#i like riley and jacob so much as characters

[lemedy]

Finished my first playthrough of Oxenfree: Lost Signals and gun pointed at me, I'd still choose the first as my favourite.

But still very much liked Lost Signals and you know what, it was a little bit refreshing to be a tired 30 something trying to fix shit instead of following a group of (beloved to me) teens with their teen drama.

[digirainebow]

i dont necessarily ship jiley/racob, but i ship the idea that riley and jacob's lives are always going to have some manner of a timeloop in them by nature, no matter how much they improve themselves, and i think that one of those loops being a permanent will-they-won't-they is possible. it never comes to fruition because jacob can't imagine being a father figure to rex when riley thinks it would be nice if he could be, and once jacob realizes he basically has been this whole time anyway, riley thinks they're too old for it to really matter anymore. and i think this could be one of the many things contributing to rex's disappointment in riley. not because he wants them to be together, in fact he doesn't give a shit. jacob is...fine. its seeing riley continue to not know what it is she wants that pisses him off. we know he just wants her to make a choice for herself.

[s-ccaam-era-crepe]

oh my gods i need to talk about oxenfree so bad im so unnormal about this game,, (<- should be going to bed and is running on 0 sleep)

[vivwritescrappythings]

masterlist

updated: 10/25/24

joel miller

yours : you get new neighbors in Jackson, Joel doesn't like how much attention they pay to you so he decides to teach them a lesson. [SMUT]

unfair : an au about Joel attending a wedding simply inspired by Pedro's slutty little fit at the SAG awards. [SMUT]

part 2: good Morning : Mornings with Joel are the best. [SMUT]

saying thanks : Joel is your grumpy patrol partner who doesn’t even talk to you in the streets of Jackson. But one night a man grabs your arm at the Tipsy Bison, and Joel’s decided he doesn’t like it. [SMUT]

set me on fire, i'll keep you warm : you and Joel get stuck in a cabin together during a winter storm [SMUT, a/b/o dynamics]

eddie munson

the boy is mine (viv's version) : a romantic night at the trailer

just love me and eat : you watched Eddie die, so this must be some nightmare in your room

part 2: it’ll heal : Eddie’s perspective on his new life [SMUT]

late night visits : Eddie catches you dropping Max off and invites you over, he teaches you how to smoke weed [SMUT]

velma : You attend a Halloween party with Eddie, things don't go quite as planned when Jason Carver acts like a jerk

twenty-five : You always cry on your birthday, and this is the year Eddie finds out

silence : The five times you asked Eddie to be quiet, and the one time he was [ANGST, NO COMFORT]

squeeze : Eddie is your tattoo artist and long term boyfriend, one night you have an idea of how to spice up your next tattoo session. [SMUT]

simon "ghost" riley

simon riley brainrot : you sit next to him on a plane [drabble]

roadburn : someone hits simon’s motorcycle while you were riding

take it all : you meet simon at a bar and go home with him [SMUT, toxic simon]

small apologies: six months later simon decides he wants to apologize [SMUT]

könig

king of the joust : you attend a tourney with your family, a knight you’ve never seen before wants your favor [plus size reader]

sworn sword : civil unrest in the kingdom forces your father and the king to assign a knight to you for your protection. thankfully he is someone you have already met before

golden linings : the evening ball presents you with an unconventional dance partner

words fall short : you can’t stop thinking about some rude words said about you at last night’s feast, but your knight doesn’t let you worry for long

if she would have me : könig personally comforts you through the news of your betrothal. things get out of hand [SMUT]

anything you ask : despite all odds, it is finally your wedding day [SMUT]

hobie brown

and they were roommates : you and Hobie always toe the line between friends and something more.

other stuff i will write just no inspiration has hit me (so you can request it): felix catton, nate jacobs (but only in the fucked up way—would write dark!fics), recom miles quaritch, jake sully, miguel o'hara, geralt of rivia, thranduil, most pedro pascal characters (but not pedro pascal because i find writing fanfic about real people to be strange).

[panlight]

A few minor tweaks that would have made Twilight a more cohesive story:

Don't kill Victoria in Eclipse; her gift is evasion, if anyone could escape, it's her! Actually, don't kill Laurent either. He dies off screen, it wouldn't really change anything. He can get his original happy ending with Irina.

Make the "Riley" Mike Newton, or Eric Yorkie, or Tyler Crowley. Someone Bella knew, someone local. In the book we don't meet Riley until his death scene so why should we care about him? The horror and tragedy of one of Bella's schoolmates being used and corrupted by Victoria would be much more narratively satisfying, and would give the human kids like, a purpose in the story other than existing to love or be jealous of Bella.

Tempted to do something similar with Bree, but it might be overkill to have two kids from Forks end up in the Seattle newborn army. So EITHER make 'the Riley' someone Bella knew, or 'the Bree' but maybe not both.

If we must stick with the basic Breaking Dawn outline, then Victoria living to the end of the story keeps the flow of the original antagonist. If the "Riley" survives he can be the one to report Renesmee's existence to the Volturi (as he did in Forever Dawn), if not, Victoria can get someone else to do it.

Name drop more of the Breaking Dawn visiting vampires earlier in the series. The only ones we had really heard about before were Peter & Charlotte and the Denali 'cousins.' I don't know about anyone else, but my impression from the first three books were that these were like, the only people willing to put up with the weirdo Cullens. Them suddenly having loads of friends willing to risk their lives for them felt like it came out of nowhere. It was fun to meet Peter & Charlotte and the Denali because we had heard of them before; everyone else felt like they came out of nowhere. Maybe when Bella is getting a tour of the house there can be gifts from other vampires ("is that . . . is that an Ancient Egyptian canopic jar?" "Oh, yes, a gift from Carlisle's friend Amun), or name them specifically in Eclipse when they are trying to find people to help them after the Denali refuse.

Have a few more vamps (other than Garrett) go vegetarian in the end. There's this whole big speech about about how special this diet makes them and then like . . . no follow up at all. Whatever you think of the premise of vegetarian vampires, it's just unsatisfying that it doesn't really go anywhere. The only convert is Garrett, who does it for Kate, not actually because he was inspired by the Cullens or whatever.

Okay this one isn't minor but: JACOB! FIGHT! THE IMPRINT! That seemed to be what his character was set up for. He's the one to champion falling in love the normal way. He's the one who resents choices being taken away from him. Him fighting an imprint and winning seems like a much more natural arc for him than becoming supernaturally obsessed with a half-vampire baby. The shifters and vampires reluctantly working together in Eclipse to protect Forks/La Push was much more interesting than them being forced to because of Jacob's imprint.

[codabound]

Spoke about this in the Leasecord server, so now I'll be putting it here too:

Anybody notice how there seems to be little to no relationships in Leasebound where a person of color is dating another person of color. Likeeeeee

Jaden and Riley are the end couple. Jaden is a POC, Riley is half white, and the side of Riley that is of color is very easily forgettable (I literally forgot that she's half Asian while writing this and had to come back to add to it)

Riley and Blaire are both white

Jaden and Alexis were both POC. And then got nuked shortly thereafter and we haven't even seen Alexis in the actual story since then

Chez and Parniya are both POC, but are one of the least focused on couples in the whole comic despite being actually important supporting characters

Poppy and Sardonica are white and POC

Kylie and Naaz haven't reappeared since the first few chapters

Josie and Jacobus are both POC but Jacobus is dead

So, overall, that leaves little to 0 actual POC dating POC.

Something I've kind of noticed in a lot of queer media where the creator of said media is subtly but not so subtly racist is that they'll almost never include a relationship where both participants involved are POC, they either both have to be white or one of the members is white. Interracial relationships are always encouraged, we definitely need more of those, especially more queer ones, but it does get a little weird and sus when literally all of your interracial relationships in your story are just white and POC. And considering Rusty already has a bit of an unclean track record in relation to her POC characters and how she depicts them, this doesn't exactly feel too out of the realm of possibilities for her.

Adding to this, to quote the lovely @chrysalis-the-butterfly for their addition to my original rant:

"That's interesting to note. A few more couples to add:

Murphy is Irish and Hannah is Aboriginal. They're not dating, but they are quite close and could date in future.

Ari is Jewish and has a one-sided crush on Violet, who's Black. But Violet wants to hold off on dating until Faith is in high school.

Speaking of, Faith is Black and has a crush on Jaden, who's also Black. That's a POC loving another POC, bit it'll never be reciprocated because ... well, Faith's a child.

Tina is mixed‐race white and Malaysian and has a crush on Jacob, who's Black.

Jasper is Filipino and has a crush on Kai, who's white. Clancy is white and has a crush on Jasper.

So, yeah, still not much rep of POC dating POC, besides Shez and Parniya, Kylie and Hazel (nearly called Kylie Kai), and Jaden and Alexis."

Thank you Chrysalis.

Soooo, yeah. A little weird. At the very least, Leasebound isn't pulling a Kissing Booth (or 99% of other heterosexual Netflix love stories) where the POC love interest is the obviously better choice but the main female lead goes for the white love interest who treats her like shit anyways because of bullshit reasons. Can't stand that shit, fucking hate The Kissing Booth.

[solivagantingrebel]

Hello fellow monster fucker 👋

The real question imo is: how many dicks does Alone have and how weird are they? (Also five arms is enough for each of Soap's limbs and still have one free for groping/fondling/jerking)

Hello indeed ♪(´▽｀)

LMAO. SO REAL. Completely blindsided by this ask but also, thank you for letting me rant about monsterfucking. See, I think the general fandom consensus is three, and I do agree. Three heads, five-ish arms, and well - three dicks for the win.

I think Alone is supposed to be a combination of 141, right? Or something similar? I'm probably gonna make it so that he's just Simon Riley fucked up and cloned and zombified(?) (experimented on?) because the Potential for character studying the hell out of this monsterfucking pwp is too tempting to ignore.

Conclusion: Ghost gets massive as Alone, for the good ol' size kink, and the rest of him is also. equally massive. Rip Soap hole, I hope you have a good time 🙏. I do like the headcanon of, ya'know, Ghost with a jacob's ladder, so one of his dicks, probably the middle one, having piercings while the rest look different. monstrous. monster cocks for the win. (and you ARE right, he has more than enough hands to hold, caress, grope and fondle soap's everything. depends on the vibe of the scene but it'd probably be rough -> soft later on like it's usually it for them. in my vers of them, anyway. something something hands are hot and the intimacy they can diss out? hotter)

It's criminal how I haven't written monsterfucking as much as I've wanted to. Gonna fix that this October 🫡

[twilight-at-midnight]

Jasper’s mate

Pairing: Jasper x reader

Requested: @choasstuff

Warnings: None

Request:

I literally stumbled across your page and I'm so glad! I can't tell if your request are open or not, but, can I request a jasper x reader where the reader is a vampire but but, can I request a jasper x reader where the reader is a vampire but they get nauseous around blood?

***

• It’s quite funny at first, you being the complete opposite of Jasper when it comes to blood

• But Jasper remains by your side through and through to figure out the best way possible to help you

• Knowing blood is your now survival source, it makes the matter a new struggle for you but you know it’s going to be just another something for you to learn

• You met Jasper while you were still human, (Alice doesn’t have a mate yet) and very few people know of a personal experience you’ve dealt with in your human days

• It’s not long after until Jasper is one of those who know soon followed by the rest of the Cullen family

• It’s because of that experience you don’t do well around blood, but you pull through the best you can once you’re with Jasper

• Now that you’re doing much better, all that you feel around blood is nausea and you feel that once you’re turned, that will be a thing in the past

• How wrong you were

• Thinking it was awful in your human days, turn out to feel even more not long after waking up into your new world as a new born

• Turns out, you still get nauseous even as a vampire when it comes to blood

• You don’t know how that’s possible but Carlisle predicted that it was the last little bit of humanity that seemed to latch onto you but assured you it wouldn’t last forever

• Even though it took you a long time to get over it, Carlisle was right and Jasper was always there when it was time to go on a hunt

• Like Edward, you favored cougars

• Since than, you look back on your early life as a vampire as a funny story to tell your future family as it grows

• When Bella comes around, you both become attached with each other after finding a lot in common

• Just as Jasper helped you, you continue to help Jasper as he seemed to still have his own issues of control

• At Bella’s party, you helped him through it after what happened

***

Requests: open

@twilight-at-midnight

Character:

• Edward Cullen

• Carlisle Cullen

• Emmett Cullen

• Jasper Cullen

• Alice

• Rosalie

• Bella Swan

• Aro

• Marcus

• Caius

• Alec

• Jane

• Vladimir

• Stefan

• Riley

• Jacob

• Victoria

[emwritessometimes]

What I’ll write

Dreamsmp

Dreamwastaken

Georgenotfound

Sapnap

Karl Jacobs

Wilbur soot

Tubbo

Tommyinnit

Quakity

Maze runner

Thomas

Newt

Minho

Gally

Teresa

(Any movie set)

Umbrella Academy

Luther

Diego

Alison

Klaus

Five

Ben (sparrow and umbrella versions)

Viktor

Lila

(Any season set)

Avengers

Tony Stark

Peter Parker

Thor

Loki

Natasha

Wanda

MJ

(Any movie set)

Harry Potter

Harry Potter

Ronald Weasley

Hermione Granger

Fred Weasley

Neville Longbottom

Draco Malfoy

Ginny Weasley

(Any movie set)

Lord of the Rings

Aragorn

Legolas

Gimli

Boromir

Faramir

Frodo

Pippin

Samwise

Merry

Arwin

The Hobbit

Thranduil

Legolas

Tauriel

Thorin

Pirates of the Caribbean

Jack Sparrow

Will Turner

Elizabeth Swan

Rings of Power

Galadriel

Elrond

Isildur

Elanor

Eärien

Bronywm

Theo

Throndir

Ontomo

Poppy

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

Mirage

Arcee

Bumblebee

Cheetor

Airazor

Mandolorian

Din Djarin (Mando)

Bo-Katan

Cara Dune

Call of Duty

Simon ‘Ghost’ Riley

John ‘Soap’ Mactavish

Kyle ‘Gaz’ Garrick

John Price

Shadow and bone

Alina Starkov

Mal aretov

Max Brekker

Jesper Fahny

Matthias

Aleksander

Dylan

Nina Zenik

Zoya

Inej

Genja Sadfin

Nikolai Lantsov

Pekka Rollins

Tolya

David Kostyk

Cobra Kai

Miguel

Robby

Hawk(Eli)

Sam

Tory

Moon

Kenny

Demetri

Anthony

Hazbin Hotel

Charlie

Alastor

Vaggie

Adam

Lute

Emily

Vox

Angel dust

Husk

Sir penstious

Cherry bomb

Lucifer

School Buss Graveyard

Aiden Clark

Ashlyn Banner

Ben Clark

Tyler Hernandez

Taylor Hernandez

Logan Fields

Maverick

Ready player one

Wade Watts (Parzival)

Samantha Cook (Art3mis)

I will also write

Smut (for certain characters)

Fluff

Angst

Platonic

Yandere

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Please let me know if there are any other shows or movies that you would like to see! I will try my best to get to everyone. Send a request and I will see if I can do it.

For some of these characters I am uncomfortable doing any kinda of smut considering some of them are teenagers. But other than that yall pretty much have free reign. Yall can also be anonymous if yall want to

Also sorry it’s so long. I wanted yall to be able to choose freely

🌺❤️🫶

[chaigirly]

C ai Characters 1

The last of us:

Ellie Williams

Heard your princess was hot, where is she?

I met her when I was still with my ex

You’re the only one who understands

I see how you look at my sister

Only love can hurt like this

Partners in crime

I just wanna get high with my lover

If you gave me a chance I would take it

All I want is one more day with her

Must have been a deadly kiss

Cause I’m a jealous jealous jealous girl

Her moves, her moves, she is mythical

You’re too slow, try keep up with me now

Merry Christmas to you

It’s so lonely in my mansion

When does the reason become the blame?

And when you go away, I still see you

You’re the star I look for every night

I’ve been waiting for you

Shut up and drive

You’re the greatest love of my life

Joel Miller

You wanna scream don’t call me kid

She a bad little bitch, she a rebel

Don’t cry no tears now it’s Christmas baby

“I like you,” what’s stopping you?

Dina Woodward

Got kinda drunk and told her that I liked her

But I think I’m liking her more

That’s my mamacita yeah

Jesse

You’re my best friend I’ll love you forever

I just wanna be your sweetheart

Call of Duty:

Simon Ghost Riley

When I see you again

I was enchanted to meet you

There was something in the air that night

Now that you’re under our spell

Open your eyes

She only exists in the dark of my room

I’m faking all of this so they’ll take me

The only memory is us kissing in the moonlight

König

Sorry it’s over

Baby are you mine?

The Quarry:

Dylan Lenivy

I dreamt about you all summer long

Lovely to be rained on with you

Why don’t we go somewhere only we know

Have yourself a Merry little Christmas

Xoxo kisses hugs

Let’s be friends so we can make out

You’re my moonlight

We gonna party like it’s 3012 tonight

I might get lost without you

Would I lie to you?

Kaitlyn Ka

You call me, “I love you”

City lights never shine as bright as your eyes

Max Brinly

My love mine all mine

I can see the pain in your eyes

When does a man become a monster?

If you keep leading me into your room

Nick Furcillo

That boy is a monster

Last Friday Night

Run away fast as you can

Emma Mountebank

Girl, you’re such a backstabber

I’m addicted to my passion, fashion

Begging on her knees to be popular

Abigail Blyg

It’s in your smile, it’s in your eyes

My first kiss went a little like this

Jacob Custos

Oh no she likes another boy

In the center of the ring just like a circus

Let me get what I want this time

Detention

Clapton Davis

Last Christmas I gave you my heart

I’m getting feelings that I didn’t before

Stilettos and fishnets if that’s what you like

In my room, you and I

Arcane

Vi

I ain’t stopping till I see police lights

All you’ll ever have is one day with me

Jinx

Mama I’m in love with a criminal

Call me babydoll

You’ll see my face in every place

Divergent

Tobias Four Eaton

I can’t believe we’re finally alone

Welcome to Vegas baby

I wanna show you off

Resident Evil

Leon Kennedy

It’s born from just one glance

Carlos Oliveira

I would trade the world to see my son and wife

Touch me like nobody else does

Rise of the Guardians

Jack Frost

Rises the moon

Five Nights At Freddy’s

Mike Schmidt

I keep forgetting I should let you go

This that college dropout music

Red Dead Redemption

Javier Escuella

It all fell down, it all fell down

Only if you knew how much I liked you

Dutch van der Linde

I got a bad feeling about you

Think I need someone older

Arthur Morgan

When you close your eyes, do you picture me?

Spiderverse

Miguel O’Hara

I can be a better boyfriend than him

Hobie Brown

I’m breaking dishes up in here

Peter Parker

How could I hurt you?

What’s on your mind? I said, “your skin”

But girl I’m only human

I told you once I can’t do this again

Well you don’t know me but I know you

Miles Morales

I know that we’re more than friends

“I love you baby,” I think I love you too

DC Universe

Jaime Reyes

When does a candle become a blaze?

[gamingofkenna]

Oxenfree 2 spoilers, re the 'final choice'

I played the whole game in a solid 7 hour chunk yesterday and I'm still trying to decide how I feel about it, and I'll have to do another playthrough when I can, because there's so much of the way the characters are that seems based on your choices so I wanna see what happens when I make other choices

but I'm seeing that a lot of people let Olivia go through the portal at the end, and that everyone who didn't is saying those who did are monsters for letting this grief-stricken teenager kill herself

and. i don't think there is a 'right' choice at the end there in most circumstances. but i did let Olivia take the radio, because as awful as it felt I just kept thinking that I couldn't do that to Rex

especially since we just had a ghost moment of Rex telling Riley she has to keep fighting, even though she's going to keep failing? to follow that up with 'or you can just kill yourself now to save these kids'? like it is a horrible thing to do to Olivia but it's a horrible thing to do to Rex too?

honestly, based on my playthrough, the 'right' thing seems to be Jacob going through the portal. few players forced him to because apparently the only way for him to do it is if you force him - I didn't even let him come on the island with me. I saw the prompt that I could stop him and immediately knew that if I didn't he would die. Riley kept seeing visions of her future but Jacob never did. Jacob kept talking to me about how he feels he never did anything important in life, how he likes just chilling in his hometown, how he doesn't have any grand ambition but also wants to do something important and meaningful

when that prompt popped up I thought 'if I go to that island I'm getting sucked into this loop too and I'm not coming back; Jacob doesn't deserve that' and I made him stay. I'm curious now if there's a specific dialogue tree that leads to Jacob deciding, at the end, that him going through that portal and saving everyone by doing what he's always been doing is his way of being a hero. but that wasn't the option i'd been given. instead I had two suicidal people, who both had their whole lives in front of them

[miyakuli]

Oxenfree II: Lost Signals

The first Oxenfree was a game that made a very pleasant impression on me, with its mix of teen movie and horror and, above all, its effective, human dialogues that made us quickly become attached to the characters.

This time, in this second episode, we're no longer playing the role of teenagers, but adults who are confronted not only with the paranormal events around them, but also with their own demons. So, what to say about this sequel?

❤ The story is interesting and the more adult themes fit in very well with the rest. ❤ The visual and sound ambiance is as great as ever! Nothing more to say, it's really in the same vein as the 1st. ❤ The inclusion of the walkie-talkie in addition to the radio is a nice touch, as it adds more narrative arcs around the phenomenon and not just to the location you're in. ❤ Excellent voice actors (in English), both new and old. ❤ Many more options in the menu whether for audio or video, which is what was seriously lacking in the first one (it's stupid but I was happy to see this improvement).

+/- Once again, I really enjoyed the interactions between the characters, but I find it unfortunate that half of it is done by walkie-talkie, it's more impersonal and therefore the relationships are less intimate imo. Indeed, it's the duo of Riley and Jacob that work best for me, and whose closeness you really feel as the story progresses. Some might criticize Jacob for talking too much, but then again, he's almost the only physical character we come across, the secondary characters appear too briefly, and so we become less attached to them… +/- They also improved the dialogue system; in the first game, changing the scene cut off a dialogue, but here they continue even after loading and it's so much smoother !!!……on the other hand, if you have a talkie conversation in progress and Jacob decides to speak up at that moment, the call is abruptly interrupted and all you have to do is replay it in its entirety afterwards. So, an improvement on the one hand but a new problem on the other; game, you were almost there x') +/- I really liked how the 1st game fit into this one, but it's a bit inconsistent with the possible endings in the first one and with what we experienced there too (spoilers hidden on my steam review if you're curious) +/- The map is much bigger, but the trips are still very long…

✖ The movements are still a little too static for my taste, that hasn't changed. ✖ I feel like the horror side has been really softened; I remember a lot more creepy moments in the 1st with few jumps. Frankly, that's what disappointed me most about this one. ✖ The use of the radio has been quite reduced. In the first, there were really stations to pick up depending on where you were, which enriched the lore (like a guided tour). Here, apart from Maria's station, I'd just listen to the occasional station and come across some odd randoms things that had nothing to do with what I was doing or where I was (I listened to almost everything, though).

Oxenfree 2 is therefore, in my opinion, a good sequel which has been able to bring a little novelty while keeping what made it so distinctive, namely the strength of the dialogues and the general atmosphere. However, I find it a little less emotionally engaging than the 1st, certainly due to its treatment of the characters relationships.

In any case, if you liked Oxenfree, there's almost no doubt that you'll enjoy diving back into its universe with this sequel :)

➡ My Steam page

[oodlyenough]

I finished Oxenfree II after, I dunno, maybe four or five short sessions of play. I had intended to replay the first game beforehand, but ran out of time before release, lol.

Thoughts (spoilers for all of both games):

I enjoyed 2, but I can't say I enjoyed it nearly as much - if I had, it wouldn't have taken me a week and change to play through, I think.

The art was gorgeous as always, perhaps moreso. They made small QOL improvements that I appreciated hugely, like the map getting marked up, the task list, and ESPECIALLY the little icon telling me if the dialogue would continue when I walked to a new part of the map. The climbing was simple, but fun enough. I deeply appreciated the ability to change the font and text size of the speech bubbles, because I found the default hard to read on.

Some parts were spooky - loved the community centre turning sideways, etc, some good jump scares, the dreamscape stuff was cool. Loved the idea of the time bubbles you got to walk into, and how that was used in puzzles (albeit quite sparingly).

Some less positive stuff:

I liked Riley fine, and Jacob was ok, but that's about... all I felt. They both felt a bit like placeholder characters. I think there is just not as much immediate pathos generated by "two coworkers" as there was between Alex and Jonas, stepsiblings meeting for the first time who both have a lot of baggage.

I also think having a majority of the support NPCs be voices on the radio was a mistake. I enjoyed those conversations, but I had to be reminding myself to check in, and it all felt a bit remote. As Alex, I felt responsible for the whole group, even when I wanted to throw Ren or Jonas or Clarissa off a tower because they were infuriating me. There were different personalities, and also that meant there were different character dynamics to explore and combos you could play with in replays. The NPCs interacted with each other as well as Alex and the player had to manage all of it. Riley felt like she was the centre of a lot of single spoke relationships.

Also, while the parenting as a theme is fine, it's just... inherently going to be kind of remote to me, I guess, as a childless woman with no interest in being a mother. VS I felt the first game dealt with grief in a way I found more accessible, despite never having lost a sibling (or indeed having any siblings to lose, lol).

After the buildup with Parentage (and stories of burning people?!?!), I felt disappointed they were just a hippie uwu cult.

The Alex reveal was my fave, and my interest piqued once we knew she was involved. I see people are a bit mixed on her involvement but honestly I loved it, lol. The downside was introducing her meant I was like "ok, will there be a choice between saving Alex or saving Riley/Camena/etc?" and I knew I would choose Alex no question.

Not quite what happened! I was fairly satisfied with my ending, which was:

-befriend Jacob, but leave him behind (I was worried about Athena! lol)... it was a little unfortunate that Jacob and Riley felt a bit distant as a result, but I loved Riley and Alex getting alone time, so whatever. -leave Olivia to the ghosts

The problem with the sacrifice decision was I did not feel the game gave me any compelling reasons to save Olivia, outside of "Olivia is a teenager so you have a duty of care". Sure, in real life I think letting a depressed teenager go into the void with her ghost parents is a bad call -- but this is a story, and in this story, they have done nothing concrete to make me the player feel attached to Olivia, as compared to how I feel about Riley and Alex, two characters I've now spent hours with. Perhaps I'd have sacrificed Jacob if he was around, but... he wasn't, lol. And maybe not! Because I the player have reason to like Jacob, and no reason to like Olivia.

In the first couple scenes with Rex, I thought perhaps he was Riley's child who had died, and that the death was part of why Riley in present day was a mess and an alcoholic with minimal relationships etc. In retrospect, I think that could have been a very interesting device. The downside I suppose would be that there would then be no reason for Riley not to stay in the void with Rex, making the end dilemma moot.

Still, it was rewarding to see Alex and co leave the island. The game prompts you-as-Riley to be mad at her, but lmao, it's Alex, it's my girl, I don't care. I also thought it was sweet that they had Clarissa as the one who lingers for her. Aw.

Overall, I would give this maybe a 7/10... I don't regret buying or playing it, but I don't feel compelled to replay and try other routes. Oxenfree 1 on the other hand I've played probably 6-8 times and will continue to play again every year or so when it gets dark and cold and spooky outside.

[kyndaris]

A Lesson in Radio Waves

I first played Night School Studio's Oxenfree after hearing good things about the title. Many of the reviews I read spoke of the excellent writing and praised how the dialogue easily flowed between characters in an almost realistic manner. Years later, I played Afterparty, which was another game from the studio. Set in Hell, the two protagonists would challenge Satan in a drinking contest to earn the privilege of returning to the World of the Living. It was an interesting conceit and I was eager to see what Night School Studio would make next.

Imagine my surprise when they were then acquired by Netflix to make exclusive games for the streaming giant!

Thankfully, though, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals was released on multiple platforms and could be purchased on Steam. But while it is true I do have a Netflix subscription and could have played the game on the platform, it's been a pain to figure out how to access their library of games as they are not readily available on the Desktop app version. In fact, it's why I've yet to play the sequel to Valiant Hearts. Given how laden down with games I've been, though, it's been a right struggle.

Anyways, Oxenfree II: Lost Signals acts as a sequel to the original game. Instead of following Alex and her friends around King Edward though, the main protagonist this time round is a woman called Riley. Five years after the events of the first game, Riley has returned to her hometown of Camena Coast. Although she is here to purportedly help in the study of radio anomalies around the town, depending on one's choice of dialogue options you soon learn she has a fraught relationship with her ill father. Later, if you so choose, you can reveal to Jacob, Riley's companion throughout the game, that she's pregnant. Possibly another factor for why she came back to her hometown.

As you explore Camena Coast, Riley and Jacob soon stumble upon a strange phenomenon. When they see an interdimensional portal open up in the sky above King Edward Island, they are also gifted a vision of three teenagers (Olivia, Charlie and Violet) trying to communicate with the dead. Riley and Jacob, fearing what the portal might bring, set about triangulating radio signals from multiple transmitters to close it for good.

Over the course of the night, Riley and Jacob experience strange supernatural events, confront the posse of teenagers dabbling with powers they know not, and grapple with the return of World War II era ghosts. But what came as a real surprise for me was the reveal that Alex, the protagonist of the first game, was also reaching through the void in order to break herself and her friends out of the time loop they found themselves in five years ago.

It all culminates in one last confrontation at King Edward Island where one person must sacrifice themselves to close the interdimensional rift for good. In my playthrough, that choice was easy. I picked Olivia.

One might wonder why I would pick a young teenager over an expectant mother or Jacob but since the death of her parents, Olivia hasn't had much to live for. But by choosing to stay behind, she is able to be a version of the parents she lost, which was her entire goal from the very beginning.

Oxenfree II doesn't have much in way of complicated gameplay. It essentially has the player click, or use the directional keys, to move Riley around a static screen. While there are the occasional objects Riley can interact with, it's actually the dialogue that serves as the basis for the game (and the tuning of a radio). Whether that was fleshing out the lore behind the island and its cult, or the characters.

What I liked most were the visions where Riley was visited by her future son, Rex. Through these interactions, we were able to see the parallels between their relationship and the one Riley shared with her father. And I, always keen to know more about the people around me, or the fictional characters I play around with, can fill in the gaps and feed my own headcanon for how things shake out.

There are only a few things though that I wish could have been answered such as the identity of Rex's father and if Michael, who I brought back in the first game, would be considered a canon event at all.

But while I liked the story for what it was, I felt like the decisions I had to make didn't make much impact to the direction the story could have taken barring a few side conversations with people over the radio. This meant that no matter what I chose, the ending would always be predetermined with a few select differences based on the person I chose to close the rift.

Given this was the last game I played in 2023, I was hoping for something with a bit more oomph. Unfortunately, Oxenfree II was a slowburn fizzle. The mystery too, with the floating bodies and distorted voices, added a bit of variety, did keep me invested in the story but didn't give me any unsettling vibes like games such as the Little Nightmares series or Limbo. Then again this may have been because of my already high expectations for the story, which was let down by the fairly rote story I was given.

On a completely unrelated note, by the time this post goes up, I should be overseas with bleachpanda. The two of us are probably somewhere in South Korea, fumbling our way through the language to visit iconic sites around the country. So, if you see two Asian-Australians either lounging in a cafe or struggling to have ourselves understood, come and say 'hi.' I know bleachpanda will probably wonder how I might have written a whole blog post while she wasn't looking but as I've told them countless times, I have these scheduled and the actual moment I've written these posts is sometime in the not too distant past.

Of course, given I've gone overseas, that does mean there WILL be travel posts coming to the blog soon!

While bleachpanda has made it VERY clear they don't like my idea of ugly candid photos, I'll strive to take some nonetheless. My humour, as always, is stuck somewhere between that of a 6-year-old and dark dry wit.

Doubtless, I won't be able to UPLOAD any of the photos of @bleachpanda to my blog but I'll most assuredly be using them to torment my erstwhile travelling companion as we traipse around Asia.

[s-ccaam-era-crepe]

15 and 16 for the "love your fandom" ask game maybe? :D

15- the character that always makes you smile

I think like no matter what taylor (dndads) is just like. such a fun vibe and i love him a lot, also like mike walters any iteration (if i had to pick michael or mikey tho <3) but hes just such a fun character to me

16- a tiny detail in canon that you want more people to appreciate

uhmmm. depends on the fandom but i think people should appreciate riley and jacob's (oxenfree ii) friendship more. they are best friends to me and i love them a lot i think theyd be really fun to think about more (also rex and riley's relationship i love them so much <3)

asks

[codabound]

Rating Leasebound Characters #1: The Main Cast

Just woke up a few minutes ago, so I decide, I'm gonna talk about the Leasebound characters, my personal opinions on each of them, and give them a rating of some kind. These posts will be broken into seperate postings for each set of characters.

Starting off strong, we have Jaden Anderson. I'd honestly give Jaden a solid 7/10. What really saddens ne about Jaden's character is that she is easily the most interesting and actually developed character in Leasebound when Rusty isn't revolving her character around being visciously brutalized by trans women, yet really nothing has been done with her in the areas that there should be. Jaden has so much about her and her lore that are actually interesting that Rusty has sort of just shoved to the side in favor of portraying her as a victim of violence at the hands of "evil trans women". Her father's death, and the subsequent guilt that follows that motivates her to go to medical school and become a doctor in his memory, only for her to end up dropping out because she couldn't handle what medical school actually entails, as well as her devastating breakup with her first girlfriend Alexis because of Alexis' homophobic mother, her relationship with the people who work at Yonique, especially Violet and Faith, her vaguely present mommy issues due to her mother's unintentional parentification of her at a young age and implied favoritism of Jacob. All of this is good avenues for story-telling, but nothing has been done with any of it. The closest we get is the little behind the scenes segments Rusty occasionally posts. And that really sucks. In conclusion, Jaden would be a much more interesting character if she was being written by somebody else and was in a better comic.

Second on our list, we have Riley Zhou. And I give her a 3/10. Yeaaah, I think its a little obvious from my previous posts that I am not a huge fan of Riley. With my first reason being the obvious, I find her "blossoming romance" with Jaden (if you can even call it that, given this "slow-burn" romance is burning so slowly that I doubt Rusty even lit the candle) kind of off-putting given she has a girlfriend, has actively expressed being attracted to Jaden, and is still subsequently dating her girlfriend who she seems to be losing feelings for. Emotional cheating is not it, people. But as for my other reasons, Riley kind of just gives me nothing. Probably because Rusty also gives her nothing. There's very little that we seem to actually know about Riley, she's overwhelmingly underdeveloped in comparison to Jaden. We very vaguely know that she seemed to have come from some sort of a conservative or religious background, and that because she left her mother doesn't talk to her anymore, but Rusty has never exactly come back to Riley's past like... Ever. And really, other than that, there's really nothing to gleam about Riley that actually makes her interesting. She's just really boring.

Third on my list is Blaire Hopburn, and if you've been on my page for longer than 4 seconds, I think you already know what I'm gonna say. 10/10. I absolutely adore Blaire as a character. "Oh, but her strawmannish activities and her targeting people with her pushy gendie beliefs" doooon't caaaareee. It's still hard to believe that this is the character that we're actively meant to be rooting against, with some of Rusty's fanbase treating her like she's the Shou Tucker of the comic, when she's literally such a sweetheart. She's a supportive girlfriend, she's accepting of other people, she's implied to be kind of protective, and she's drop-dead gorgeous. It's like Rusty realized that she didn't actually write anything about Blaire that would warrant Riley to want to leave her, so she just last minute threw in "gendie supporter" and hoped that would be enough. Spoiler alert, it wasn't. Love Blaire, she's my lifeline.

And last but not least for the main cast, is Muddles the cat. 10/10. She's a cat. She's done nothing wrong. She's just kitty.

That's it for the main cast, but I'll be back later with the rest of the characters.