plot is part of the reason why the dream sequence and the greater mystery implied excite me so much. They add a whole new layer to the game, a depth that is rife with potential for future entries. I feel a bit self-conscious saying this, because of course there is marketing on the mind with these tantalizing hints that link MC to the original series without giving us anything substantial. I suppose it's my optimism and respect for the series that leads me to believe the "mystery journey" of the title isn't just a gimmick, but a story worth building up to and exploring. Time will tell.

So, anyway, we've talked about the "what" of the dream scene, but I also want to discuss the "how". How the dream sequence gets its information across. Because there's so many noticeable contrasts from the rest of the game that are worth noting.

The music. This is the only part in MC where we hear Professor Layton's theme. Even in the original series, the theme was used sparingly, usually saved for moments when the Professor was at his best---inventing a contraption to help him escape a dire situation or exposing the true mastermind. It makes sense that the theme would be utilized in a dream centered on the Prof. The version of the theme used in MC is slower, more contemplative and mysterious. The original series was largely in Luke's perspective (the opening letter framing device would support this), so I wonder if the Professor's theme is in part shaped from Luke's perspective of his mentor. If so, this version of the theme could be shaped from Katrielle's perspective. Same Professor, different perspective. Despite Kat's close relation to the Professor, he has become an enigma.

The atmosphere. The London of MC is a warm and inviting place. Even the seedy alleyways of Bowlyn Hill are home to low-lifes who actually harbor hearts of gold. In contrast to UF's focus on political corruption, London in MC is run by a competent and passionate mayor. Most of the cases end not in unremorseful criminals being arrested, but sincere mistakes or confessions that lead to personal growth. This honey-colored optimism has always been present in the PL series, but it seems especially heightened in MC, probably due to the tone decided on from the beginning: the game is a comedy and character's short-comings are treated with both laughter and sympathy. This gold-tinged glow spills over to the setting. The London in Kat's dream, however, is far different. The dream portrays an empty city, one blanketed in thick fog, so thick it swallows Katrielle at the end. The buildings are gray and serve as a claustrophobic framing device. Notice how the road appears to stretch as Katrielle chases after her father. The city itself seems to scheme against her, all the while hosting an indifferent facade. It is an impersonal, desolate city.

Katrielle. In the dream, Kat appears to be around 6-8 years of age in contrast to her current age in MC, which is twenty-one. The obvious reason for this is that her dream reflects the actual circumstances of her father leaving her. It's fairly safe to assume Kate was a young girl at the time, thus, the dream serves as a dramatic distillation of her memories, sort of a recap boiled down to its emotional essence. I can't help but think, however, that her young age in the dream is also indicative of her vulnerability regarding her father's disappearance and perhaps even her emotional immaturity. I've mentioned in a previous post that one of Kat's most prominent flaws is her childishness. While often played for laughs, this trait could point to something deeper. Kat hasn't completely matured and this connects in some way to her father leaving her behind.

Another interesting contrast is Kat's reaction to the dream and how she treats her father's disappearance when discussing it with others. Kat wakes up in tears after the dream and there's a moment right afterwards were she slowly sits up and gazes forlornly at her lap in the middle of her darkened room in silence. A small, but surprisingly powerful moment. His disappearance has deeply hurt her, yet when talking about his disappearance to Lucy, Sherl, and Ernest on different occasions she displays a decidedly nonchalant attitude, denying she is a "daddy's girl" and joking about the matter, calling the Professor a "silly old fool", even suggesting he is enjoying himself wherever he is and has simply lost track of the time. All of this points to Kat concealing her darker emotions regarding the Professor, in favor of making light of the situation and seeing it with an optimistic bent. I think this says loads about her character, but that's a post for another time.

Finally, the dream scene is bereft of any comedic elements. Even the final case in the game manages to slip in a bit of humor, but the opening is solemn and gray. Let me rephrase this: the beginning sequence of the most light-hearted and comical entry in the PL series is perhaps its most serious, troubling, and darkest moment. Yes, it's only a dream. But the implications...The Professor, the paragon of gentlemanly conduct and solid rock for his friends and family, is shown silent, faceless, turning his back on not just someone in need, but his own daughter. The one who proclaimed that every puzzle has an answer has now become a seemingly unsolvable puzzle himself. Of course, there is more to the story, but what a way to open a game that delights in dog puns, collecting outfits, and tidy resolutions. Such an intriguing contrast.

There's a lot more I want to say about MC, but for now I'll close by saying I'm cautiously excited for the series' future and how this contrast between comedy and drama will play out. My hopes is that LJM will ultimately carve out its own unique identity while making insightful and meaningful connections to the previous series instead of merely piggy-backing on its predecessor via indulgent cameos and throwaway references (I’d like to clarify there is nothing inherently wrong with cameos or references, they only become a problem when they are used in place of genuine story-telling and character development). MC is a flawed game and the fact that the scattered collection of hints related to a larger story is one of its most interesting elements underscores the game's weaknesses while also pointing to many future possibilities.

So. Do we really want LMJ or do we just want the original series but new and different, yet somehow still the same? Does MC ultimately succeed in being original? Questions for another post. Personally, my own feelings are mixed. I genuinely loved the game and its new cast of characters while also recognizing its many flaws and shortcomings. For now, share your thoughts if you'd like. What did you think of MC? Agree or disagree with anything I've said here? Optimistic or cynical about the series' future? Another perspective on the dream scene? Let's discuss.

#professor layton #layton's mystery journey #lmj #katrielle layton #analysis

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svnthxsense · 5 years ago

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Genre/Rating: Fluff/smut ; M

Warnings: Fem reader, cursing, light choking, slight corruption (?), slight praise, oral, tiny bit of slow burn

Word Count: 9.8k i’m sorry

Author’s Note: I got very carried away... Anyways, Happy Mark Day! This oneshot is a standalone in my Neo Tech High School series and is loosely based off of the first verse & chorus of Shot Clock by Ella Mai. Please send in any feedback! Also, my apologies if the Keep Reading function doesn’t work on mobile but I can’t do much about it T-T

It was mid-March when news broke in your school that a tier-1 athlete had transferred in. Everyone was swarming with curiosity all for a certain Mark Lee. Most of the gossip came from the guys, who bantered about his stats as a starting point-guard and argued about whether or not he’d make a good addition to the school’s beloved team. The girls, of course, were looking forward to a fresh face on campus. You couldn’t help but be curious, too.

After a week of anticipation, people were stunned to see the actual image of the mysterious basketball player. He was attractive at the absolute least. Then there was something that neither you nor your peers expected: he was the shyest, most awkward boy you had met in a while. How was it that the star basketball player who was always in the spotlight happened to be socially awkward?

You were surprised to discover that you two had a lot of classes together, and you’d be lying if you said you never stared. It didn’t help that he always came into math class with basketball shorts and a tank top on, his skin lightly glistening with sweat even after his brief post-gym shower. His hair was tousled, yet he managed to make it work like no other. It was a sight that made your mouth water and your mind fill with less-than decent thoughts.

It was only halfway through his first week of school when Mark had gotten called into the principal's office in the middle of third period. And then you were called in- not even five minutes after.

“Good morning, Principal Yoon,” You greeted her politely, taking the only other seat left in the room right next to Mark. You felt his eyes on you but decided against looking back at the nerve-wracked boy. Every time you saw him, you seemed to have a new fantasy about things you’d love to do to him. Was it wrong to fantasize about what his hands could do other than dribble a basketball?

“Good morning, Y/N.” She sat down in her leather office chair, scooting along until she found a comfortable position. Her tone was firm yet extremely polite. Most principals were intimidating and loathed by students, while Principal Yoon was approachable and kind. The students of Neo Tech adored her and her methods of running the school.

“Good morning, Mark. I’m sure you’re both wondering why I called you in, and I can assure you that it’s nothing of concern.” She held a manila colored folder in one hand before opening it and examining the paper in front of her. The both of you sat a bit uneasily, wondering what could’ve possibly landed you in this predicament.

“Mr. Lee, your basketball skills are outstanding.” Immediately, Mark began rambling about his appreciation for her comment until her voice interrupted him. “Yes, well, the reason I called you both in has to do with that actually… You see, Mark, your last school was a bit behind in comparison to our curriculum here, and without the proper grades you won’t be able to be an active team member.”

Mark could’ve sworn he heard his heart drop. The whole reason he transferred to your school was that his tier-1 team was becoming mediocre at best. In order to stay on track with his plan of obtaining an athletic scholarship, he needed to choose the best of the best. And that’s what led him to your school, which currently holds the number one spot in the nation amongst all the tier-1 teams.

“That’s why I’ve brought Y/N in as well. It was brought to my attention that you two share more than half your classes together, and I’m well aware of how advanced she is in all subjects. So, to put it frankly, I’m going to suggest that you two become acquaintances. Of course, the final decision would be up to Y/N, but I’m hoping that both of you might benefit from this opportunity.”

Mark couldn’t help but feel a bit embarrassed about how Principal Yoon pressed the issue. It was bad enough that his old school had a less advanced curriculum; and to make matters worse, his tutor just had to be the prettiest girl he’s seen. The way you dressed, especially, drove him crazy. Your sheer black tights underneath your plaid skirt, with your skin-tight, off-the-shoulder top that exposed your collarbones. He gulped at the very thought of what was underneath those clothes. How was he supposed to focus when he wanted to study his tutor more than the material?

“I would be happy to help,” You answered, mindlessly sneaking a glance at the boy next to you. His gaze seemed to be set on the ground, looking at anything but you. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to add ‘tutor’ to my resume.”

Principal Yoon smiled in response, setting the folder down on her desk before gently lifting her glasses off her face. She was pretty young to be a principal, couldn’t be a day over thirty. It was one of the things that made her so approachable, she seemed to sympathize with the lives of students because she was in their place not too long ago.

“Well, then it’s settled.”

You strained yourself trying to hide the smirk forming on your face, finally allowing yourself to steal a look at the golden boy once again. He seemed flustered, as per usual, and still didn’t dare to look you in the eye. He seemed so innocent, yet so ready to be corrupted. The excitement bubbled deep within your stomach at the thought of how much time you’d really need to spend with him in order to get him caught up. And boy did you hope you had extra time for other activities.

Without a word, you rose from your seat to offer a ‘goodbye’ to your principal and sauntered out of her office. Mark fumbled to get up, hurriedly saying goodbye to Principal Yoon before he rushed after you. At the sound of his footsteps, you couldn’t help but grin to yourself. This will be fun.

“Hey, Y/N?”

You hummed in response, then turned on your heel to face him. He was breathing a little raggedly, but you knew it was from nerves because there was no way someone as athletic as him would be out-of-breath from a short jog.

“I- I was wondering when you’d be available…” He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, trying his hardest to sound anything but stupid. You waited for him to go on as he stared back at you but quickly caught himself. “Y’know, for the tutoring.”

Your smile almost made his breath hitch but he ignored the pounding on his chest and found the courage to keep eye contact with you. He regretted it as soon as it happened because he damn-near whimpered at the beauty in front of him. Your lips, a faint rose color, were glossy and plump. He imagined how they’d feel pressed against his, and against other body parts alike.

“How about we do an evaluation of sorts at the library this afternoon? This way I can see how behind you are and how much time I’d need to get you in shape. I wouldn’t want you missing the opening game.” You winked, and Mark found himself gulping down nothing in another attempt to calm himself.

“Y-Yeah, that sounds good,” He replied and waited for you two walk away first because he couldn’t quite will his feet to move.

The end of the day seemed to have come much too quickly for Mark’s liking. Of course, he was itching at the chance to get to know you, but even he knew his nervous habits. The last thing he wanted to do was embarrass himself in the midst of his first impression.

Mark made his way to the library like you had told him to, and he easily found you at one of the tables towards the back of the room. You had books laid out in front of you, with worksheets accompanying them.

“Hey, so I was thinking we could start by evaluating your trig skills and then get into some science. Does that sound good?” It felt like an eternity before you finally looked up to find him sitting directly across from you at the table. He nodded softly as you pushed over the first worksheet. While he diligently started scribbling across the paper, you had nothing to do other than watch him. You picked up on a few things in a short amount of time: math seemed to frustrate him. When faced with a particularly difficult problem, he would huff in annoyance. Nonetheless, he would complete it before moving onto the next one with a scrunched-up nose. It was incredibly cute and you couldn’t help the smile that found its way to your lips.

“Okay, I think I’m done.” He pushed the paper back to you before bringing his hands down into his lap, nervously toying with his fingers. He then brought his bottom lip in between his teeth, chewing delicately. You tried not to react, instead turning your attention to analyze his answers. Did he know what he was doing to you? After looking through all the questions, you tsked.

“Your trig teacher must’ve sucked.” You adjusted your sitting position so that the paper would be visible to the both of you. “For number four, you need to use the quadratic formula- which is X equals negative B plus or minus the square root of B squared minus 4 times A times C. Then you divide the whole thing by 2 times A.”

Mark tried to keep up with you as you explained, but his mind was way too focused on how good you looked while concentrating. On top of that, math was never his strong suit. He had always struggled since the moment variables were introduced into his lessons. Memorizing the quadratic formula was all too difficult when the explanation was coming from that pretty mouth of yours, he thought.

“B…? Wait where is the X comin-”

“Mark.” You interrupted, trying to the best of your ability to keep the smile creeping up on you at bay. The way his name rolled off your tongue so naturally enticed him. “I can already tell that you’re about two months behind with the trig curriculum. That alone will take me at least two weeks to catch you up on, and that’s if we meet practically every day.”

“I-I’m sorry,” Mark answers weakly, his eyes retreating down to the desk below him. Immediately, your demeanor softens at his vulnerability. “I know this probably isn’t how you’d like to spend your free time. I’ll find another way to catch up, I’m sure-”

“Hey. I said it would be a lot of work, I didn’t say I don’t want to tutor you. Luckily for you, I’m pretty much free this semester anyway. Now, the issue is if you are willing to put in the work.”

Oh, was he willing.

[two days later]

“So, after school at the cafe?” You ask, grabbing your books from your locker and securing them in one arm. The tutoring sessions would have to be extremely consistent to make any noticeable progress before the school’s opening games. They were a big deal within Neo Tech’s school community, and the pressure was on to see how the new point guard would compare to all the hype.

“Yeah, if that’s fine with you,” He murmurs before eyeing the small stack of books and papers cradled in your arm. Naturally, he feels the need to take that burden off your hands. After all, you would be the reason he even gets to play this season. Without you, it’s unlikely he would’ve caught up in time to make a good impression on Neo Tech and other schools alike. “Let me carry your books for you.”

“You don’t have to,” You insist, moving slightly so the books are a bit more out of reach. Mark pouts in response, leaning forward again in another attempt to grab the materials. He succeeds this time, his hand slipping around the stack and drawing them away from you. “Persistent, huh?”

“Guess you could say that.” He chuckles, wrapping the books in his arm just as you had done. This is the only plan he thought of to spend time with you outside of a studying environment, but he hopes you don’t notice these intentions. “We have class together anyway.”

“And where are your books?” You raise on eyebrow questioningly, beginning to walk with him beside you. History was never your favorite class, but you stayed on top of the work anyway. It was easier, you realized very early on, to get the work out of the way so you’d have more time for studying and other extracurricular activities.

“I leave them in my desk.” He shrugs, looking over to see you smiling widely. The baby pink color that takes over the apples of his cheeks is extremely obvious, but you don’t comment on it. Seeing Mark flustered is cute, you determined as soon as you had met him.

As the two of you walk through the large doorway of your history classroom, bubbly conversation fills the air. Your teacher, Miss Han, sits perched on her desk patiently. She was a nice lady, but it didn’t change the universal distaste for history among your class.

“Well, uh- I guess I’ll see you at the cafe.” Mark sets your books down on your usual desk quickly, scurrying to find his seat among some of the other basketball players that had this period with him. You recognize one of them as Hendery, a friendly acquaintance due to all the classes you two shared last year.

“I see you, Mark.” Hendery’s eyebrows raise in a teasing matter, shoulder bumping the boy next to him. Mark stares back at him, confused as to what he meant. “You carrying Y/N’s books.”

The explanation causes Mark’s blush to reappear, the heat becoming warmer and warmer upon his flesh. Hendery is one of the only guys on the team that he’s fairly close with, yet he still didn’t feel ready to tell him about his little crush.

“It was nothing, really. She’s tutoring me and I thought- why not?” He tries desperately to make his response seem nonchalant, but the act he puts on is no match for his flushed cheeks. Hendery, with one brow raised, eyes Mark’s cheeks. “Okay, maybe I think she’s kinda cute.”

“Bullshit! You like her!” He accuses in a whisper-shout type of voice. Mark groans in response, softly hitting his shoulder with a closed fist. A cackle leaves Hendery’s lips, his hand coming up to muffle the sound. “Dude, just ask her out! You’d be a very lucky guy.”

“I can’t just ask her out!” It comes out as a high-pitched shriek. “It’s not that simple. I mean, it is that simple. But what if she says no? Then I’ll have to deal with rejection and seeing her every day for our study sessions and-”

“Mark, you’re way too worried. Do you want me to talk to her? Find out some dirt? We had a few classes together last year-”

“N-No! That’s too obvious!” His voice sounds so exasperated by now, Hendery is afraid he’ll pass out. Talking with his hands is a nervous habit that happens when he’s rambling, and right now is no exception. “I don’t know what I’m gonna do, dude.”

“Better hurry before someone else beats you to it.” At this, Mark’s head snaps in Hendery’s direction. Before he can even formulate a proper response, Miss Han clears her throat and silence falls upon the whole classroom. Throughout the lesson, though, Hendery’s words echo in Mark’s head. What did he mean by that?

“One iced americano and one green tea please.” Mark pulls out his wallet before you have time to protest, and by the time your mouth opens to say something, his receipt is already printed. You didn’t expect him to order for you when he asked what you liked from this shop. Oblivious, he turns to you and stops in his tracks when he sees your surprised expression. “Huh?”

“You didn’t have to pay for me.” Your voice is firm but you’re grinning over at him, ignoring the way your whole body feels warm because of his display of generosity. Buying drinks shouldn’t be such a big deal, you remind yourself. “I owe you a lot now- carrying my books and now coffee.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He shrugs, before examining the shop to find the best seats. He decides on the small table in the corner, shuffling towards the spot silently. Your brows furrow at his response, hoping for something a bit more engaging in terms of conversation but realizing that Mark wasn’t quite good at conversing in general. At least, around you, he didn’t seem to be.

The cafe became a regular stop before your tutoring sessions, the two of you eventually decide that the library was a better spot for studying. So, almost every day after school, you two would rush over there to pick up your usual orders before racing back to the library. Most of the private rooms filled up after dismissal, so you two always made it a point to manage your time efficiently. Coffee runs and then studying- that was your routine.

You had hoped to test the waters with some flirting, but your efforts seemed to go unnoticed. And when they didn’t, Mark would be a nervous wreck in response. You wondered if you should try your luck outside of your study sessions, but you didn’t have many opportunities since he sat nowhere near you during your shared classes. Study sessions and coffee runs seemed to be your only options.

On numerous occasion, Mark would slip his wallet out and pay for your coffee without a second thought. These events would result in a whole lot of whining on your part, always arguing that you should treat him once in a while too. He liked the idea of spoiling you, he wanted to say, though the invisible filter that was stuck in his throat never allowed him such a luxury.

Plus, the look on your face was equally as cute as your whines. Although you tried to be angry, the lopsided grin that always appeared made Mark’s stomach do flips. How was it possible to be that effortlessly pretty? It would take the nation’s top philosopher, Mark thought, to figure that one out.

“Mark!” You call, jogging over to his locker where he stands, putting his books away. He focuses on not being a clumsy mess then looks over at you, spending extra time admiring your all-black outfit: leggings and a v-neck. He forces his eyes not to travel south of your face, instead putting on a small smile. “I was wondering where you think we should study? The library is gonna be closed for a staff meeting today.”

Without thinking anything through, Mark immediately answers with, “Actually, my parents are out of town this week. We can study at mine if you want.”

Fuck. His eyes widen at his own words as soon as they come out. You can’t help but be surprised too, but your shock quickly turns into something much less decent. At this point, you’re dying to get your hands on him. You know that if you two have your study-session today, you’ll jump his bones the minute his hand so much as grazes yours.

“Oh, okay. Cool. So I’ll meet you after 8th,” You conclude with your voice sounding like pure honey to Mark. As you turn and walk away, Mark is unsurprisingly staring at your figure in those damn leggings. He wonders how much thought you put into your outfit, if you’re wearing it on purpose to torture him. He shakes the thoughts out of his head when he feels excitement course through his veins and towards the southern region of his body. No way is he going to get a boner now. Demanding his attention elsewhere, he rips his eyes away from you and tries to think of anything but how good your ass looks.

P.E. was always Mark’s favorite class. For most of his life, his Phys. Ed teachers had consistently been carefree and maybe a bit lazy. Their go-to lesson plan comprised of a few laps around the gym and then free-choice sports. Most of the girls opted for volleyball and badminton while almost every single boy could be found on the basketball court in the midst of a friendly scrimmage. Today is no different from the rest of those times.

Mark enjoys the friendly competition but easily leads his team to a win. He has gym with some of the other guys on Neo Tech’s basketball team, and it was easy to see how well he’d fit in with the pace of the other guys. At his old school, it always felt like he was being held back. He had to slow down his plays and examine the court thoroughly before he was able to make a proper judgment of his next move. With the Neo boys, everything seemed to come naturally.

He was able to gauge each player’s strengths and weaknesses fairly quickly too. For example, Hendery was a great shooter under pressure. When he gets boxed in by other defenders, that’s when his shooting is the most precise. So with that in mind, Mark always looks for Hendery when he notices that the opposing team’s defense is particularly aggressive that day. His judgments haven’t failed him thus far, with today’s scrimmage resulting in another win that should go down in the books.

Basketball was something that came easily to Mark his whole life. Talking to girls though? Not as much. He excelled on the court, took the lead and kept a risky attitude with unexpected plays and passes. He fits in well with Neo Tech’s strategy and game style. Plus, the guys on the Neo Tech basketball team were quick to befriend him and make him feel right at home. That is, of course, until he overhears one of his teammates, Lucas, talking to another teammate in the locker room as he begins to pack up his stuff after their particularly long scrimmage.

“Bro, are you really gonna shoot your shot with Y/N?” The other one- Xiaojun, he thinks- asks the taller boy. Lucas shrugs a little, folding his gym clothes neatly before placing the pile back in his locker. He’s not wearing a shirt, and Mark can’t hide the feeling of insecurity that seeps into his veins. Mark’s never been as built as that, but he never thought much of it until now.

“I mean, probably. She usually comes to our games, right?” He looks back at Xiaojun, eyebrows raised. The boy nods back slowly, a look of uncertainty on his face. “She’s so hot, especially in that one skirt she always wears.”

Mark’s jaw tenses and his whole body becomes rigid before he can calm himself down. He knows, in his mind, that he doesn’t technically have a right to feel possessive. He hasn’t made a move, so who was he to stop Lucas’s plans? This thought doesn’t stop him, however, from feeling the sudden urge to punch Lucas in his pretty face. It annoys him that all Lucas has to say about you is ‘She’s hot.’ To Mark, you were so much more.

He loves the way you insist on helping him and accept nothing less than 100% effort on work. He loves how you smile proudly at him when he finishes his worksheets with no errors, how you blush every time he pays for your coffee before a study session, how you always find a way to get something done if you commit to it, how you genuinely care about how his day went when no one else seems to ask. You’re more to him than a nice body in a short skirt. Much, much more.

Hendery notices his tense shoulders and pensive facial expression, quickly grabbing the shirt that was draped over his shoulder and sending a soft wack to Mark’s back. This seems to do the trick, his face softening when he realizes it was Hendery who hit him.

“Ignore them,” Hendery orders, folding the shirt in his hands and placing it back in his locker. He’s friends with both Lucas and Mark, but he can tell how much Mark likes you. Lucas’s crush would pass with time, it was a never-ending cycle with that one. “Lucas isn’t her type, trust me. And if you’re so worried, make your move.”

This time, Mark realizes that Hendery is all too right. He needs to do something-anything, before it’s too late.

Yet again, the end of the day comes too quickly for Mark to process. He blankly shuffles out of the lab room and is taken by surprise when he sees you leaning against the wall opposite the doorway. You push yourself off the wall when you spot him, and take into account how good he looks when he’s out of it. It makes you wonder how he’ll look when he’s all fucked out and-

“Ready?” Mark interrupts your thoughts. Instead of saying anything, because you don’t trust your voice at this point, you simply nod and begin pacing your walk so you’ll be shoulder-to-shoulder. Your shoulder brushes against his occasionally, but neither of you shows any sign of being bothered by it.

The car ride is full of thick tension and utter silence aside from the soft hum of the radio. Mark’s grip on the wheel is tighter than he’s used to but he can’t help it. He can feel your eyes on him, his skin beginning to warm underneath his usual basketball shorts and a loose tee. You study him shamelessly: the veins of his arms that bulge occasionally when he shifts the wheel one way and the other, his habit of biting his lower lip when the car in front of him drives too slow, and the simple things like the contour of his jawline.

He pulls into a driveway and you aren’t surprised by how lavish his house is. His mother and father are both high-ups in some big company, as Mark had put it. They take business trips often but still find time for their beloved son, while his older brother is away at the number one university in the country. One might ask why Mark needs an athletic scholarship if his parents have so much money. He thinks of it more as a pride thing. His father, before becoming a businessman, was also on an athletic scholarship for soccer. His older brother has one for baseball while he studies Marketing and International Finance. Sports scholarships were almost like a family heirloom for the Lee’s, along with a business degree.

He jumps out of his seat, closing the door behind him before rushing to the passenger side to open the door for you. Under normal circumstances, you might’ve blushed. But with Mark, you know you have to be the confident one between the both of you. No matter how flustered his smiles make you and how weak in the knees his deep voice makes you, you force yourself to put on a bold front.

“Welcome to my humble abode,” Mark snorts as he leads you through the foyer to the carpet-clad staircase. Humble was one way to put it. The whole interior has a simple, all-white color scheme. Upholstered leather loveseats were positioned neatly down the halls, with minimalistic tables to match. You let yourself take in your surroundings as both of you walk through the maze of his house towards what you presume will be his bedroom. Your guess is right; he stops in front of a white-painted wooden door and opens it just a bit to peek inside and make sure nothing was out of place. He breathes a sigh of relief that he decided to move anything remotely embarrassing to his walk-in closet as soon as he started his new school. Opening the door wider so that you could enter, you step in hesitantly and watch a little too intently at Mark closing the door firmly behind him.

His room is somehow exactly how you pictured it; a light blue color paints the walls. His full-sized bed leans against one wall, with posters of his favorite movies hovering above the headboard.

“Shit, I just realized that my desk-” You glance behind you, seeing his computer which took up most of the space that the desk had to offer and the somewhat large gaming chair that was tucked comfortably underneath said desk. Almost thanking fate for throwing this curveball in your favor, you just smile reassuringly at him.

“It’s fine, Mark. We can study on your bed.” Mark’s eyes widen suddenly and you realize that you probably gave him too much to process at once. “Or the floor, that’s fine too.”

“N-No! I mean- whatever’s more comfortable,” He manages to stutter out. Mentally, Mark would have said something spicy just to see you blush. However, in reality, Mark just couldn’t muster up the courage to openly flirt like that. His lack of confidence had posed many obstacles for him over the years. It seemed the one place he was truly confident was on the court.

“Well, it’s your room so I’ll sit wherever you sit.”

He nods once before setting his backpack at the foot of the bed and jumping back onto the soft mattress. Scooting up towards the headboard, he waits for you to do the same. You ignore the excitement that bubbles knowing his eyes are on you, and take a seat next to him with your bag still in hand.

“So uh- what are we gonna start with today?” Mark tries so hard not to seem phased by having a girl like you in his bed, but his patience is wearing thin and he can only blame himself. Maybe if he just made a move…

“We always start with trig.” You furrow your brows in confusion because it’s become a set routine already. Trig was always first because that was the subject he was most behind in. English was obviously not a problem for him and in terms of science, he was just behind with lab work that he could complete in school. “Then, we brush up on some science. I don’t really think you need it, though. You’re almost caught up with your lab work.”

“Oh, yeah. Right, of course.” He has to physically focus on not rambling or he’d be a mess all over. Of course, you know this by now. And while his shy and awkward demeanor is definitely adorable, it also makes you hesitate to try anything with him. After all, what are the chances of the shy boy in front of you gripping you up only to have his way with you?

Mark begins working on the sheets you give him almost as soon as you hand them over, eager to complete the work and somehow finesse his way into spending more time with you. He was being dumb, Hendery would continuously tell him. He should just go for it, because with a tutor ‘as hot as Y/N,’ why wouldn’t he? His lack of confidence makes him want to pull his hair from the roots, but he resists the urge and silently completes the worksheets. He double-checks all of his work carefully so that no time will be wasted in going over stupid mistakes. With a sigh of relief, Mark hands the papers over to you and looks up at you nervously. You always look so stoic when analyzing his answers, it intimidates him yet also lights a spark of excitement at the same time.

“Well done. There were no errors, just make sure you remember to show your work because the question requires-”

“Y/N?” Your name slips out of his mouth before he realizes it. You fall silent, eyes lifting to meet his dark brown ones. “Um… Can we maybe t-take the day off? I think I’d rather be doing almost anything other than trig right now.”

You don’t expect this question, because he’s never asked for a break. It was always about him being up to date with the curriculum so he’d be able to be part of the starting five. What you also don’t expect is for his eyes to flicker, very briefly, to the exposed skin of your upper body. There’s only a bit of cleavage showing, and a peek of your collarbones visible from certain angles. Suddenly, you realize that the time for making a move is now. And you can’t pass up the opportunity.

“What did you have in mind?” Your voice dripping like honey in the air. Slowly, you push the papers and books away from you and they hit the carpeted floor with a light thud. Mark gulps, finding his mouth dry when his mind goes blank with what to say next. Come on, Mark. Keep it together.

Instead of saying anything that might ruin the moment, he simply mimics you and pushes the books off his lap and onto the floor. When he turns back to face you, he’s met with your challenging gaze and he can’t help himself as he leans towards you without any doubt in his mind.

Your noses brush against each other, his face so close that you could feel every minty breath he lets out. You know what’s about to happen, and you no longer have the patience to delay it any further. Mark’s hesitant ways, while sweet and gentlemanly, drive you to the brink of insanity. And so, with a deep breath, your hand lifts to pull his face to yours. Your lips softly press to his, letting him process the fact that you’re actually kissing him before you grow impatient. Feverishly, you move your mouth against his. Mark swears he’s in heaven when he slowly opens his mouth a bit wider and your tongue automatically swipes against his. He’s been waiting for this moment- to feel your lips against his, to taste you in more ways than one. He needs it all, right now.

“Y/N,” He separates from you to breathe out your name. You practically bite back a moan, humming in response while his hands grab your waist. You expect him to say something, but he just kisses you again with more confidence than before. As he slowly leans back against the headboard, you follow him absentmindedly, simply chasing the heat of his lips against yours. You’re straddling him now, his hands moving to grip your ass cheeks with greed. The force makes you roll your hips in response, grinding down onto him unintentionally which makes Mark’s breath hitch.

You experiment, repeating the movement and pulling away from him only to see his reaction. His eyes are focused on the movements of your hips above his, concentration straining his face. After flipping your hair to one side, you continue your slow torture and lean down to kiss the spot below his ear. With his hands firmly clasping around your hips, you suck at his supple skin and lick over the spot when you’re done. By now, his breathing is a little heavy and uneven as his erection pressed against your clothed core. You feel him against you, his basketball shorts doing little to conceal his excitement.

“You’re driving me crazy,” He whispers as he drops his head to the crook of your neck, his breath tickling you slightly. You relish in knowing that the feeling is mutual. With every huffed-out breath, every soft kiss on your skin, you only become more reassured that you want this- and it makes it all the more worth it knowing that he wants this too.

You break the kiss to rid yourself of your t-shirt, the material on your warm body frustrating you a bit more than you’d like to admit. As you meet his eyes again- they’re filled with a hunger that causes your stomach to clench and arousal to pool within the confines of your panties- you can’t help the absolute urgency you feel to make him putty in your hands. So instead of kissing him again, you play with the hem of his loose tee, letting your hands graze over the skin of his abdomen. He hesitates, remembering the locker room fiasco with Lucas and suddenly he feels that insecurity itching at his skin again. He isn’t extremely built, his athletic body on the more slender side, but you don’t mind at all.

From his demeanor, you can already deduce what’s bothering him. You press a sweet kiss to his lips, almost silently telling him that you liked him just as he is. A kilowatt smile lights up his face, and your cool hands against his heated skin make him grab at the material to discard it himself. He stares up at you, waiting for your next move because quite frankly, he likes you in control.

“These too,” You order, pointing at his basketball shorts. Mark is quick to shimmy them off of his body, leaving only his boxers to conceal the length of his cock from your eyesight, though the bulge is very much prominent. You debate whether or not to fuck him then and there, but decide that having him writhing from your mouth alone would satisfy you more.

With a quick motion, you bring your lips down to the skin above the waistband of his boxers. He twitches slightly at the contact, and then feels your nails gently rake against his sides. He’s much too sensitive to your touch, and it almost scares him. How could you have so much power over him? Maybe it’s the way your plump lips push against his skin so confidently, how your eyes find his without a second thought. He envies your confidence, but he also finds it unbelievably addicting to have such control taken away from him.

Mark isn’t a virgin. But he also isn’t very experienced. His past sexual encounters were vanilla, with him hesitantly taking control because his girlfriends always expected such. His first time was awkward at best, his hips didn’t quite know how to fluidly move nor did his tongue know how to expertly flick against hers. He did get a bit better as time went on, or so he likes to think. But he feels so foreign to sex with you.

It might be because you seem so opposite of him- in terms of how easily everything comes to you. However, he doesn’t find it in him to assume anything about your sex life, because he doesn’t particularly care. He ignores any thoughts of how many guys you’ve been with or if they’d be better than him, because as your hands slowly pull his boxers down, he’s content with knowing all you’re thinking about is him, at this moment.

You hum pleasantly at the sight of his length free from its confines, a small bead of precum ready to drip from the head. Much to your surprise, your mouth salivates on its own at the sight. You stroke him twice in your small hand, before your spit comes down on the side of his dick. He watches you in awe as you slide him into your mouth without hesitation, your tongue running along the underside of his length. A guttural groan emits from the awestruck boy before he can stop himself, much to his dismay. It would make you grin if your mouth wasn’t preoccupied.

You begin to slowly, tentatively bob your head up and down on him as your hand twists up to meet your mouth. You look at him expectantly for his response, and it doesn’t disappoint. His hands fly to your head, fingertips smoothing over your scalp while he sucks in a harsh breath. His mouth drops open soon after, the warm and slick tunnel of your mouth proving to be quite the pleaser.

He feels nervous under your stare once again, but he certainly can’t look away from the sight before him. With your plump, infamously glossy lips wrapped around the tip of his dick and your tongue sliding obscenely over the slit. He wants to memorize every detail of the picture painted for him, so he stares at you and forces himself not to look away. He sees everything: the way you blink slowly as you take him further into your mouth, the way you search his face for reassurance that you’re making him feel good, the way you twist your wrist in an almost tortuous way that feels so, so good.

“Fuck, I need to feel you.” He gently, regretfully pulls your head away from his crotch. Your mouth detaches from his cock with a quiet popping sound, a string of spit connecting his dick to your bottom lip. Your mouth is tinted red and a little swollen, a bit of spit still left on the side of your mouth. Even so, Mark still thinks you’re the most beautiful girl he’s ever seen.

He decides that, eventually, he’ll ask you out. The turn of events today is unexpected and definitely not what he had in mind, but he’s in too deep to put a stop to it now. He wonders if he fucked up his chances by going along with this, if you’d reject him because of the irony of him asking you out after he’s had his way with you. He swallows the nervous feeling that is rooted deep in his chest and stems out to the entirety of his body, pushes it aside to deal with later.

You undress quicker than Mark can process his thoughts, and for the first time since you’ve met him, your confidence wavers. Confidence was always something that came and went for you- the brave front you had put on didn’t quite prepare you for feeling Mark’s hungry eyes all over every inch of your body.

“Y/N- you’re so beautiful.” He motions you to get on top of him again, and you comply shyly. He kisses your lips once, then your cheek, then your neck, then your shoulder. All until you’re smiling so wide that you feel a pinch of pain in your cheeks. Mark Lee definitely owns your heart, no point in denial any more.

“W-Would you want to uh- ride me?” He stutters out clumsily, his hands finding purchase at his sides. This is why he likes that you take control. For one, it’s sexy as hell. For another, it gives him less room to be the nervous mess that he usually is.

At his question, your demeanor changes from a slightly nervous girl feeling so bare underneath his gaze to something even you didn’t know you had in you. You can feel your arousal as you slowly move closer to him, your thighs on either side of his. His boxers are still hanging just below his knees and he hurriedly kicks them off all the way.

“Condom?” You ask, eyes searching around his bedside but to no avail. Mark fumbles a bit, keeping one hand around your waist securely while the other rummages through the bottom drawer of his nightstand. After finally locating the box of condoms his mom insisted on giving him during freshman year, he pulls the foil packaging into sight. It’s almost embarrassing how quickly his hands make work to slide it securely over his length, but his desire is clouding his judgment more than he expected.

“You’re sure you’re okay with this?” His voice is a bit breathless as he carefully tucks some of your hair behind your ear. The action makes your face warm and quite possibly your heart. But you don’t admit that. Instead, you nod curtly before pressing a reassuring kiss to his lips. Without skipping a beat, you take hold of his cock and align it at your entrance. You run the head back and forth between your folds, but realize you’re only putting yourself through further cruelty with every second that passes with no relief to the throbbing of your core.

So without warning, you sink down on him at a painfully slow pace. Your slick folds welcome the stretch of his girth, the very feeling of him making you shiver with sensitivity. Mark looks down to where his dick is being swallowed by your core, finding it harder and harder to hold on to his sanity as you sink further down on him. You let out a soft, delicate moan when you feel him fill you up completely, and Mark swears he could cum just from hearing those angelic sounds. He then decides, if you two do this again, he’ll fuck you into his mattress until you’re crumbling at the seams because of him.

“Shit,” He mutters under his breath when you start bouncing on top of him. The sound of skin slapping against skin proves to be quite the soundtrack as you desperately grip his shoulders. You bite your lip in an attempt to muffle the screams of pleasure just aching to come out. Your moans come out in whimpers when Mark uses his thumb to draw figure 8’s on your clit. He’s biting his bottom lip, his facial muscles strained between a fucked-out state and a concentrated one.

“Such a good boy,” You muse lightly without even thinking. Your voice mumbling such praise causes Mark to gulp, and he’s strangely even more turned on. Then again, you’d been awakening emotions and sensations that Mark hasn’t quite felt before, didn’t even know were possible. On your side, you’ve never tried much dirty talk during sex, but for Mark, you were willing to try. You can tell he likes it by the way his grip on your hips tightens and his breathing becomes heavier. And so, as he pants and groans softly next to your ear, your pace turns merciless. You bounce on him with an unrelenting pace and he knows you won’t stop until he cums, hard.

“Oh fuck. Oh shit.” Profanities spill from his mouth, his eyes screwing shut intently at how good the friction between your folds was. He forces himself to continue rubbing circles into your clit, albeit a bit sloppy, but circles nonetheless. You’re only more motivated by his lewd sounds, feeling your walls clench even tighter around his throbbing cock. The sensation causes an idea to form in your head, and you decide that his reaction will be the most satisfying part.

“Feels so good. Are you close?” Innocence laces your voice as you grab his hand and guide it to one of your breasts. Watching as he instinctively grabs it greedily in his palm, you notice how hot his fingers look wrapped around your flesh which only fuels your idea. Mark nods eagerly at your question, his breathy pants coming out shorter, more frequent, and sinful enough to make your head spin.

Abruptly, you begin rolling your hips against him rather than bouncing, causing him to look up at you. Then, you grab his hand again and bring it to your throat, making him wrap his fingers around the width of your neck slowly. Mark’s mouth drops open a second time this afternoon, feeling his hand tenderly squeeze around your neck. Your breathing becomes a bit restricted, but not enough to cause any discomfort. The force only makes your eyes roll back, while Mark turns to putty underneath you. After a few seconds, he releases his hold and brings his hand down to knead your ass, whispering something about how good you feel. Despite his seeming increase of confidence, all that Mark is thinking about is the power trip he got from choking you. Holy fuck, did that really happen?

“Gonna cum now, baby?” You force the question out when you feel him begin to pulse inside of you, leaning down to suck on the skin where his shoulder and neck meet and then licking your way up to just below his ear. Gently and carefully, you take his earlobe between your teeth and pull away slowly. Mark, by now, is a writhing mess underneath you. He can no longer contain his sounds nor his desperation to climax, bucking his hips up to meet yours. The combination of his thumb running over your clit repeatedly and his dick hitting just the right spot has a white-hot pleasure burning through your entire body. “Mmph- Mark!”

“Fuck! I’m g- gonna cum,” He yelps when he hears you moan his name, his thumb’s movement over your clit becoming rougher, sloppier by the second. He gives up on trying to thrust up into you, instead letting you ride him with an almost animalistic nature. His face scrunches up, a choked groan falling from his open mouth as he feels his climax course through his entire body. His seed fills up the condom, the sensation of release so utterly euphoric that Mark isn’t sure if he’s ever felt this good. Your pace on his dick slows before coming to a complete stop, breathing heavily and feeling so out of it even without an orgasm.

“Lay down, beautiful,” He rasps out, moving from his position and running his hand along your thigh delicately. His half-lidded eyes meet yours before you obey his command, positioning yourself in the middle of the bed with your head resting comfortably on one of the pillows. Mark hovers over you, pressing affectionate kisses all over your upper body before traveling lower.

“I’ve never done this before,” Mark admits shyly, sucking on the skin of your inner thigh before repeating the action to the other one. As he licks a stripe up from your dripping core to your clit, you feel a shiver run all the way up your body. Noticing your reaction, he sucks your clit into his mouth and rolls his tongue over the sensitive bud. Your drawn out moan tells him he’s doing something right, so he continues to flick his tongue over the bundle of nerves while he looks up to see your face.

“Shit! More, p- please.” Your pleads leave his ears red and his mouth watering, his tongue moving to slide between your folds with a soft moan. The vibration combined with his tongue darting in and out of you languidly makes you see stars at this point. “Oh my god- are you sure you haven’t done this before?”

He chuckles lightly, seeing your brows furrow in concentration as he forces his tongue to fuck your core faster and faster. One of his hands comes down to rub over your clit, your juices creating a squelching noise every time his tongue moved inside of you. Mark swears he’s never felt more proud when your hand comes down to grip at his hair, pushing his face further into you just as your thighs clench around his head.

“You’re so wet,” Mark praises before going back to thrusting his tongue between your folds. The taste makes him hum, vibration spreading through your lower region and making you whimper in satisfaction. Mark’s a quick learner, you see, when he continues to hum and groan into your pussy as his finger circles your clit consistently. “Cum, baby.”

You give in to his command, letting yourself fall apart at the seams underneath his mouth. Your pussy throbs around his tongue as you ride out your orgasm, a moan caught in your throat as your mouth hangs open in an ‘O.’ Mark happily laps up your juices, diligently downing every last drop before collapsing on the mattress next to you.

“Wow,” He remarks in awe, peering at you through the corner of his eyes. You’re still trying to catch your breath, but you laugh lightheartedly anyway as you turn your body to face him. A few pieces of hair cling to your forehead, and he delicately pushes them away from your face before caressing the curve of your jaw.

“The game’s coming up,” You comment, your hand toying with the one that wasn’t touching your face. The game was so important to him, you couldn’t think of anything else you’d rather talk about in this moment. “Aren’t you excited?”

“Well, yeah of course. A little anxious, but I think that’s normal before a big game.” Basketball might be the one thing he could talk about without a nervous bone in his body. No stuttering, no confusion, just speaking his mind. “Do you like basketball?”

You nod in response, giggling at the face he makes that’s somewhere between surprised and overjoyed. Basketball was something you enjoyed watching and analyzing, especially since it was such a big thing for the students of Neo Tech. Most schools prided themselves on their football team, but not Neo. Basketball had always been like gold.

“What do you think of our starting five? Maybe you can tell me something I haven’t picked up on.”

“Hmm,” You start, fully prepared for the rant that’s about to happen. “Xiaojun is a pretty amazing shooting guard, he almost always knocks down shots whether he’s open or not. Ten can’t be matched when it comes to being a small forward. He’s quick as hell, and I see him use that to his advantage a lot when he’s trying to get open. Hendery- where do I even start? He’s so versatile when it comes to shooting, perimeter shots and jump shots- it doesn’t matter, he can make them all. And his defense skills are crazy, he’s fearless even up against bigger guys. I mean, I guess that’s normal among power forwards but-”

Mark zones out a bit as he prepares for you to talk about Lucas. What were you going to say? Would your eyes light up when talking about him? Would you gush about how good he was? He hopes not, especially not after what just happened.

“Lucas is a good choice for center. He’s tall, so it makes sense that he’s the best at rebounds. His shooting ability is fairly decent, but he needs work on his passing in my opinion.” He’s surprised to see that you keep your comments completely analytical, not even blinking an eye as you continue your commentary. If Mark liked you a lot before, hearing you talk about basketball has him on the verge of calling out for cupid.

“And you-” Mark’s ears twitch, his attention completely and utterly focused on you. Had you seen videos of him playing at his old school? He dreads the thought, knowing that he wasn’t playing to his full potential back then. “Well, I guess we’ll just have to see this Friday.”

“Is it too early to say ‘marry me?’“ He jokes, and both of you laugh. Secretly, though, you wish he had been more direct from the beginning. Seeing him with his newfound confidence is even more attractive than seeing him flustered. You wonder what today will bring of your relationship, but decide to wait and bring it up after his big game. He needs a clear head, and so do you if you want to see him perform to the best of his abilities on game night.

[game night]

You aren’t disappointed in the least bit, savoring every minute of the game and concentrating on how good Mark is. His position was always point guard, and now you understand why. He has a certain talent, it’s not technical. Sure, he’s a great shooter and he’s ruthless with defense. But more importantly, he facilitates the team in a way that makes all of the players better. He plays using their strengths, knowing exactly who to look for in any given situation rather than making himself the star.

He leads the team flawlessly, and you’re sure everyone feels it too. The momentum the five boys build up in the first half is too strong for the other team to compete with. By the time half-time is up, it’s clear that Neo Tech will come out on top. There’s a certain feeling lingering in the air as the coach switches out Ten and Hendery for Yangyang and Jungwoo. No matter what the coach does, who switches out, the outcome is secured.

Despite how certain victory is, it doesn’t stop everyone holding their breath as the shot clock winds down to its final seconds and Mark steps back to launch the ball into the air. Everyone is still as the ball seems to move in slow motion, a loud swoosh sound echoing throughout the gym seconds before the final buzzer blares, indicating the end of the game. The crowd is immediately on their feet and cheering, high-fiving and fist-bumping all around.

You’re sitting in the first few rows, so it’s easy to run out onto the court. The school’s sports reporters, Chenle and Jisung, are already holding the microphone towards Mark to record a post-game interview for tomorrow’s newsreel. They only get to ask a few questions, though, before Mark’s eyes are on you.

A bright, proud smile graces your face and Mark is sure he wants to see that same smile every day of his life. You’re standing a few feet away, facing him and the rest of the boys on the team. This reminds him of Lucas’s conversation in the locker room, and he knows that now is no time to be shy.

So, he answers one final question before brushing off the two boys and turning towards you. His walk is confident now, as if he’s done this millions of times before. Now, he stands with you toe-to-toe and he lets his arms wrap around your waist slowly.

If it’s even humanly possible, you push your body closer to his and drape your forearm over his shoulder. His eyes stare directly into yours, the shy boy long gone and replaced with the same courageous Mark that was on the court tonight.

“How’d I do?” He whispers as he leans his forehead against yours, his breath tickling your nose. Everyone on the team is watching, but it doesn’t bother either of you. Instead of answering, you grasp his jaw and press your lips against his. It doesn’t take long for him to respond, his mouth moving against yours slowly and affectionately. You pull away after a few moments, still beaming up at him.

“I guess you finally got together, huh?” Hendery smirks from his spot on the bench beside the two of you, and Mark laughs quietly. Though, Hendery’s statement reminds him that he never did ask you out. His brow quirks upwards when he meets your eyes, the silent question spelled out right in front of you.

“Yeah, we did.” Your answer is what he’s been dying to hear since the moment you walked into Principal Yoon’s office, and it feels even better knowing that he isn’t daydreaming this time. This is real, you returning his feelings- it’s all real. And Mark couldn’t be happier.

“I told you she liked Mark!” Xiaojun throws a victorious, high pitched scream at Lucas as they walk towards the locker room.

#nct #mark lee #nct scenarios #nct reactions #mark scenarios #mark imagines #nct imagines #nct smut #mark smut #nct fluff #mark fluff #neo tech high school series #happymarkday #nct 127 #nct dream

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clementina723credits-blog · 5 years ago

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hawk-in-a-jazzy-hat · 8 years ago

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Anime Review: No Game No Life

Genius gamers and social shut-in siblings Sora and Shiro spend their days owning at every game they touch, working together under the username “Blank”. But their closed-off lives change when they receive a challenge from Tet, the god of the world of Disboard, who summons them to his realm where every conflict and every decision is conducted using games, from chess to word games to video games.

Sora and Shiro find themselves trapped in a world where humans are inherently disadvantaged and where fantastic races of all kinds are battling one another in order to challenge Tet for real and become rulers of this new world. It’s a terrifying world where countries, memories and lives can be lost by the simple luck of the draw, but for a brother and sister who live their lives through games, it’s a chance to finally take their skills and become something legendary.

Let’s be completely honest here; all anime is trash.

¬.¬

Look, okay, I’m very well aware that I spend a good chunk of my life watching shows which I shouldn’t take anywhere near as seriously as I do. Anime is a niche market for a very niche audience, and the shows reflect that. Sure, you get your Bebops and your Wolf’s Rains and your Ghost in the Shells, but those are standalone pieces of art and love and care. A lot of anime has recurring tropes, reused characters, the same settings and far too many morally questionable things for me to count.

And yet somehow a lot of it is still so good. Even in the most mundane shows imaginable you can usually find a few gems of awesomeness that raise it up into something better, be it a character, the writing, the directing or the worldbuilding. That’s the thing; for a medium which is pretty much based on and solely funded by complete trash, there sure are a lot of really cool things scattered throughout. As a hobbyist reviewer, I found my job became far easier when I stopped looking for perfection in every show and started looking for the good bits; it’s why I tend to enjoy most things I watch, even if I couldn’t necessarily call them all good. You can’t take it seriously; even most of my favourite shows. I love them all to bits, but come on, Madoka jokes are funny as heck.

Everything is trash, which makes the good bits stand out even more. That’s the philosophy I tend to live by with most things I watch, honestly.

Occasionally though, you will come across something that is pure trash.

No Game No Life is a special show that is pure, unfiltered, absolute trash. And yet I enjoyed it. T’was good stuff. Not great, but...you know, far from bad. But utter trash. See, there’s a difference. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

This is a studio Madhouse production, not that you care really, because you are going to spend the first few minutes (and a majority of the show) just being absolutely blinded by the visuals. Not because they’re especially gorgeous; aside from a few magnificent backgrounds the whole show is mostly just ‘above average’ in terms of linework and animation, but mainly because the show seems to have gone with the colour palette of ‘eat ten bags of Skittles and regurgitate them onto a tie-dye T-shirt’. I’ll give it this; the show demands attention. I watched this on a big screen initially, and it certainly made an impact, though I can’t decide whether I find the show immensely creative and flamboyant, or just gaudy. One thing I wasn’t a fan of was the constant purpley-pink overlay that is over pretty much every scene; for such a colourful show it did seem to make it rather flat at times.

The soundtrack does exactly what it promises on the tin; you want an OST for your fantasy series, you want a soundtrack like this. Sweeping epic pieces when showing off the world, and fast-paced electronic pieces for the high-stakes intrigue of the games. I feel bad because I seem to remember enjoying the soundtrack quite a bit while I was watching it, but really none of the tracks have stayed with me. The opening and ending are far more memorable; despite the fact that they’re a bit more standard ‘fantasy’ tracks, they both have solid driving rhythms and memorable riffs. Also there’s a particularly clever use of the ending near the end of the series, but spoilers in that regard.

So by all accounts, I should have no interest in this series. It’s a light novel adaptation about two people pulled into a game-based fantasy world where they have some special main-character-plot-significance and gain a harem of female characters who initially start off as dismissive but who are soon won over by main character powers and bleauuuuuuurgh I’m so done with this crap. But I want to be fair, and I tried to look at this through fresh eyes (which was a necessity anyway given the first pair had been burned out by the visuals).

Is it well-written? Er...well...honestly, not a lot happens. The whole show pretty much acts as a prologue for the much greater conflict later on, and once the true game starts...the show ends. Yup, and with no mention of a second season anywhere in sight. At the end of the day all that was accomplished throughout the series was that Sora and Shiro integrate themselves into the world and potentially set off a new war/conflict/games battle. The main focus is on the games, each of the major ones of which take up a whole episode or even two to complete. It’s like watching Yu-gi-oh all over again.

Okay, so...I can forgive thin plots but are the characters any good? Well...um...

I’m sorry, but Sora and Shiro are not interesting protagonists at all. They have the potential to be interesting but they remain one-note throughout the entire show; they’re both genius game-players and possibly evil, Sora’s the outgoing one and Shiro’s the quiet one. Even more of a blow is that they are both practically invincible; they are never once allowed to fail throughout the series. Everything goes according to plan and the two always come out looking smug. It’s this kind of blatant main-character-worship which puts me off so many of these kinds of shows, the fact that the mains are always right and they will always come out on top. Sure, Re:Zero tried to subvert it somewhat, but even then it completely went back on its development near the end and still gave Subaru exactly what he wanted because...main character.

But hey, I hear you cry, Sora and Shiro are not perfect characters, for they have serious separation anxiety and social anxiety.

Okay, sure. What of it?

See, while they are shown to be NEETS and having panic attacks when separated, the show doesn’t actually do anything with it. The whole point of the show being in this world where everything’s solved by games is that they don’t need to actually face their fears or face any development in that area at all. Also, for people with social anxiety they sure do cope very well in the busy environment of the fantasy world; I’m reminded of the Nostalgia Critic Daredevil review, where he mentions that given Matt Murdock can see far better after the accident than he could even with his actual vision, then narratively there’s no point to him being blind. It’s all very well to give characters crippling deficiencies, but if the story’s just going to get around it by changing their abilities or their environment to make it so they have no impact, then what’s the point? Just have them as every other OP main character in every other fantasy anime. The closest the show comes to actually developing it is episode 9, and even then it comes right the heck out of nowhere and is resolved within the episode.

Blegh, okay. What about the other characters? Well, again, nothing really interesting. Tet is a playful omnipotent who just kind of sets the plot in motion because he’s bored, I guess? Jibril has a constant fetish/obsession with knowledge, Izuna and the beast people are blank slates, Kurami and Feel have pretty much nothing to do, and then there’s poor Stephanie Dola, who gets the most development and is probably my favourite character. She’s the true heir to the throne of Imanity, but has none of the game-playing skills to actually accomplish her goal. This is all good stuff, except that the main characters treat her like absolute crap. Constant abuse, belittling her, setting monsters on her and basically stealing all of her accomplishments, all with the supposed intent of making her a stronger person? Yeah...no. Sorry, I’m not buying that, and all the constant disregard for Steph is just unpleasant to watch.

Okay, so is the world interesting at all? Well, it could be, except for the fact that I have absolutely no idea how this world works. Oh, the game part I understand , but the actual politics and the races are just spouted out in great reams of exposition that make me feel like I should be taking notes. Here’s a tip; if you’re not going to show or have any contextual purpose for Seiren, Lunamana, Gigantes, Oompa-Loompas or Jared Letos in your show, I don’t need to know about them. It’s just information overload and makes my head hurt, and honestly for this series we only really need to know about 5-6 of the races? Out of 16. Yeah. Worldbuilding is good and all, but it should never take over the main focus.

I’m spouting an awful lot of bile and hatred against this show, aren’t I? Well...honestly, it does dampen the experience for me. But here’s the thing; this show should not work at all. Gaudy animation, tired concept, flat, bland characters, no story to speak of, and that’s not even getting into the incredible tastelessness. To the point where I do have several questions as to how the hell this was allowed to air on TV. Also a lot of it revolves around Shiro. Who is eleven. Oh hi Chris Hansen.

And yet...from start to abrupt end, the show is incredibly addictive and entertaining.

I’ve neglected to mention the games, which are honestly truly creative. Mundane rock-paper-scissors matches or word games are turned into full-on Death-Note-esque psychological battles, with the addition of magic to make them as much of a visual spectacle as they are a mental one. Despite the fact that Sora and Shiro should not be able to play as a pair for most of them (seriously, I get it narratively and the whole Blank thing but is this ever actually explained as to why they’re always allowed to play together?), the two do work very naturally off one another, and the games themselves have some awfully clever twists and turns that mean they’re never predictable. It’s about the journey and the game itself, rather than the politics and flat characters around it. Again, much like Yu-gi-oh.

And as much as the world around the games is kind of lifeless, again it’s easy to ignore due to the fact that the show is really damn funny. The comic timing is mostly spot-on, the character’s one-note personalities are still defined enough to bounce off each other well, and the references...oh my word, the references are GOLDEN. Death Note, Yugioh, Ace Attorney, Jojo; I’ve never seen references integrated this flawlessly into a show since WATAMOTE. Arguably even better than that.

And that, my friends, is trash in its purest form. If I try to describe it, there is NOTHING to recommend about No Game No Life. No decent characters, no intriguing plot, no involved and accessible world; and yet despite it it’s all so, so entertaining. And I guess this is nothing new; recent trends in the most popular shows are bringing up the same utter trash over and over again, from Sword Art Online and OreImo to Re:Zero, Akashic Records and Eromanga-sensei. I know of people who vehemently hate No Game No Life, all for good reason, but at the same time the appeal is crystal clear. We like trash, so long as it’s entertaining. Heck, two of my own favourite series in recent years are Kill la Kill and Gargantia. Honestly, you can’t get much trashier than that.

I can’t say that I love this show as much as some; the problems are just a bit too significant for me to completely overlook them. But at the same time, I can’t pretend that there is no value to this show. It may be pure trash, but in many ways that can simply transfer over to pure entertainment. And honestly, is there anything wrong with that?

I guess what I’m saying is...does anyone else want to join me in this trash bag?

My score: 7/10

#anime review #no game no life #studio madhouse #anime 2014

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wombatlogic · 8 years ago

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.defrag

a surreal experimental adventure game by ForgottenDawn (https://rpgmaker.net/games/9142/)

a review

defrag what?

.defrag is a minimalist/surrealist game, drawing some influence from Yume Nikki and its ilk (.flow) while having a more concrete storyline. (Once again, a disclaimer, I still haven't gotten around to playing Yume Nikki so my perspective could be lopsided. Either way, it's got a stark, black/white/noise feel and soundtrack to match. The project is near completion, with just a few polish items missing, and total playtime is somewhere at 3-4 hours.

This review should be mostly spoiler-free, covering the 1.3 preview release.

Story

The player character of .defrag is a humanoid figure, nameless and mute. While some friendly computer monitors give you some hints at the story as you're birthed into the world of noise, there's very little background and the world of .defrag exists mostly outside of any reality, sort of a standalone universe. Your character's lack of identify cements this.

I was a little worried in the first zone - The Aether. With a literally faceless protagonist, randomy "noisy" environment, and no clear goal in sight, I wandered around a little bit, then luckily found my way out. The rest of the game is roughly broken into zones, each with some memorable characters, multiple lines of dialog, and visually distinct designs. At this point, the game is open-ended. I personally wandered around, talked to everyone in sight (once), and started to piece together the premise of .defrag: the world is under assault by a "noise virus" with varied and unclear effects.

.defrag is a pure walking simulator, in that the only gameplay is traversing the world and talking to its residents. Luckily, the residents are a diverse set of folks. The character design is fun. Most of the everyday NPCs have their own consistent personality, and while the writing's never laugh-out-loud funny, it's enough to keep the player interested. The areas without NPCs are definitely less engaging. The major characters (mostly the aptly-named Blob and JIM THE GOD OF DEATH AND DESTRUCTION) have multiple expressions too, which adds a lot. The other major character is unseen, and your only form of contact with this mystery person is a series of signs which slowly grow from informative ("Junkyard ->") to narrative ("If I see one more turn, I swear to god...)

Eventually, once exploration is over, there's a series of not overly noteable fetchquests, but the game ends up turning linear. New areas (the Radio Tower, Purge Hospital) open up, there are some plot twists, and eventually a very thrilling buildup and finish where the game takes on some horror elements. The pivotal "loss of control" moment happens around Purge Hospital, where .defrag switches from open world to closed world, the pacing kicks up a notch, and the game turns genuinely unsettling. It's a very tight and well-executed second half.

Pacing

...and then, there's a whole other half of the game? This is probably the weirdest part of .defrag and its biggest flaw, in my opinion anyway. For reference, here's a graph of my interest in the game as time progresses, roughly to scale over the four hours I played:

Notice that big flat portion after the climax? After the player visits every area, after the big mystery of .defrag is solved, after every character shows their true colors... then a whole new set of characters show up? There's two new sets of quests? And none of these quests actually expand on the world of .defrag or its mystery. While the new characters are all as fun as those in the first half of the game, they're simply irrelevant. The thrill is gone (there's no plot past this point, let alone plot twists) and the exploration is gone (no new maps, either). What's left? Character interaction, which is enjoyable enough, it's just not enough to make this part interesting. The second half of the game is empty content.

Some of this is compounded by the mechanics .defrag uses to move the player from one plot point to the next. Most of the gameplay is "character A requests you to talk to character B," followed inevitably by "character B requests you to talk to character A." The other half of the gameplay is "character A talks vaguely about character B," after which the player is supposed to psychically determine that new dialog options have opened with Character B. Just because Bill mentions Blob, I'm supposed to know to talk to Blob again? This is the cause of the "wandering" segments on most of my graph -- new options had opened somewhere but I didn't know the where. This is compounded by the open-worldness of .defrag -- it's possible to explore places before the fetchquest series requires it. For instance, I was told to find The Hub... immediately after previously talking to every Hub denizen.

Luckily, there are mitigating factors. Towards the endgame, characters offer to warp you to your destination. More importantly, there's a Speed Hax item that ups the walk speed, so retraversing areas isn't all that painful. I definitely would've quit without this item. It's a godsend from the developer and plenty of other games could take the hint. There's also a fast transport system to warp from one zone to another but for whatever reason, this system only unlocks in the second half, when there's no longer a reason to revisit zones. It's a pointless reward at that stage in the game.

All that said, as soon as the player reaches the Radio Tower, there's about an hour where everything is purposeful, well-paced, and well-executed. It's ironically the most restrictive part of .defrag, but this game is so much better when you know your purpose rather than backtracking through zones looking for one.

Aesthetics

The first thing that jumps out about .defrag is that it's monochrome for the most part, and it has sort of a glitchy aesthetic, etc, which is all fine and I enjoyed the game's visuals mostly. But seriously, the most striking thing about this game is its amazing sound design. The BGM is 80% noise, 20% conventional soundtrack. The noise parts vary from inoffensive to oppressive and powerful. Radio Tower especially is about three times more intimidating than it has any right to be thanks to its sound. While it's not much to listen to on its own, playing .defrag without the sound on would be a huge mistake.

https://forgottendawn.bandcamp.com/track/the-radio-tower https://forgottendawn.bandcamp.com/track/the-reveal-part-i

(Some of my favorites, free listening at Bandcamp)

(oh and for what it's worth, the part of Yume Nikki I'm most familiar with is its OST and I'd say .defrag is a worthy rival)

The conventional pieces only show up around the climax, and while once again, they sound average removed from the context of the game, they work fantastically well where they're positioned. The final areas start to layer ambient melodic components on top of the noise, and then finally there's true affecting, orchestral pieces for the climax. It's a powerful constrast. Combine this with the minor SFX throughout the game (footsteps, doors, hospital ambiance) and I can safely say .defrag's biggest asset is its sound.

Back to the visuals -- they work. The mapping is fine and varied between zones. Some areas are prettier than others. I especially enjoyed the wireframe sculptures of The Garden and the futuristic feel of The Hub. The glitchier areas of the game (The Aether, The Plant) weren't as fun, and some were uninteresting due to level design more than visuals, for instance, the hold-the-left-arrow-key Junkyard or infinitely-looping cellar areas outside The Hub.

As mentioned before, the character visuals are spot on though. I only wish more characters were present in the first half of the game, because in the first half, apart from the wireframe NPCs, expect the only faces to be Blob and Jim. Luckily Blob is very... expressive.

In conclusion...

.defrag is fascinating and for the most part, fun. The half a game that comes after .defrag is superfluous not fun. While there are a few mixups caused by the exploration elements in the first half, it's ultimately a unique and engaging experience. What I'd want from a .defrag 2.0 is its postgame content tucked into its first half. Most of the problems in the first half are what-do-I-do where-do-I-go problems that probably can't be solved without killing the fun that is exploring the world on your own, but more content there would definitely cut down on the "Wandering..." moments. The second half can be cut entirely and I'd recommend anyone looking to play .defrag (you should), just quit after leaving Purge Hospital. It's a quirk of the game that it can be "ended" at any time after the climax, so consider the rest very (VERY) optional.

In fact, there's one exact moment I can pin down as what feels like the "real" conclusion to .defrag. It's a scene in the hospital just after the climax where the player finally learns the fate of their predecessor, the person who placed all those signs around the world. If the low points of .defrag are backtracking through environments looking for someone whose dialog changed, then this is the high point: haunting use of sound, a well-told story, a discovery, and an emotional kicker. Play this for the good stuff.

#rpg maker #surreal #horror #game reviews #yume nikki #.flow

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ijournalnews · 5 years ago

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20 new and notable Android apps from the last two weeks including Quibi, Plexamp, and Plex Dash (4/4/20

Welcome to the roundup of the best new Android applications that went live in the Play Store or were spotted by us in the previous two weeks or so. Today I have a new video streaming service app and two useful releases from Plex, not to mention a handful of other useful titles. So without further ado, here are all of the notable Android apps released in the last two weeks. Please wait for this page to load in full in order to see the widgets, which include ratings and pricing info. Looking for the previous roundup editions? Find them here.

Apps

Quibi: Watch New Episodes DailyAndroid Police coverage: Smartphone-optimized streaming service Quibi launches today Quibi is the latest video streaming app to land on Android, and it's a service that boasts smartphone-optimized video. What this means is that all of the videos within the app can be viewed in landscape or portrait. On top of this, these videos are all less than ten minutes long, which makes for easy digestion when strapped for time. Of course, there is the hurdle of people not wanting to sign up for yet another streaming service, so I have to wonder how much success the Quibi team will find without the long-form content typically expected of competing services. Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs from $4.99 - $7.99

PlexampAndroid Police coverage: Plex launches its standalone music player and server management apps on Android The hint is in the name. Plexamp is a music app that can connect to your Plex Media Server, though you will need Plex Pass to use this app. More or less, this is pleasant looking music streaming app that works with the audio files stored on your Plex Server, and so far, user reviews appear pleased with this release, which is a good sign Plex has a worthwhile music player on its hands. Monetization: free / no ads / no IAPs

Plex DashAndroid Police coverage: Plex launches its standalone music player and server management apps on Android Plex Dash is the second release from the company this week, and it's a tool that should be useful for anyone running their own Plex Server, and much like the above listing, a Plex Pass is required to use this app. Basically, if you'd like to monitor your Plex streams as they are streaming, whether for fun or for troubleshooting, then Plex Dash is indeed the app for you. Monetization: free / no ads / no IAPs

Screen On - Keep Screen awake - Keep Screen ONScreen On is an app that can, you guessed it, keep your screen on. So say you'd like to leave your screen on when reading a news app or playing a game, you can use this release to set your own custom lighting settings for individual apps. While I know many titles offer a similar option in their own settings, such as comic readers, it's still a lot easier to set up profiles for all of your apps inside of a single title. Monetization: $0.99 / no ads / no IAPs

WOW Volume Manager - App volume controlWOW Volume Manager comes from the developer behind the Screen On app listed above, and this time around, you can expect a release designed to customize your volume settings. Just like any other app of this nature, you can customize your volume on an app by app basis, and you can even set up a custom default volume level for the rest of your apps, which I'm sure should come in handy for all of you power users out there. Monetization: $0.99 / no ads / no IAPs

WHO InfoEarlier this week, the World Health Organization released a coronavirus app that was quickly delisted from the Play Store. Then a few days later, this WHO Info app popped up, and it appears to offer the latest news, events, features and breaking updates on outbreaks. Of course, you could always dig up this info from a bunch of other sources, but having an app that compiles everything in one place could come in handy. Monetization: free / no ads / no IAPs

Root Activity LauncherRoot Activity Launcher is an early access release that offers root access for your activity launcher well beyond similar apps. This means you can start unexported activities as well as activities with permission requirements. You can also start services through this app. Heck, there's even a built-in filter that will allow you to search through states, such as enabled/disabled or exported/unexported. Monetization: free / no ads / no IAPs

Zenkit To DoZenkit To Do is just that, a new todo app for Android. As you can see, it offers a minimal design that's easy to read, and you can share all of your todos with your friends, family, and business partners. Oh, and if you're looking to switch away from Wunderlist, there is an import option within Zenkit To Do that should allow you to seamlessly pick up where you left off. Monetization: free / no ads / no IAPs

Piwag - Improved Search Engine for the Play StoreOver the years, I've noticed that many people hate how the Play Store handles discovery, and despite these constant complaints, Google has done little to improve the situation, most likely because there's more money be made by shoving F2P apps and games into every inch of the store. This is why I'm happy to see the arrival of Piwag, a search engine for the Play Store that should ideally make discovery easier. So if you're sick of Google's self-serving ineptitude in this area, why not give Piwag a try. Monetization: free / no ads / no IAPs

Mullvad VPN: privacy is a universal rightMullvad VPN is a free and open-source commercial virtual private network service based in Sweden, and the company just released a VPN Android app this week. Creating an account does not require any personal information, and the service supposedly does not keep any activity logs. So while Mullvad VPN is the latest VPN app to land on the Play Store, awash in a sea of similar apps, I suppose choosing a service that's open source is a better move than choosing a VPN randomly. Monetization: free / no ads / no IAPs

Marcus - Savings & LoansMarcus - Savings & Loans is a new app from Goldman Sachs, and apparently, it ties into the company's Marcus by Goldman Sachs personal loans. So if you've taken out a Marcus by Goldman Sachs personal loan, then you can use this app to check your balance, schedule and track deposits, or even create recurring transfers. Best of all, fingerprint logins are supported. Monetization: free / no ads / no IAPs

Smash: File transferSmash: File transfer is a simple tool designed to transfer files from your Android device with ease. Sadly user reviews paint a different picture, mentioning issues with uploading, zip files, and constant errors. While new releases tend to struggle before they find their footing, I suppose it's a hard sell to get people interested in an app when that app doesn't work very well. At the very least, this is a completely free release, so hopefully, it improves soon. Monetization: free / no ads / no IAPs

Brave Browser (Beta)The Brave Browser has offered a mobile version since 2016, and this week a beta version has popped up on the Play Store for those that would like to test upcoming features. This way, interested parties can send feedback to the devs before new features are pushed to the stable release. So while I wouldn't recommend this version for daily use, if you enjoy troubleshooting or digging for bugs, then Brave Browser has you covered. Monetization: free / contains ads / no IAPs

CyberLink PowerPlayerCyberLink PowerPlayer is a media player from CyberLink that supports local media center networks, the ability to cast to any screen, and an easy way to watch your favorite videos on the go. Essentially CyberLink is claiming that this is an all-in-one media player, and while there are already many similar options currently available on the Play Store, I suppose another hat in the ring should keep the competition on its toes. Monetization: free / contains ads / no IAPs

Ultra Volume: Custom Slider control & themesOkay, it's clear that volume apps are a dime a dozen anymore, but did you know that theming your volume control is a current trend everyone and their mother is copying? In comes Ultra Volume, the latest app to offer a volume slider replacement as well as a quick and easy way to theme these sliders. Monetization: free / contains ads / IAPs $1.99 a piece

Edge Block: Prevent accidental touchesFor all of you Android users out there that hate accidental touches when using a phone with curved edges, Edge Block is the answer to all of your problems. Sure, it won't change the fact that devices with curved screens feel like you're holding a slippery bar of soap, but it will help alleviate any issues with accidental touches on the curved edges of your device. Monetization: free / no ads / IAPs $3.49 a piece

Bundled Notes - lists, writing, to-do, reminders.Bundled Notes is a new to-do app that offers robust organization. The theme is slick, and there are a plethora of options already available. So while you can easily sync all of your notes, the lack of web app integration means you'll have to grab your phone every time you want to edit your notes. Luckily a website companion should be launched soon, which will definitely round out this release. Monetization: free / no ads / IAPs from $1.89 - $17.99

Lyf - You're not aloneLyf is a social media app designed around anonymity, and so users can share personal stories without judgment, which should ideally help users work through their issues. The app offers an ad-free experience, though in-app purchases are included for those times you wish to speak with a trained psychologist about your problems or goals. Monetization: free / no ads / IAPs from $4.99 - $49.99

Manufacturer And Tie-In Apps

Weather - By XiaomiWeather - By Xiaomi is a manufacturer release for a weather app. Primarily manufacturers upload their apps to the Play Store so that they will no longer have to rely on carriers to push out updates. As we all know, carriers are extremely slow when it comes to OTA updates, and so with the launch of Weather - By Xiaomi on the Play Store, Xiaomi users can finally keep their weather app up to date with ease. Monetization: free / no ads / no IAPs

VeoSensVeoSens comes from Samsung, and it's a health app that ties into accompanying apps on phones and watches to ultimately supply the user with a health score. Through your everyday use of your watch and phone, this app will tell you how healthy you are, because as we all know, lifestyle smartphone apps that copy other lifestyle smartphone apps for the sole purpose of tying someone into a manufacturer's ecosystem should be listened to at all times. So far, the only user review states that they can't even connect this app to their watch, so this release may not be ready for prime time just yet. Monetization: free / no ads / no IAPs

Know A Worthy New App? Let Us Know!

If you have an application in mind for the next issue of the roundup, feel free to send us an email and let us know. Important: there are 2 requirements in order for the app to be considered, listed below. the app's launch date has to be no longer than 2 weeks ago it has to be original, ground-breaking, well-reviewed, interesting, fun, etc - the cream of the crop Now, if and only if the above requirements have been satisfied, fire up an email to this address: . 1 sponsored placement per week is available (your app would be featured at the top and marked as sponsored) - please contact us for details. Read the full article

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