#no spoiler tags yet because it's the prologue

[wyvern-flames]

[ Lil Latin Spanish Clips Part 2 ]

Lord Rodney Murdoch !

Personally, I really like his voice... It has a certain odd ring to it that I feel fits him. It's like he can effortlessly raise his voice with it (just like I do) so it fits a Lord Commander. Don't know how close it is to the English version, but usually the Latin Spanish dubs choose them to sound very similar to their counterparts. Don't know if that's the case here.

Next should be the children and Anabella!

Dialogue: R: You defeated me. C: It took me quite a bit of time. R: You're just as good a swordsman as your father. R: You are a true Shield of the Flame, and no one can say otherwise -- not even me. R: What are you all looking at? Get back to training!

[cairafea]

i think the fast travel in this game is very cool 👍

[writing-for-life]

Sandman Predictions

So we’ve been speculating wildly what the remainder of The Sandman might look like on here and in our community (join us!) for a while.

And I thought it would be fun to put my predictions to paper (so to speak) so I can be embarrassed about them later and laugh at how wrong they were 🙈

Taking all the casting announcements and BTS in consideration I’ve collected like a magpie (check out my #sandman S2 tag), I will have a stab at it…

Only 12 Episodes or Aiming for Renewal?

Both is possible, but I am more and more leaning we’ll get the whole thing in twelve episodes in two batches of five each with two wraparound episodes (one will be AGoY/THCoL in the middle, one the last three issues of The Wake).

We know the episode names for six episodes that are directed by Jamie Childs. That doesn’t mean they were in order, or that there won’t be other directors involved. It wouldn’t surprise me if they at least went for female writers/directors for AGoY/THCoL, and if that’ll be the episode that separates (or rather connects) SoM and Brief Lives. So here comes my totally unhinged prediction for 12 episodes, including the titles we know (mind you, they might also be working titles). The chapters from the comics are to be seen as fluid and not absolute, because there are a lot of scenes that are not linear in chronological terms and will probably be shuffled around a bit:

Batch One

“More Devils Than Vast Hell Can Hold” (that title is a direct quote from AMND): A Midsummer Night’s Dream, SoM Prologue & Tales in the Sand flashback

“Season of Mists”: SoM ch. 1-3, ch. 4 is getting dropped

“The Ruler of Hell”: SoM ch. 5 through Epilogue

TBA: AGoY & THCoL “Brief Lives”: Brief Lives ch. 1-3. Maybe the first parts of Thermidor (could also be ep. 5).

“Brief Lives”: Brief Lives ch. 1-5 “The Song of Orpheus”: Brief Lives ch. 4-6 and The Song of Orpheus segueing into

“The Song of Orpheus”: Brief Lives ch. 6. Bast is an excellent cut to SoO. “Family Blood”: Brief Lives ch. 7-9. Parts of Thermidor will also be in there.

Batch Two

“Family Blood”: Brief Lives ch. 7-9 TBA: TKO ch. 1-4

TBA: TKO ch. 1-4 TBA: TKO ch. 5-7

TBA: TKO ch. 5-8 TBA: TKO ch. 8-10

TBA: TKO ch. 11-13

TBA: The Wake (all of it apart from…)

TBA: Sunday Mourning/Exiles/The Tempest

Edit 19/09:

[strikeouts in text done on same day]

So I’ve read The High Cost of Living again over the past few days because it didn’t want to leave me alone, and I’ve now convinced myself we’ll get it as a side-plot to Brief Lives in episodes 4-6, and that we’ll get tiny bits of AGoY, (mostly to set up Wanda/Ruby for Brief Lives and Hazel/Foxglove for THCoL) as a side plot to SoM in episodes 1-3. Spoilers ahead, so skip if that’s not your thing:

Both Sexton and Orpheus have a death wish. I don’t want to drag this out too much because the post is long enough as it is, but suffice it to say, Sexton rethinks after spending a day with Didi/Death, while Orpheus is granted his wish. And this is what ultimately sets Morpheus on his own path. The meaning of “So live” would be beautifully contrasted that way because it has different meaning to different people, depending on their own experience. Add to that Death spending a “brief life” for one day herself, and I can somewhat see the vision.

Failing this, THCoL could also be a special in episode 13 that hasn’t been announced yet (I’d rather have Overture though if I’m honest).

In more detail:

A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Tempest will be bookends, one before SoM, one after The Wake (they don’t necessarily have to be full episodes, they could be half each and make up roughly an hour combined. It really depends on overall runtime).

We’ll kick off batch one with Season of Mists (maybe the prologue and will also be in episode 1–there are several points in AMND that would make good cuts into SoM), and Tales in the Sand won’t be a full episode but incorporated as flashbacks (maybe around the family dinner). After we conclude SoM, we’ll get one episode of AGoY will be a side-plot to SoM, as per above (if it happens at all), and leads into THCoL as a side-plot to Brief Lives as per my edit above, because there’s a through-line in there for Fox and Hazel, plus we can set up Wanda/Ruby for Brief Lives.

Bonus 1:

Johanna will be somehow involved in SoM (she’s the Hellblazer after all), and we’ll get her to hook up with Murphy. No need for a longwinded introduction of Thessaly. Or, failing that, we just cut out the love interest completely, Morpheus does his moping session because Nada rebuffs him again, but Jo will still take Thessaly’s place as the crone.

We’ll move into roughly three episodes of Song of Orpheus/Thermidor and Brief Lives from there. Wanda will die in Brief Lives like Ruby, not in AGoY.

We finish the first batch with Morpheus alone on his chair after you-know-what 😩

Second batch: TKO and The Wake. Little bits of World’s End will be woven in where it fits, maybe already in the first batch as well. Same goes for little bits of standalone issues from Fables and Reflections.

Jo will take Thessaly’s place and protect Lyta because she’d just believe it’s the right thing to do (she also sympathises because she lost Astra). Whether she also holds a deeper grudge depends on if they set them up as having an affair or not.

My guess is four episodes TKO and one for the Wake. Sunday Mourning and Exiles will be done in one episode. The movie concept art that Jill Thompson did ages ago showed Daniel in the distance on the beach with the other three, and I think that’s a good tie-in point to lead into Exiles. Even the Tempest might fit in there if they make the last episode more feature-length. And you’ve got your two Shakespeare bookends.

Bonus 2:

Hob will be reinstalled to his narrative purpose because at least half the fandom will drop him like a hot potato and ship Morpheus x Cluracan instead. Because:

If you think 12 episodes are tight: Yes, if you want to see every detail and issue of the comics. But not everything you see in a graphic novel translates well to screen, plus you don’t perceive time the same way. What takes ages to read can be something like 30 seconds in a film. Add to this that the movie that never happened was conceptualised as a trilogy if I’m not mistaken, so probably 6-8 hours planned runtime in total. So they always had a definite idea how to streamline it, and they were planning for it before. 12 episodes with 45 to 60min each give us more to play with than a movie-trilogy (plus we can already take the time off that we spent on S1). I think it’s doable, but of course it means tightening arcs and dropping stuff.

However, I’ll be honest with you: With all that’s been going on, and having seen that they filmed right through until the end, I’d rather have them wrap up now. Because I honestly can’t see a S3 happening after all that’s already been cancelled and put on hold because of you-know-what (I’m thinking of Disney shelving The Graveyard Book and Amazon putting GO on hold and sitting on the Audible despite it being finished).

But also: These decisions have likely been made long before these considerations even became an issue: Renewal was on a knife’s edge, and choices were made back then we can only guess at. Scripts aren’t written over night, neither are sets changed around wildly on a whim (plus actors aren’t just tied to one project and can’t just willy-nilly change their schedules). And some sets for TKO were already confirmed and booked in May. So they were always going to do what we’ve seen in BTS shots. It’s not a sudden development.

In any case: If they aimed for more seasons than two, I think this prediction could still hold in general, we’ll just get it more fleshed out. In that case, I’d say 10 episodes of SoM and Brief Lives (5 each), and A Midsummer Night’s Dream and THCoL as standalones with the rest as side-plots woven in (that includes AGoY). Then S3 comprising TKO and The Wake with more space for standalone episodes and World’s End. Maybe even Overture as a special. I very much doubt they would go for more than three seasons in total though.

So these are my predictions, now I’d love to hear yours…

[within-your-eyes-if]

A Few Updates

Hello everyone!

I have some exciting news and a few thoughts I want to share. Another long update, I'm sorry!

Codex Update: As you know, I've been working on updating the Codex. I've put a lot of thought into each entry, balancing new ideas with existing lore. While a lot of elements were already established, delving deeper into some topics has inspired some new ideas, and I want to ensure everything fits seamlessly. With this in mind, I'm considering releasing what I have so far while I continue to ponder over some of these newer concepts and refine older ones. In the next few days, I'll be going through more feedback to address some issues found before I plan to release the update.

New Story: I'm excited to share I've released a prologue and first chapter for From Here to Again! Writing something different is meant to help me grow as a writer and expand upon things I might not have considered before, especially when writing Twine.

I will not be making a Tumblr for this story right now, sorry!

I know I've shared other stories that I planned, and here are some updates on those:

Nautical Lost would definitely benefit from a later release as Within Your Eyes grows, as this story will expand upon the world lore and some events that will happen.

The Innkeeper (a working title), I decided to hold off on because I'm terrible at management games, it seems. It was meant to be a fun little story with shenanigans. However, I do want to revisit the idea later.

Short Stories: I've expressed I want to make some short stories, but I feel like there's a point in WYE I want to pass first before getting into them. But I do have one I'm working on that I want to release alongside Part Two that delves into the past.

Worries About Burnout: I know some of you are/might be worried about burnout, but I feel like I have a good system for myself. Writing is a journey I haven't explored much before. I did write, but it's something I didn't think I was good at because, honestly, I was told I wasn't. I know I'm not the greatest, but I want to grow and learn as a writer. I've been taking breaks to focus on other things I enjoy, even if it's still writing out ideas for other stories.

I appreciate all of the concern in this regard, not just for my well-being, but also for the love of my story. To see it abandoned would be heartbreaking not just for my readers, but for me as well. 'Within Your Eyes' has been an idea long in the making, shifting and growing. It's something I've always wanted to share, and I'm so happy I have!

Time for Questions: I'm ready to start answering some of your questions regarding Part One. Enough time has passed, I believe, to start delving into these. To respect those who haven't caught up yet, I'll include any spoilers under a 'Read More' tag. However, be mindful that some questions themselves might contain spoilers.

Regarding certain asks/scenarios, I think that discovering the answers through the story rather than in a post might be more rewarding. While I may still respond to these, I'll be thoughtful about placing them under a 'Read More' tag as well.

Regardless, I've been thinking more about how I should approach questions, not only in a way that's satisfying to you, but also benefits the story.

Closing Thoughts: Sorry again for the long update. I've been very reflective after releasing a second story, and I hope no one sees this as me diverting from WYE. I'm grateful for every one of you and for all of your words of encouragement and love. I hope you enjoy From Here to Again (if you decide to check it out) and continue to look forward to our Warden's journey.

Thank you!

[myfandomprompts]

To Risk It All - Prologue

Aemond Targaryen x Dragonrider!OC

Synopsis: Aemond meets Daera Velaryon in uncanny circumstances, the memory of green scales and thick blood. He tries to resist her, he tries to convince himself that she is not his. Not yet. But when the Dance begins and she is taken away from his grasp, he decides that he hates her, wants her, for you can only hate what you had loved.

Tags: possessive!Aemond, angst, mature, strangers to lovers, enemies to lovers, slow burn, obsession, blood, canon divergence, king Aemond, smut and fluff, dragons, war, F&B spoilers Masterlist

A/N: I'm quite happy to release this first chapter exactly one year after I published my first fanfiction about Aemond Targaryen.

The female main character is based on Daeron, son of Vaemond Velaryon who is Corly’s nephew as per the book, instead of his brother as in the series. I reduced the number of the Velaryon cousins from five to two (Corlys’ nephews).

English not first language.

“Say it.”

The whole room went silent as the Velaryon turned towards the heir.

“Her children are BASTARDS.”

All gasped and Aemond just smiled.

“And she is a whore.”

“I will have your tongue for that.”

Then Vaemond Velaryon fell, and Daemon Targaryen spoke to the assembly.

“He can keep his tongue.”

“Lady Velaryon, your mother is asking for you.”

Daera nodded to the attendant before dropping her quill and making her way to Lady Elinda’s apartments. Driftmark was a gloomy place since Lord Corlys Velaryon had disappeared at sea; no one would meet her eyes as she wandered the corridors.

Daera was once the pride of her House, and she was in the eyes of her father. She was the first-born of Vaemond Velaryon, daughter of a cunning man who took great pride in his heritage, and had always looked up to his uncle, Corlys Velaryon.

Admiration that faded when the battle of the Stepstones occurred.

But Daera was born much later; history would remember her birth being shared with Princess Helaena, and it was assumed the girls would become friends if they ever met at court. But it never came to pass, as Vaemond Velaryon’s respect for the King faltered considerably over the years, turning into resentment, until it became rage. For Daera’s father, King’s Landing was a place to be avoided.

Daera recalled the day she first saw the King and the royal family. She remembers the harsh voice of her father as Laena’s body was returned to the sea, the bereft look on his face as he spoke of how salt ran thick in their Velaryon’s veins and how Daemon Targaryen had scoffed at the Valyrian words. She remembers clutching her little brother’s hand tighter at that. She had not grown up with either of her great cousins, and barely with their children but as her father stared at Jacaerys, Lucerys and Joeffrey Velaryon, she could not help but see how little they resembled Laenor Velaryon, or the heir to the iron throne, for that matter.

But what she recalls most vividly was that boy, barely younger than her, escaping the wake to meet the only recently riderless dragon, and claiming it as his own, losing his eye in the process. She recalled being called to the throne room that night, after being stirred up from sleep by the ruckus her cousins had caused, and witnessed the Queen cut the arm of the heir so deep it stained the stone floor for years after the deed. That night she could not help but admire the bravery of Aemond Targaryen as she heard him say the words that still rang in her ears to this day;  “ I may have lost an eye, but I gained a dragon.”

Because at that time, she also knew what it was to long for a dragon.

Fate was a funny thing. Over the next few days, Lord Corlys and Princess Rhaenys lost their remaining child, Laenor Velaryon, and left behind a pale silver-grey dragon. History does not recover how it happened, but years later, when Daera accompanied her cousin Baela to visit her twin sister on Dragonstone, she had found Seasmoke in his lair and had claimed him.

This was the reason she became the pride of House Velaryon.

Stating that her achievement had not been a shock would have been an understatement, especially in King’s Landing as she was given the name of 'the Winged Seahorse'. The King had, of course, praised her upon learning the news, happy to see the blood of Old Valyria and its tradition endure, but for everybody else, it was highly suspicious. The Velaryon were not and have never been Dragonlords, only Targaryens, and the matter incited rumours about Daera’s maternal lineage. Elinda Celtigar, was from Valyria’s descent, and although it was impossible to prove the veracity of the rumours; Daera still blamed herself for the calumnies thrown at her mother while her father called that a ‘fair sacrifice’. 

She had gained a dragon, and now all waited for her brother Daemion to claim one as well.

When Daera entered her mother’s apartment after being summoned, she was met with the grim look of her two great-cousins, Gaemon and Malentine; her mother’s expression scared.

“Your father is dead. Slain by the Rogue Prince.”

Daera stilled on the threshold as Gaemon started vehemently explaining things to her. She didn’t register anything until her brother was mentioned, in King’s Landing, alone.

“Fly to him, this instant, protect him from the leeches at court, from the ones that are spitting on our family name and stand tall until our arrival,” Gaemon spoke. “And remember, this is a Queen that sits on the Iron Throne.” 

So she flew to King’s Landing, unbeknownst to her that her steps would lead her down a path of love and pain.

Chapter 1

I tasted love that that takes controls Endless love and I wanted more.

@knightprincess @baconturtle @witheredoffherwitch

Thank you @babyblue711 & @arcielee for beta. 💙

[foxy-llama-mama]

for anyone wondering, i saw the les mis us tour last night in DC and it. was. CRAZY. i’ve seen the tour a few times in my life and i noticed some new things so here we go:

~~ spoilers ~~

- petit gervais was actually shown in the prologue when JVJ gets out of jail, he has some line like “but monsieur!” before being shooed away

- batambois actually hits fantine with his cane, knocks her down, and kicks her multiple times before she reaches up and scratches his face (i feel like i usually see him grab her arm or something instead of actually hitting her?)

- the other lovely ladies whores are all freaking out and trying to protect fantine from batambois and the pimp men people are actively holding them back and letting him hit her

- JVJ and javert have the gayest little moment of holding a handshake before “forgive me sir i would not dare” for a solid 30 seconds

- fantine shoots up and hugs JVJ in the line before she dies and stays there until he lays her dead body back down

- mme. thenardier was just so wonderful. i loved her

- gavroche has this entire moment with javert after the robbery, yelling “yeah! clear the streets! that means you too!” (said to a cop), and when the only two people left on stage are him and javert, he completely squares up to him and then salutes and it’s a really sweet moment. it also makes little people so much more impactful because they actually recognize each other then

- enjolras has a visceral reaction to eponine and marius speaking and he hasn’t even met cosette yet. enj turns to speak to marius and sees him talking to ep and throws his hands up in the air like, SO frustrated because MARIUS THE REVOLUTION IS COMING.

- red and black is BEAUTIFUL. the entire ensemble respects enjolras so much and it’s very obvious. “marius, you’re late” is not sung and so deadpan and so enjolras.

- R gives gav his bottle after javert’s arrival and it’s really funny

- grantaire does not take his eyes off of enjolras until drink with me. at all.

-when eponine dies, gavroche turns suddenly and sees her dying and grantaire SHOOTS up and grabs him and sits in the corner with him. it’s beautiful

- R does not touch a gun at all for the entire show. whenever anyone starts shooting, he hides behind the barricade or he grabs javert in custody but he never fights at all

- when gav dies, R throws a goddamn fit and does not leave his body until enjolras is about to be shot.

- when enj dies, he climbs up the barricade and is backlit and R is sitting at the bottom of the barricade reaching upwards, and when enj is shot, he falls backwards off of the barricade and out of sight. when this happens, R climbs the barricade with no gun, just enough so his head is exposed, and gets shot and slides down the barricade. it’s very “no one loves the light like a blind man”

- when javert is picking through the bodies looking for JVJ, another officer is wheeling a cart for dead bodies, and it ONLY has enjolras in it, hanging upside down just like aaronjolras in the window. javert heaves gav’s body on top of his and wheels them both off. (i heard multiple audible gasps during this, assumedly from the other enjolras girlies like myself)

- enj and R are beside each other for empty chairs until they cross and they’re directly facing each other instead

-during the wedding song, the line “this one’s a queer, but what can you do” is changed to “this one’s a queer, i might try it too” before thenardier waltzes with a male ensemble member for like 4 bars before finishing the song

- there is a lot of rich people laughing as a bit and thenardier cues to the conductor and counts them off like 3 separate times

- the finale is beautiful as always, JVJ and the dead bishop hug before everyone just lines up in formation (R and enj are both holding one of gav’s hands on either side)

- in conclusion: i cried

If anyone else has seen the tour and would like to add little things they noticed, please do in the tags!!

[medusas-graveyard]

hey! i've recently started getting into dpxdc and found your blog. do you write fic? where can i find them? love your ideas btw!!

LMAOOO SOMEONE FINALLY ASKED😭🙏

Yes, I do write fics! Actually, most if not all the stuff I write here are prompts used for said fic :∆ that's why you'd see "I'm spoiling too much" in the tags,, because they're actual spoilers,, as to the reason why I haven't made a post about the fic, it's because there's only 3 chapters atm and they're considered to be part of the "prologue" act and most of the stuff I wrote here hasn't happened yet,, well ig the connection between Danny and Damian has been implied but other than that, nothing.

Click here to read "The Demon's King Piece"

And also, thank uuu for liking my stuff🥹

[loremaster]

RAIN CODE REWRITE! boba au masterpost

Each chapter contains spoilers for the same chapter of Rain Code canon. Proceed at your own risk!

links:

CHAPTER 0

The reason it's called Boba AU

Relationship Chart

PROLOGUE

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2: (wip)

CHAPTER 3: (wip)

CHAPTER 4: (wip)

CHAPTER 5: (wip)

now let me break down what i'm trying to do here:

boba au is about how the plot and group dynamics of rain code would change if the train detectives survived and made it into kanai ward. it's not quite an everybody-lives-au... some things are better and some things are worse. :)

yuma gets two detective friends per case instead of just one. the crimes remain the same (for the most part), but they way they get unraveled will be different.

as yuma and shinigami's relationship is the core focus of the actual game of rain code, i will not be focusing on that here. he's still haunted, shinigami is still there technically, but i'm not going to draw her in most of the scenes because i'm more interested in the other detectives getting fleshed out. also i'm not really interested in shinigami anyway

most of the interactions will be platonic, but there will also be some romantic(ish) relationships that the game didn't really do well or do at all. nothing past T rated unless you ask real nice and you're free to interpret stuff however you want. ships will be tagged/revealed as they show up in updates but honestly? most of these ships don't have names yet so I'll have to come up with something taggable LOL

Art quality will vary wildly because this is just a fan project and i need to save my Polished Finished Art energy for school and original work

if this project inspires you to make any art or writing i'd love to see it :'D

[markerofthemidnight]

I have a formal announcement to make!

In approximately a little over 24 hours time, I’m going to be temporarily logging off all my socials. This includes YouTube, Ao3, and yes, Tumblr.

How long does “temporarily” mean, exactly? I’m not sure. Probably either a day or 36 hours.

Why am I logging off all my socials? Because Project: Eden’s Garden - Chapter 1 is officially releasing on the 21st (well technically the 20th but 21st in my timezone), and I’ve decided to play it myself, without spoilers! Which includes the prologue because I haven’t played the game itself yet, and don’t want to until the updated prologue is released along with Chapter 1.

So if I’m being quieter for a while longer than usual, now you know why! Just know that I’ve also elected to tag my spoilers for… well, let’s say until the end of Christmas Day, for the sake of those like me who want to avoid spoilers too! Here are the tags I’m going to be using:

p:eg spoilers

project: eden’s garden spoilers

That’s all! While I’m gone, do yourself a favour and have an apple. You deserve it! 🍎

[amnesiaskulls]

My silly drv3 experience so far (by someone who has yet to finish the game)(only prologue)

this post details me and my friends drv3 prologue experience. We are currently almost done with chapter 5, keep in mind that THERE MAY BE GAME SPOILERS FOR ANYTHING BEFORE DRV3 CHAPTER 6, last thing i wanna do is spoil a game for someone

before i get into the funny stuff (bear with me please) i just gotta give a little insight as to why my experience is so funny to me, skip to the green if you just wanna hear the stuff leading up to the actual experience, and to the pink just to quick skip to the prologue

my friends who I ran through with: @h3r0b0y and @rexecutioner, go take a look at their stuff, both of them are incredible artists who have content other than drv3 (this is also an excuse to tag them so they can fact check me)

pre-game experience (not required to understand, but recommended if you want backround info)

when i consume a new piece of media, usually its because ive seen things about it that i find cool or funny, or ive been told good things about it. In all honesty damn gone grandpa was never i game i thought i would ever get into or care about, because my only experience with it was some of the immature fans and one kid in middle school who liked it. I had only heard about the negative parts of the fandom from like 2018 (peak people misunderstanding character territory) even until like a year ago (wow so great of me to judge a game based on like 3 negative experiences wooww). during middle school, i also met my best friend (this is important later).

Another thing about our silly friend group is that Hero is great at improv (like really good, hes seriously one of the funniest people on earth) and Rex, my twin, is really good at making silly voices and VAing different characters with unique voices (they both are good at these things, but i wanna give them each individual credit). Im pretty amateur at both, but I can hold onto my voice a bit longer without having to take a break

The actual drv3 prologue experience

what we do with our amazing great and cool talents is dub over various pieces of media that we like or find funny, such as mystreet or mcsm. My best friend, Hero, is someone with impeccable taste in outfits and clothes in general, and owns a checkered bandana and was wearing it when me and Rex were over at his house, and kept talking about how “he would be compared to the twink from daganronpa” if he wore it out. The same day that Hero brought up the checkered bandana thing, we finished dubbing the last interesting piece of mystreet media, and now had nothing left to do. Being in the damn gone grandpa headspace with the whole kokichi thing, Hero suggested that we voice over it. The only things i knew about it was monokuma and kokichi because of the one banger fan song and the bandana kokichi wears. Im not exaggerating, I personally had no clue that there was more then one game, and at the time i still didn't care much about the game and didn’t think that we would get too far into it to care (we’re going through a 43 hour playthrough), i personally thought we would get bored after seeing kokichi and then quit (i was so wrong).

Our plan was that there was no plan except that we would mute the game and do all of the voices ourselves, not much thinking went into it. Also, no assigned characters other than kokichi, who went to Hero because it was his idea in the first place, just take whoever you want before someone else gets them

PROLOGUE

I actually have all of the prologue on video, as i like to look back on things to remember stupid details like jokes and predictions for the rest of the game so I can see how close we got. I will not be posting it anywhere for privacy reasons, so please respect that. Its also the only one i videoed for some reason, so its the only one I remember that well due to large time frames between sittings.

it started with the black nothingness and a voice, whom Rex claimed immediately, and used a slightly deeper voice for them thinking that it was a man. Its was infact not a man (there is a video clip of all three of us exclaiming “ITS A GIRL??” After kaede steps out of the locker) after we see the banging on the other locker, a boy falls out. I immediately decide that i get to be the pathetic emo, and while the voice tends to fluctuate a bit for a while, the voice i settle on is something akin to the snapcube silver the hedgehog voice. We run through the rest of the room stuff and get chased by exisals to the gym. (Another fun fact, due to a reading mistake i made, we have since called the exisals “exsials” like ex-ee-uls and i only noticed during chapter 5. Over 3/4s of the way through.)(im not going to pronounce it correctly ever)

Because we have the game muted, we have no clue whos talking because everyone is labeled ??? until the second half of the prologue, and after rantaro introduces himself i think. We each claim a couple characters, Rex claims noticeably less because they have the main character, kaede. The only other interesting thing in the first half is all of us shitting on ryoma for being short. the second half is when we meet all of the characters and get all roles assigned unequally because that would mean a plan, and plans are lame (this is a joke i love plans) some notable meets were with Maki, where after learning about her ultimate, Hero comments “so thats where your soul went”, and originally had a pick me girl voice, Rantaro, where I called him the ultimate empath and Hero used a stoner-surfer voice combo for him, Ryoma, whos voice at this point in time was the highest pitch british youve ever heard without a voice changer (it eventually changed to something a lot more like the official english voice), and finally poor Shuichi. During the entire beginning after they get their first memory we make fun of Shuichi a lot, call him the ultimate dork, ultimate wuss, and other funny things like that. The most notable however is when he stated something incredibly obvious, so Hero said “wow how did you figure that out, what are you, the ultimate detective?” And we laugh it off and skip around a bit because we were honestly not that enthusiastic about doing the exact same thing again. We skip to when kaede meets tsumugi and learn her talent. We realized we skipped over shuichis talent but didnt want to go back, so Rex looked it up bravely facing spoilers for us. Something something ultimate detective and we were FLABBERGASTED.

there were more funny things but im not going to rewatch it to find them

The current character distributions were:

REX: Kaede, Keebo, Maki, Monokuma, Monokid and Monosuke

HERO: Rantaro, Ryoma, Tenko, Angie, Kiyo, Kokichi, Tsumugi, and Monotaro

AMNESIA: Shuichi, Kirumi, Gonta, Miu, Kaito, Himiko, Monophanie and Monodam

some notable silly bits were also: comparing kaito to the vocaloid, predicting kirumis murder, cheering the moment gonta mentioned entomology, Hero leaving during Mius intro and coming back to her saying shes going to drug herself to get high, Hero predicting them all being in space, the Tenko Tussle where Hero had her originally, i tried to take her but Hero took her back for some reason despite not wanting to voice her, tsumugi being immediately hated by all of us and being dubbed the ultimate nerd, both me and Hero constantly telling Rex that rantaro was giving off death flags, rantaros many names- ultimate idk, ultimate beats me, ultimate bogus, ultimate empath, ultimate weed, and ultimate boyfriend eventually, us screaming at ryoma being in the game room, us saying “i dont think we should have gotten a friendship fragment for that” after talking to kiyo, Hero calling kirumi super nanny, us cheering when angie said she was an artist, calling gonta the alpha because he was raised by wolves, the cage wall getting a “what is this, mcsm?” Someone said rehab amami??? When Rex checked for Shuichis ultimate, I wanted to avoid spoilers so i said “oh yea and he killed 8 people”reffering to us knowing nothing about the game, with Hero saying “also he killed 17 people in 1905”

its not letting me write more without glitching so ill probably make a separate post about the other chapters eventually lmao, might link it when im done, or if you have a specific one you wanna hear about PRE CHAPTER 6, send me an ask!

[angelsdevils]

A Titan's Heartache: Marcel x Reader

If you want to read the disclaimer please go to the initial Master list for this story.

Warning: Spoilers appear in this. If you do not want to be tagged or don't want to be spoiled please do not read this story

Word Count:

Master List | Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 |

If you wanna be tagged, let me know

Tag List: @missmadness123 @galactict3a @pseudophyllus @staymoarmyzen @black0pirate0cat @rl800 @reiners-milkbiddies @bobateasilverpearl @sapphire-gemm @beansofskittles cockonoi @mochalate @sunaraii

[Marcel’s POV]

It was now year 847 and I joined the 104th Regiment Corps with Reiner, Bertholdt and Annie. After realizing that we would have more information after joining the Military Police we all agreed this would be the best action to take for now. We also decided to take our time with the mission to ensure it was a successful mission. I still carried the weight with the other warriors of the mission that had already taken a toll on our mental state. I still remember seeing all the people getting eaten by the titans. Me and Annie were running for our lives literally because we couldn’t just transform into titans like Bertholdt and Reiner was or else someone would have seen us. 

The sun bathed the training grounds in a golden hue, my gaze lingered on the towering walls of the military complex - a symbol of both the protection and confinement. I understood why the walls were necessary, to protect them from titans but at the same time, it was suffocating. Of course it was, but some people were content but I met a guy named Eren Yeager, who planned to join the scouts so he could fight for freedom. The kid is crazy, but I get it completely. In a way the Eldians of Marley were also stuck behind walls, not literally but the Marleyans treat us as monsters. I just had to remember I was doing this for my family so they could have a little more freedom.  

Morning drills echoed with the rhythm of wood meeting wood, panting, and grunts, the cadence of footsteps resonating with hope and aspirations to be great soldiers, though I was no soldier, I was a Marleyan Warrior. Amidst the training, my gaze fell upon her - (Y/N) (L/N) -  a fellow recruit whose roots seemed to intertwine with the very essence of nature. Little did I know that our paths were destined in ways I would never imagine. 

In the moments of our exercises, our eyes met. She gave me the sweetest of smiles, and I swear my heart almost jumped out of my chest. She had an air of mystery surrounding her, and I was falling in love with her with just a simple look. As the sun casted it’s rays down on us, she glowed in the light. She was soon paired with me as a sparring partner, and I wasn’t sure if I would survive this alone with how fast my heart was racing. For only the time being, I forgot all about my mission. 

“Don’t expect me to go easy on you, just because you are a girl,” I said to her. Her laughter filled the air, and I felt my cheeks warm.

“If you went easy on me, this sparring session would be pointless.”

She left me no time to respond as she charged at me. I dodged her movements, but she was like water flowing freely. She twisted her body, knocking my knife out of my hand. I grabbed her wrist, but she flipped over my shoulder, and held her wooden knife to my throat. I went to elbow her but she dodged my attack. 

We caught the attention of the other trainees, and the Chief instructor, Shadis. I managed to grab my wooden knife, but she was quicker. How could someone be so fluid in their motions and quick at the same time? Her fighting style was different yet beautiful, almost like a dance. Lost in my thoughts and going through the motions, she managed to swipe my feet from under me, and pinned me to the ground, her wooden knife once again to my throat.

“I think I win this one,” she said in a teasing tone. I cracked a smile, before rolling us over so I pinned her down instead. 

“I don’t accept defeat that easily,” I retorted. 

“Maybe you should.” 

“Huh?” I was confused, before she head butted me hard and I fell backwards, “Ow.”  I rubbed my head, but she kicked me on my back, her boot on my chest, and she stood up. I was shocked, and blushed as she looked down at me. 

“Accept defeat?”

“Yeah, I accept defeat. I think I need ice for my forehead.” 

She let me up, and smiled. She offered me a hand, and I took it standing up. 

“(L/N), where did you learn those moves?” Chief instructor asked her, and she saluted him.

“Sir, my mother and grandmother taught me. They both joined the scouts.” 

“I see, I knew your last name sounded familiar. You have a head jump on the rest of trainees then, your grandmother and mother were (mother’s name) and (grandmother’s name) right? They were one of the founders of the scouts, as well as the strongest.”

“Yes, sir.” 

Everything made sense now, she has trained probably since she was so young, her family probably taught her how to be graceful yet deadly. Shadis walked away after they were done talking. She turned to me and gave me that sweet smile again, and I smiled back. 

“My name is Marcel, Marcel Galliard.”

“(Y/N) (L/N), nice to meet you Marcel.” 

She walked away to grab her water bottle, and in that moment I forgot about the mission, my thoughts were on her alone.

©[@angelsdevils] all rights reserved. none of my posts or stories should be modified, reposted, etc. I do not own the character or the fanart, but I own the plots of these stories. All fanart goes to their appropriate owners.

[montcumbry-gaytor]

Twenties • Prologue

David "Hesh" Walker x Male Reader

Summary : It had been two months since the disappearance of Sergeant Logan Walker, Field commander Hesh, Commander Thomas Merrick, and Sergeant Keegan Russ are trying anything and everything to get him back, with you, Sergeant Y/N "Bishop" L/N.

A/N : I finished COD ghosts in like two days and im just enamored with the ending, with a fair warning that im not real smart so there may be mistakes regarding military aspects of this fic 🫶 be warned.

CW : Spoilers for COD : Ghosts, Semi-Mutual pining.

Unpleasantly awoken for who knows how many times now, you finally chose to pop out of bed rather than rolling over and hoping for another hour of sleep before you were needed on duty.

Pulling the grey t-shirt you once slept in over your head, you tossed it into a laundry basket, replacing said shirt with a similar one of the same breathable material, now long sleeved to cover the many scars you formed.

You slipped on your Camo pants, and tied your black combat boots on tight, raising up to pull your dog tags from out under your shirt, letting them dangle freely from your neck.

You took a minute to slip into the bathroom, Slicking your hair back and brushing your teeth, you had time for all these things, as per usual with your mornings, because no one was required to be up until an hour later.

You trekked the halls of the large base, its silence comforting and common to you, your footsteps quiet as they were trained to be, not only to not wake other soldiers, but to never alarm an enemy of your presence.

Walks like these comforted you, little to no people ever crossed paths when you went, leaving you to your thoughts, clear your head after yet another restless night, preparing yourself for yet another long day.

Upon crossing in front of the main command room, your eyes landed on an almost unmoving Field commander, part of the infamous Ghosts and the son of the passed Captain Elias T. Walker.

You slowly stepped into the room, finding no one but him occupying its walls, his shoulders rising and falling slowly, his arms crossed in front of him and his face tucked into them.

"Hesh?.."

You lightly pressed a hand on his shoulder, watching him shoot awake, seemingly a light sleeper alike you.

"As much as you need sleep, i recommend your quarters. Long night?"

You asked, pulling your arm back to your side, watching him rub the inner corners of his eyes, his lips upturned at your comment.

"Quite, Sergeant. What's the time?"

"Quarter past four, Sir."

You said, eyes quipping to the clock and back to him, watching as he pushed himself out of the office chair.

"Up early again?"

"You know me."

You answered, a small, tired grin flashing at Hesh, the friendly banter normal, as you had begun this since you had joined Elias' forces, catching Hesh asleep almost anywhere, and if he wasnt, he was exhausted.

"Walk with me?"

He asked, Green eyes eyeing you as he slung his coat over his arm.

"Always, Sir."

"-You really dont need to call me 'Sir', Bishop."

"I know, im still going to though."

You stated, walking with Hesh, slowly making your way outside the base, the sky barely beginning to brighten, the moon and stars danced faintly in the sky, the winds bite tickling the back of your neck.

"Any leads on Logan?"

You could hear the deep sigh Hesh let out, you understood the hurt his voice carried.

"Merrick said that theres a possible bunker Rorke had been staying in before he went M.I.A with Logan."

"Doesnt sound like much, Anything counts though."

You said, leaning on the railing that overlooked the city the base was set in, troops, officers and more trekked on below, everyone beginning to wake.

"Anything and Everything counts."

He said, You could only answer in a nod, Your eyes glazing over his relaxed demeanor, though his brows furrowed and his jaw tightened, you could tell it was determination that fueled him.

"I'll go with, I always do."

"You know i cant argue with that."

Hesh chuckled, turning around and leaning his back on the railing, Unbeknownst to you, he watched as the sun rose in your face, the way the wind tussled your hair and the way your lips curved as you listened to him speak.

"You have anything lined up for me today?"

You asked, your eyes flickering over to him, and back to the sunrise, fiddling with your dog tags.

"Just some boarder watch from eight to four, you can take riley with you so you dont get bored."

He responded, silence was carried between you, watching as the sun had risen, you could hear the faintest noises of Hesh's breathing.

"Well, We should be getting back in, especially me, Walk with me?"

"Always."

He hummed, joining you as you walked back to the area where both you and hesh's quarters were located, small talk passed the time it took, finally landing the both of you at your room.

"I've gotta get ready, and I'll take good care of riley, You should shower though."

You joked, tussling his messy hair with your hand, chuckling as Hesh playfully smacked your hand away.

"See you later sir."

You watched him walk away, his footsteps disappearing as he rounded the hall, leaving you to get your things, pulling your vest on over your shirt.

Slinging your rifle around your shoulders after turning its safety on and checking it was properly loaded, you made your way to find riley in Hesh's room.

Peeking through the door, Riley immediately took notice of your presence, padding up to you with a wagging tail.

"Hey boy, You're with me today."

You hummed, crouching down to his level to pet behind his ears, standing once more, Hesh's familiar smell of gunpowder and rain meeting your nose, a comforting and friendly smell.

"Hm.. You're lucky you get to sleep in here."

You hummed, Clicking your tongue to get Riley's attention.

"Come on boy."

Exiting Hesh's room (Unfortunately), you pulled the door shut, humming a tune as you made your way down the stairs, Riley following in suit, Now on the concrete ground of the city, you passed many soldiers, a group of privates, which saw you and gave you a quick salut before continuing to their needed positions.

the large concrete wall stood between the city and the outside, steel stairs leading to the towers you made your way up, Sg. Russ turned his head to yours his eyes softening as he recognized your familiar face.

"Sergeant."

He said in recognition nodding his head upwards, you did the same back.

"Im taking over for you, you should get some sleep Sergeant."

"Very much needed sleep, Thank you, Bishop."

Keegan said, rising from his position, his rifle slung around his shoulder, patting your upper arm as he trekked off, exhausted after a long night.

And thus began your watch, sitting in the foldout chair, you eyed the wasteland -esc roads, seeming as if no life was found for miles.

WOOO!!! tell me if yall want more of this shit because i had so much fun writing it!! Hesh needed a lot of love and I'm gonna give it to him!!!

[yunarim]

. . . loading : real-life otome simulator ☆ - chapter 4

❤︎ prologue ; chapter 1 ; chapter 2 ; chapter 3 ❤︎ tags : female reader, reader is yuu, extrovert reader, second-year reader, sfw, fluff, chapter 6 spoilers ❤︎ author's note : english isn't my first language, please make sure to point out mistakes if any! :) you can read this work on ao3 & wattpad ^^!

. . . loading 4th chapter : 60% (in which Yuu kinda realizes she got her new nickname for a solid reason, featuring Idia.exe crushing)

♡ before you read : minor mentions of death in tis chapter

What’s with that sudden pounding, my ass, Idia thought.

His heart was pounding when he woke up and got up from his bed too hastily, skipping beats accompanied by a white noise in his eyes. His heart was pounding when someone approached him in those rare moments he was actually passing through the college corridors, as if shadow crawling on the walls. His heart was pounding when Lucius made his way to Idia, who smiled with a glimpse of hope to hear a soft purr but got a scratch instead.

How would he know what was happening to the main heroine? Was she sick? Or was it the tea the characters shared together? Jeez, were these otome games always that hard? He even let an unanswered thought run through his mind that maybe he underestimated them just a little.

So a new task to his ultimate ‘totally not gonna tackle these problems ever ’ list was added.

⌜ Figure out what a girl in a romance visual novel could think about ⌝

His brain was working to excess when he was given a college task or developing new features for Ortho, thinking over a profitable in-game strategy to clear another dungeon and split obtained rewards between his teammates ー he’s a genius for a reason, after all.

But then again, collide with an 2D isekaied girl whose head is full of pink-colored bubbles of silly thoughts with a romantic hue on them? Never has he felt so stupid in his whole life.

Emotions were luxury. Why care if you’ll get an ending you want even if it would cost you a dozen walkthroughs and myriad retryings? It’s not like he would ever want to experience such dumb feelings in his whole lifetime, ever! 

And yet, something was different. Totally not a meowing notification sound he set specifically for Yuu (he’d rather die than admit he actually did that stupidly embarrassing thing). 

A week has passed since their last meeting. A whole week of Idia freaking out because of Yuu texting to him. At first he thought she was just being considerate and chatting with him out of an awkward feeling when you actually asked someone’s number and then realized that ghosting would be a perfect option but you have a socially approved quality called politeness, so there was no other way out but keep on texting basic things. 

Hell freaking no, Yuu wasn’t that simple and it was driving Idia crazy. 

Being a genius he was, he tried to divide analyzing his new… friend ’s (somehow the word itself wasn’t settling right, causing itching unpleasant feeling somewhere under his ribs) behavior into three stages.

1st stage: denying.

Of course she was sending him Gakemo short videos and frequently asking when the group has debuted, what their fandom name was, how many cats does the maknae* has ー all she had to do was to click on the internet icon and just type all her questions, getting a short summary in return. Maybe this was some kind of extroverts perk, when you actually don’t really want to chat but are still trying to be considerate and ask something…

Idia passed through this stage real quick when she made an ‘ultimate guide to Gakemo’ and uploaded it on her MagiTube channel, staying ever so unbothered by the insanely increasing number of subscribers. She devoted a freaking minute of a whole video to appreciate Idia’s help and thanking him for providing with an accurate info and things.

She’ll be the death of him.

2nd stage: making assumptions.

Okay, maybe she was at least slightly interested in keeping up with him and his interests. For what was it then? Ortho suggested asking her directly, but that option was out of the question. 

Why in the world would she be willing to continue chatting even if they took a little break from the game since Idia was thinking over the answer to the last in-game question?

Somehow he didn’t despise their conversations, genuinely appreciating silly photos of Grim she took. It was just enough to keep him entertained at first, but then Yuu proceeded to send him little greetings, sweet ‘good mornings’ and even more sugary ‘good nights’. 

Idia didn’t want to admit he grew to enjoy them with all his heart. Was he craving affection at least from someone so much that it became almost unbearable to wake up without another ‘gm!!’ from her with a different choice of emojis attached in the end?

But what was the profit for her in all those messages? She was an extrovert, not to mention she was extremely popular! 

3rd stage: getting embarrassed.

He was cringe. The cringiest man alive. Damn, given that he was nearly a freaking Ruler of the Underworld, he would still be the cringiest thing ever existed in the Twisted Wonderland history even underneath. The epitome of cringe, yes, that was the right name for him, waiting for Yuu‘s messages late at night when she was saying she’ll be back after bathing and then coming back only by morning, since she fell asleep out of fatigue. She would always apologize for not wishing good night to him. Oh Sevens, and was it necessary to make another Gakemo edit in an apology?

He felt stupid. Having feelings was the strangest thing he had ever suffered. The warmth flooded his heart as if wax, eroding over a candlestick from a dying candle. He was stuck to feeling undeserving, lacking everything which SSR-tier characters had, he was accustomed to being not enough. 

He wasn’t ready for those little messages of hers to drug him out and experience something flourishing in his chest when he realized he was genuinely thoroughly choosing an emojis to send in response.

Oh Sevens, it was 6:00 am.

A notification with a message popped up on his lockscreen, making him groan and click on his tongue. Sleep deprived again, he proceeded to pull an all-nighter and take a game session with his online teammates. 

Yuu‘s message worked better than any hangover cure. Not as if Idia ever had a hangover.

Isekai Expert ✨ : good morning!! I’m so excited for today~

Idia blinked twice and tried to collect his thoughts altogether, but all in vain since he could remember nothing.

Normie counter 👊 : wdym

Isekai Expert ✨ : dude… it’s potionology today

Normie counter 👊 : oh mkay congrats ig never knew your a sucker for potions

Isekai Expert ✨ : idia… we have joint classes for the second and third years today

Idia literally had left the chat.

───◌┈┈───♡⃝───┈┈◌───

Potionology was okay. Idia liked the subject, it was cool to work alone and mix something in a cauldron, but not freaking today!!

He wanted to merge with the furniture, sink through the ground, disappear in the blink of an eye ー all options would suffice, but there he was, awkwardly fidgeting in the corner of the auditorium and failing to hide his flashy hair. His height wasn’t helping at all, given he was almost twice as tall as most of the current second years. 

Sudden thought of being able to trace Yuu in this crowd somehow was quite calming, but a sweet feeling lingered only for a mere second. 

Right. She was an extrovert. 

It was Lilia who was always hanging around her, and Idia got used to it due to Yuu always nagging about how he was floating midair when she was studying in the library. 

What he did miss was the amount of affection Yuu was receiving from every freaking one in this hellish college.

Lilia did float midair, playing with her hair strands, while she was listening to Crewel’s explanation, her not even noticing Ace bending over her ear and whispering something. Grim used her as a means of transport, making himself comfortable on her shoulders when Deuce was fixing her protective glasses. As if the whole college was surrounding her, not even giving a place to breathe. 

Idia wondered if she ever was uncomfortable but was too occupied with his own predicament at the moment.

“Yuu, Idia and Lilia,” professor Crewel’s voice ringed in their ears. “You three are working together.”

Yuu gathered Lilia and Idia together, smiling brightly in an excitement to work with her best friend and… another friend?..

“Please take good care of me,” she proclaimed, nodding politely and causing Crewel to chuckle. 

“Pup, more likely it’s you who’ll take care of these two.”

“I’m not sure if I would deny it!” She giggled and turned to her companions. “Alright, shall we start?”

Alright, getting sorted into a team of those wasn’t so humiliating as Idia thought it would, but still he felt as if being sandwiched between two balls of energy, smiles surrounding him and caging in an extrovert trap. Could this whole situation be considered as a quest where he would get a reward from surviving?..

“Idia, are you listening?” Yuu asked, adjusting her gloves and grabbing materials, skimming through a manual given by professor Crewel at the same time. What a multi-tasking queen.

“Y-yeah, s-sorry…” a weak response escaped his lips as a long front locks fell on his shoulders when he benched over Yuu‘s small figure in an attempt to take a look at an manual Yuu was holding in order to get what he could do in order to get over this task real quick. 

“Guys, let me deal with preparations and mixing impurities in a mortar, I want to be at least a little of help,” signature smile appeared on her face, making Idia startle for a moment and try his best to ignore Lilia’s suspicious glances.

“Sure thing, sweetie,” Lilia replied and watched her making her way straight to the shelves filled with bottles of various contents. 

Idia allowed himself to take a deep breath and relax a little since Yuu wasn’t in his personal space (read as anyone within 20 meters) anymore. She wasn’t uncomfortable or overwhelming to be with, but rather… Yuu just shone too bright for him, overpassing the brightness of his fire hazard hair. 

He watched her trying to get something from a shelf she couldn’t reach as something just popped in his mind, urging him to offer his help, but of course he wasn’t the protagonist in this game called ‘Try getting Yuu‘s attention’ everyone was playing. It was Malleus who approached her in a loose manner, genuinely smiling at her and getting a dark purple bottle. SSR-tier character, absolutely OP, a whole ultimate material she’d totally simp for and ー

“You youngsters always manage to surprise me with your antics~”

Oh Sevens, Idia thought he fell straight into the Underworld itself as he jolted at a sudden Lilia’s remark.

“W-wha ー”

“Don’t you worry, you’ll get a chance to impress her someday~”

“I, ugh… Wh-what do you mean?..”

“Who knows… Just don’t hesitate, there’s a game-changing reward in the end.”

Right, Yuu mentioned Lilia was always the type to speak in riddles, but this was another difficulty level he couldn’t possibly surpass at the moment.

When Yuu returned with all preparations done Idia and Lilia proceeded to do their parts, accompanied by Yuu‘s encouraging words and little songs she hummed, from one of which actually recognized Gakemo’s latest b-side which went viral on social media and especially became a perfect material for editors makers. Really, she was cultured so much…

Professor Crewel asked them to show their work at the end of the lesson. Yuu was the one who presented everything, as if advertising a product for boosting magic energy and stamina (Idia even thought he heard Azul scheming something, being all ears at Yuu‘s presentation). Crewel asked Lilia and Idia to fill an empty test tube with their magic, and they did just so, then took a sip of the potion and took flasks this time, filling them once more. Crewel compared test tubes and flasks, giving a nod and appreciating how the magic color became more vibrant. 

“Since the potion wasn’t meant to be limited to magic boost only, prove to me that it has a great impact on stamina, too,” Crewel demanded, glaring at Yuu. She agreed, taking a potion in her hands and taking a deep breath. The thing is, she never tested potions she worked on since they only were meant to have an impact on magic abilities only.

“Alright!” Idia spotted Lilia frowning for a mere second, not actually liking his expression. 

Yuu took a sip from potion and demonstrated a few push ups she never really showed at Vargas’ lessons and then even jumped that high she was finally able to reach the highest shelf by herself. Amazed at her own abilities, she giggled, suspecting that was quite enough to prove that their potion worked.

“Beware of her, pups,” Crewel chuckled, taking notes and congratulating them on getting excellent marks today. “She may surpass you one day.”

“Huhu, isn’t she already?~” 

Idia took a quick glance at Yuu and got tensed when she spotted her biting her lip and placing her hand behind her back on the table in order to keep steady, she didn’t look good.

A permanent genuine smile plastered on her face wasn’t as calming as it used to be.

───◌┈┈───♡⃝───┈┈◌───

Idia rushed to get back home as quickly as he could. Enough with social interactions for today!!

“Oi, Idia!” 

No, no, no, silly, why would she yell in the schoolyard where everyone turned their heads to her and to him particularly, observing his awkward stance and then proceeding to stare. Ugh, why would she address him in such a crowded place andー

“Y-yeah, what do you want…”

He didn’t mean to sound rude but she didn’t seem to care, or maybe preferred to ignore this attitude of his, remaining considerate.

“A-actually,” she stuttered, her face looking paler. “It has been a long time since we hung out together. I wondered if you would be against my company for the rest of the day.”

“N-no, w-what are you saying!” Oh Sevens, how embarrassing this line was. “I’m o-okay..”

“Wonderful! Let’s go then?”

He nodded, thinking how awkward he looked, trying to figure out by what hand of hers should he walk, if she preferred to be from the left when she walked with someone, or was it more comfortable to be beside someone’s right? In any case, she didn’t say anything and just turned around to smile at him.

Oh Sevens, what’s with that indefinable tugging in his chest?

Just right when they reached the Hall of Mirrors, Yuu suddenly gasped and turned to Idia with an apologetic look.

“I forgot my books on the rooftop when I was having lunch with Lilia… Could you please wait for me here? I promise I’ll be back real quick!”

Realization hit him, as if in-game choice popping up in front of, options floating midair.

╰► Go with her

╰► Wait for her here

It took him a half of a minute to gather all his thoughts, weigh all pros and cons of his next step, and finally made his choice, biting his lip just before voicing it out.

“I-it’s fine, I’ll go with you… I-it won’t take a lot of time…”

Jeez, he was going absolutely insane. What, did he actually want to play a protagonist role in a jitney otome novel, trying to woo a female lead who obviously had better options? All she had to do was pick one, given she already managed to befriend The Malleus Draconia.

And there he was, waiting for her gathering all her belongings and almost ready to go back to his dorm. 

Thankfully, there was no one on the rooftop, and Idia sunk deep into his thoughts, calculating in his head whether they should watch a movie together or play some other games, he could introduce her to the Star Rogue lore, or they could rewatch Gakemo best performances ー

He didn’t realize a whole five minutes passed with Yuu staring somewhere into the sky and complaining quietly that the air turned quite stuffy. The realization hit him with small sharp needles of rainfall. 

He quickly made his way under the roof, feeling how the tips of his hair became steamy, scalding vapor dancing on his neck and shoulders. Idia sighed and took a quick glance at Yuu, her still standing beside the roof railing and slowly turning to him.

She seemed so… out of reach. Idia thought if she would turn to sand in any second and slip through his fingers, eluding him forever. 

“Right as I wondered how your hair would react on the rain,” no malice was heard in her words. “I’m sorry, I just… No, it’s nothing. Let’s go! Oh, and don’t worry, I have an umbrella with me.”

U-umbrella?! Oh no, another challenge awaited him, and THAT one was rated as S-rank difficulty one. Should he just embarrass himself and get his hair wet, a literally extinguished fire replacing his usual blue flames? Or would it be better to carry her umbrella so they wouldn’t get soaked together since she was obviously smaller than him?!

It was worse. 

She was the one to hold the umbrella all the way long just because she found it amusing to try managing the whole trip and jumped a little when it was really hard to cover Idia. Even worse that she actually succeeded and Idia cringed at the way he didn’t do at least something to help her. Again.

───◌┈┈───♡⃝───┈┈◌───

Idia hated himself for not cleaning his room up today. And even if Yuu convinced him it was okay and he should visit Ramshackle dorm someday so that he would never again think of his room as of mess, but mess aside, he forgot to turn off his PC.

With the cringiest isekai manga he was reading just to kill some time before going to sleep.

“A-argh, that’s not what you think!!”

Yuu just burst into laughter, while Idia was agonizing he embarrassed himself so damn much for today it was unbearable. 

“Goodness, I didn’t know you read such things! That one is a real cringe, though,” she commented on the opened frames with the heroine saying nonsense to her love interest. Then an idea came to him.

“How’d you know it’s cringe? Did you read it yourself? Sevens, don’t tell me you prefer such lame things over Star Rogue manga adaptation…” 

“Answering your question, yeah, I guess I just consume everything of the genre… And I didn’t have a chance to actually play Star Rogue, not to mention I didn’t even know there was a manga!!”

“Jeez, you’re so uncultured. Alright, gotta introduce you to the actual masterpiece. Get another controller, we’re about to pull an all-nighter in order to make you a Star Rogue expert.”

“Ooh, I like the spirit! Let’s start!”

He wasted no more second, adjusting his floating displays while Yuu took her personal pillow to sit on and grabbed a controller, ready for the introduction. 

The first few hours were considerably okay. Yuu was actually having fun and trying to grasp all the lore alongside with the gameplay and listened to Idia’s ramblings and mutterings, his speech turning into a current of incoherent phrases she was diving through, chickling sometimes.

Something wasn’t right with her body. 

She immediately thought of standing under the rain and getting soaked, but then her attention switched to the other event that happened today, potionology class that would be. Was it because their potion went wrong somewhere? But Idia seemed to be completely fine. Then she came to a conclusion she felt so sick due to her showing no possession of magic, while the potion was accustomed for magicians only. Shit, she thought, trying to cover her ailment with a gentle smile and concentrating on Idia talking.

Turned out her plan wasn’t much of help as Idia just paused the game, looking displeased with Yuu’s attention lacking.

“Hey, you won’t get the next scene if you skip this one!”

“S-sorry, it’s just… Could we take a little break? We were sitting this whole time for three hours straight.”

“E-ergh, alright. I guess you’re not so used to long gaming sessions as I thought!”

“Yep, but I bet you won’t last long reading manga! Damn, you missed my best manga-addict era, poor you~”

Idia sighed and took a quick glance at her, noticing her cheeks getting redder in a rather unhealthy way.

“U-uhm, actually, can I ask you a question?..”

“Sure, why not.”

“H-how…” he stuttered for a mere second when she switched her attention to him fully, looking straight into his eyes, making him avoid her gaze. “A-are you feeling after getting isekaied? I mean, you’re an isekai expert after all…”

She giggled and closed her eyes, as if she was recalling something.

“Promise you won’t cringe.”

“I would,” he replied half-jokingly. “I-it’s just… when manga heroines happen to isekai it always feels as if it’s not enough. Like, you know, don’t you all extroverts have your family, friends and stuff back at home?”

“Oh…”

She took a deep breath, opening her eyes and staring somewhere into the wall in front of her. 

“It's lonely. I miss my parents and friends. I had my routine back home, I was normal, and here I am, being absolutely magicless in a college full of magicians, always getting drugged into dangerous situations. I almost died, like, six times?” Idia personally felt himself included into this list of the reasons she got heavily injured and barely made it alive.

It was disgusting. He felt as if he was about to make himself out of the room, out of her circle of… friends? She was so strong and collected, while here he was, stuttering over nothing and stressing himself out just because he didn’t manage to pull his favorite character card in some shitty gacha game he was playing just to kill some time , when she was facing situations where she herself was almost killed.

He gulped at the thought of losing her one day, and an echinate sensation creeping inside him and wrapping thorny vines around his heart made Idia bite his lip hard.

“Sometimes I just think about whether I should return or not. It’s not like I know how but if I would, then what would my final decision turn into in the end? I have everything there, and yet I don’t have anything at the same time. I feel awful, as if I’m betraying my real self, making myself split into two parts: one remained back in my home, and one is the current me I’m presenting to everyone here. And the final question is always… which of the homes I have I can refer to as ‘my’ at this point?

Idia wasn’t thinking. An inexplicable impulse running through his entire body made him swallow nervously and cover her hand with his. It was suffocatingly awkward, and he wasn't sure— anything at all —whether she needed his support, but the overflowing warmth he had felt from their first meal together turned into a fond memory, and he sincerely wanted to calm her down for a mere second.

“i… “ she muttered. “T-thank you. Truly.”

“N-no problem…”

Unexpected fatigue covered her little figure when Idia tried to voice his speech he was mentally preparing in order to give a reply she deserved, but even though she did hear a few lines, Yuu closed her eyes and let out a small weak sigh, causing Idia to flinch a little. Did she not want his support in the end?..

“H-hey, I just wanted to… Huh?”

She rested her head on his shoulder, strands of her hair tossed on her face in a cute mess way. Idia stared at her parted lips with a cherry colored tint on them, which glittered prettily under the dim blue lights of his room and didn’t notice how the tips of his hair turned rosy, going from little flickers to massive bright sparkles.  

She leaned to his side with her whole body, almost sliding down, and he just realized she lost her consciousness and wasn’t controlling herself, her body hot and her cheeks almost burning. 

Oh Sevens, thankfully Ortho rushed into the room, looking worried, and found the two of them in an awkward position.

“Brother!! I just got a notification that your heart rate went crazy!” he proclaimed. “Is everything okay?!”

“I… I’m… Y-yeah, I’m fine, but Yuu… Check out her body temperature, please. It might be a fever.”

“Okay, leave it to me!”

With that Idia watched as Ortho placed her on Idia’s bed and then turned away as Ortho was managing with Yuu‘s clothes in order to loosen the tie so she can breathe easier. 

“I found traces of the potion in her respiratory tract, brother. Everything’s going to be okay, just let her rest a little, I’ll bring everything needed.”

“Y-yeah, alright… Thank you.”

As Ortho left the room Idia looked at Yuu and approached her, as if led by something intangible, not realizing his actions, and adjusted the blanket, taking a quick glance at her lips once more and almost weightlessly touching her fingers.

He figured out the answer for the last in-game choice this time.

❤︎ notes :

* maknae - the youngest member of the idol group

btw guys i wonder if you need a tag list for this one fic (or in general too)… please let me know 🤍

© ayavielle 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐞𝐝. 𝐝𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐭, 𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐲, 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐲, 𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦 𝐚𝐧𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐬 𝐚𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐨𝐰𝐧.

[milkpumpkin96]

Minds Beneath Us Review

I don't often play games on my PC . . . but damn, I cannot stop myself from playing and writing about BearBone Studio's first ever release.

Needless to say, I am quite impressed with Minds Beneath Us, released not too long ago yet remains obscure. If you are into narrative-based gameplay with elements of dystopian sci-fi, deep philosophical questions, and emphasis on complex relationship navigation, then this is the game for you.

I have a surface-level review at Movies, Games & Tech, but I am digging a little deeper here, now that I have completed all the endings (and the post-credit scenes have updated as of August 29th).

[MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING]

OVERALL SCORE: 9/10

It honestly pains me not to give this game a perfect score, but I know for sure that some aspects could have been better.

Minds Beneath Us performs brilliantly at addressing the current implications of A.I. and what this means for humanity.

"It is no secret that A.I. and its capabilities are igniting a fierce global debate. The future of this rapidly developing technology has stirred a myriad of concerns for people, not only in terms of employment, but it also adds to the existential questions of human purpose and exceptionality."

Everyone has their own opinions on the pros and cons of A.I., but I am sure Tumblr is at the forefront of anti-generative A.I. You know, with it stealing digital art and music from pre-established humans. Minds Beneath Us takes these issues a step further. The game takes place in the year 2049, not too far from our current reality, where automation runs the world in its entirety: data collection, security, housing, employment, transportation, the food and beverage industry . . . I mean, I guess this is happening now too.

Overall, this title conveys their story quite meaningfully and provides a surplus of well-thought-out characters, intriguing (albeit hefty) dialogue, engaging QTEs, and the power for players to alter how the plot unfolds. I appreciate the immediate story hook in the prologue as well.

Perhaps some people may dislike the inherent lack of actual action-based gameplay, but I think it works for what Minds Beneath Us is trying to do. And, get ready; this game is not meant to have a happy ending per se.

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GAMEPLAY: 8/10

Minds Beneath Us lacks in the "gameplay" department, acting more like a visual novel. I cannot complain though. Steam tags it as an "emotional, sci-fi narrative."

The game itself is quite hefty to my surprise, taking a whopping 6.25 gigabytes to download. But, the game runs smoothly and beautifully as of its latest updates. When I first began playing near the initial release date, I had several issues with lag and my save file would occasionally disappear. All of the problems have been resolved.

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For one, I must talk about the art style. It is reminiscent of Playdead's Inside: simple, dully, 2D-shaded with an eerie overlay. The most prominent aspect, like Inside, is the lack of human facial features. Characters are identified by their gait, hairstyle, stature, and gesturing for the most part. To some people this may seem odd or uncomfortable because facial expressions are key to human interaction and understanding.

But, I think that this stylistic choice works amazingly. I may be reading too much into it . . . but aligning with the game's theming, at first glance the lack of face individuality insinuates humans being solely considered a "number" in the society of late-stage capitalism. Just an asset; a cheap commodity compared to the superior A.I. A.I. itself does not inherently need a face, it just does what it needs to do or "thinks" needs to be done. Without a face, a piece of humanity is lost.

On the other hand, one thing that Minds Beneath Us does highlight is character movement. The people noticeably breathe, and motion with their hands and posture and heads. The way the game is animated (which BearBone Studio says is hand-drawn, by the way) is so impactful that I can almost hear them and feel their emotions, despite the lack of face and audible voice. When a disgruntled person slams their hand down on the table in frustration, I feel myself jerking back in anxiety. When the character Wayne erupted in anger at Justin following the proposed shutdown of the farm . . . the way the dialogue slammed onto screen and how Wayne's body arched in an attack-like stance put me on my toes. I could feel it.

That breathing animation though! Again, I might be reading too much into it, but as opposed to the lack of facial features, the pronounced breathing reminds me that these characters are indeed humans. Living creatures. A.I. does not breathe, but humans do. This becomes even more upsetting at the end of the game, when project "Sleeping God" is revealed to be mass experimentation on synthetic, manufactured humans. By legal and scientific "standards," these things are not considered fully people, implying that it is okay for them to be unethically utilized for a sole purpose. However, you can see these creatures murmuring . . . breathing . . . distinguishing them from the automation around you.

This has been a bit of a tangent, but I am mesmerized by the art and animation style. It feels so alive.

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The game is 2D with some three-dimensional elements, and players can walk or run in the directions of left or right. There will be lots of traveling around but towards the end of the game, it will automatically skip over unnecessary travel time.

For the most part, you can choose who you want to talk to outside of the main story, and players can click on certain items to take or learn more about them. For example, the player can click on a water bottle in Jason and Frances' bedroom and perform a classic bottle flip. Or, you can click on this flyer in the White Scorpion hideout and Jason himself will give you background knowledge on the fate of the building you're in. Or, you can click on the "MycoCept" medicine bottle and a text blurb will tell you that it "reduces implant rejection and soothes pain," and also tell you its serial number.

Some of this seemingly irrelevant information can give the players incredibly important knowledge, whether for world-building purposes or by granting the player "new pathways," meaning that you will receive new dialogue options you otherwise wouldn't have. These dialogue options can affect the overall game, or at least warrant special responses from others.

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The star feature of Minds Beneath Us is the fact that it is a choice narrative, meaning that your dialogue choices may and will effect how the story unfolds.

Essentially, you are controlling the main guy Jason Dai. Well, you are controlling the entity that is controlling Jason Dai.

I cannot say for certain that the MBU in Jason Dai's body is supposed to be the player themselves, I really do not think that is the case. But regardless, this is who you are playing as and with it you'll make decisions.

The decisions you make will influence Jason Dai's future and the relationships around him. Players will receive thoughts and opinions from Dai himself, and you can choose to abide by it or ignore it completely. Ignoring Jason's desires may not make him very happy, though. Overall, do as you may. The MBU can be kind and curious, or mean and neglectful--the important thing is, however, not to expose yourself as an MBU to the world. You have to act as Jason Dai.

Some dialogue choices will have indefinite time. You can take your own pace choosing what to answer, considering all the information you might have. Other times, there is a time limit to response, sometimes slow and sometimes insanely quick. Always be at the ready to make a fast decision, because it can cost you Jason's life in a real sense or metaphorical sense. Sometimes there is no telling whether the choice you make is inconsequential or will have dire consequences later on.

Having unlocked new pathways from clicking on objects, or by being investigative and probing during conversations, will open a lot more options for you. You can open up side quests (more like side conversations), which its purpose is to flesh out the characters more. For example, choosing to talk to your coworker Paxton on day two will unlock the "Showdown is Nigh" side quest. He recruits you into talking to Quentin from the screening sector into having a "showdown" with him, as they are both "chubby nerds" (his words, not mine). However, you'll learn that Paxton is just kind of bashful and wants a friend, but hardly knows how to engage in peer conversations.

Other specific dialogue options can do a lot of things, from mending relationships between coworkers Jeff and his adoptive father Mr. Liao, which Jeff will then thank you and Mr. Liao will invite you to dinner in response. Or, you can hound Justin Wu into acknowledging his lack of empathy and apologize to Cathy, as he had hurt her feelings and forced her to backstab the screening division. All Cathy wants is for Justin to recognize her capabilities and independent choices. You can even convince Cynthia from the logistics department to hook up with Wayne Zheng, as they both are crushing on one another. Essentially, the player has the option to get involved with all the drama and act as a peace-keeper therapist.

Some decisions will carry a lot more weight to them. At the very end of the fourth chapter, if you do not head straight to bed and instead knock on the neighboring door, you will reveal a massive underlying plot element. There is no apparent in-game indication to even do this, so you, the player, must be curious enough to try out anything and everything. If you knock on the door repeatedly, you'll reveal the true intentions of the character 23, which then will 100% influence the dynamic between Situ, 23, and Lawrence.

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Some choices are innocuous and do not do too much. Like, the MBU has the option to say "goodbye" to people at the end of conversations, or instead say nothing. You can say "I love you" to Jason's girlfriend, Frances, but no matter what the story will not be influenced.

This may be a bit of a negative for Minds Beneath Us. There is not enough game-changing decisions. I would have liked it a little more if each and every option had a semblance of impact . . . but I think the biggest issue is is that no choice you make influences the actual ending you receive, aside from the final decision.

There are four possible endings the player can get. It does not matter what the hell you do, these ending options will always be there, only determined by the last decision you make. There is only one exception though--the ending that focuses on Jason Dai getting out of dodge and joining the Moonflowers under a new identity. This ending is actually unavailable unless you make a very specific choice in the PROLOGUE. If you manage to keep Albert Tsai alive, the character Ivan Zheng will feel indebted to the MBU inside Jason and pitch him the idea of joining the Moonflowers to protect Dai from ultimate harm further down the road.

There are other massive game changers, just not ones that impact the end. Most notably, in chapter three, the player must decide whether to join the screening sector or the ops sector. This will affect the people you interact with and a lot of story elements henceforth, each having their pros and cons. Joining a specific side will also influence the fate of Silencio, the flops farm you work at. Unless you are actively working towards the "bridge builder" achievement, where Dai is able to bring both sectors together for a compromise, lots of people will be upset.

Most other decisions only effect relationship dynamics. But, the ways the characters interact are great, and probing them only gives more depth.

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Minds Beneath Us is not particularly difficult. There will be QTEs, which I will discuss later, but they are brief and even if you mess up, there is an instant redo.

The hardest part of the game is probably just not using a guide. It may be hard to determine what choices are going to make things happen. Really, just do anything and everything possible. Knock on every door. Enter every room. Talk to everyone. But, try to be nice for the most part--dialogue will depend on the character's personality, but being friendly mixed with an assertive inquisitiveness gets the job done. Never skip out on asking further questions, but avoid unnecessarily brash responses . . . like asking a contractor why she decided to have kids if she's struggling to take care of them. Yeah, that will not go well.

The game says it will take about 12 hours to finish the first playthrough. Um, it took me like almost 30 hours. Why? I don't know. I did everything I could, and discovered every side conversation, hidden secret, and in my opinion, I selected the "better" ending. I also redid a chapter so I could play in both the ops and screening sector.

The saving mechanic used to be a bit buggy but has been fixed. Though, players cannot save the game at will. There will be autosaves that happen after every setting change or important conversation. If you are upset with your choices, you can select a chapter and redo it. The game supports multiple save files.

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I think the biggest mechanic disappointment was with the tab button. There was an insinuation I would be able to read minds or something as an MBU? But that is not true. The tab button pulls up this cool, techy-looking display but only tells you your main objective and sometimes other minor objectives. You are just kind of looking inside the MBU's thoughts. I think this function could have been neater somehow.

This is especially so with the potential that MBUs are able to detect other MBUs. Woody Chen is a character possessed by one of these things, and seems to know that Jason is too, and knows Jason's full name without us telling him. Why couldn't I do that?

**This is a wild theory . . . but the fact that Woody knew the full name "Jason Dai" and blurted it out without us telling him; the player can do the same thing to the security guard named Michael Hsiao. Jason can blurt out Michael's full name, which will catch the latter by surprise as they had never met before. Is he an MBU as well, perhaps? He seemed nervous and confused the entire game.

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MUSIC: 8/10

I cannot say that the music is the most memorable, but it is perfectly fitting for the game itself. It sounds atmospheric, eliciting a somewhat nervous yet curious vibe. I am an MBU discovering the world and its horrors so freshly, and the reclused Jason Dai must face the reality he tried to hard to be ignorant of. Yeah, that is what the music feels like. Unsettling, techy, with some piano work, and lots of synth.

There are occasional tonal shifts: sometimes a track is excitingly dangerous, as when combat ensues or massive horrible information is leaked. The intensity of the music will amp up. Other times, tracks are light-hearted bops, like when roaming around the city of Wanpei in the night.

Every sound just felt so woven into the settings themsevles.

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You can watch this video, or purchase the soundtrack DLC on Steam.

Within the soundtrack, my favorites are . . .

Frances' theme (bittersweet, loving, and homey and cozy like a Minecraft track. After all, she is the loving girlfriend of Jason Dai)

City of Light (a lighthearted bop, giving me the sensation of amazement)

Nin's theme (a bit somber but powerful; she is a respectable but perhaps unreliable figure)

Let's Fight (when this song would play, I knew to get my ass ready)

Ops Division (It just . . . gave off the vibe that something fishy was going on, before this knowledge was revealed to us)

Ghost Protocol (I associate this song with the game itself)

The Sleeping God (ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh)

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STORY: 10/10

Minds Beneath Us features a storyline whose themes are becoming more common as of late . . . but it is for a good reason. I do not think plots revolving around artificial intelligence has been overdone quite yet, and I think it will take a while. This is what science fiction is all about: a play on, a mockery of, or a metaphorical callout to current or impending societal issues. Even with games like Cyberpunk and Detroit: Become Human, Minds Beneath Us manages to stand out.

Perhaps unlike a lot of media (even though this is changing), the game doesn't end . . . good. There are four possible ending sequences, in which are all rather gloomy. Jason only wanted a simple, quiet life, which this desire was soon adopted by Frances as well after coming to face with reality. However, these dreams are nigh. The duo has been roped in to a world they cannot escape, simultaneously being powerless to stop all the societal ills they've uncovered. Ultimately, Jason doesn't get his happy ending, but the player can at least mitigate by providing him safety and a source of income.

Minds Beneath Us is not a fantastical escape from reality. It is a cold reality check of sorts. And on another note, the game does not answer a lot of questions players may have, provoking us to challenge our own morality, philosophies, and self-worth in a world so far ahead.

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Minds Beneath Us has five chapters, and a prologue. It is rather tricky to summarize the plot, due to its complexities as well as the fact the players' choices can make such a difference.

Here is a link to an excellent guide, if you would like to follow along and reap the fullest game experience: https://www.neoseeker.com/minds-beneath-us/walkthrough

Overall, it is a story of conspiracy, betrayal, unethicality, and faction-based thinking. . . yet also truth-seeking, building friendships, seeking justice, and compromise. Each and every character is splendid, having their own separate character arcs whether featured in the main story or as a side plot; everyone's mind is so complex, human, and facing dualities that the player may help to resolve.

Despite the game's heaviness on the dialogue, I could never bring myself to skim through it. Every little detail is either relevant or interesting, making the world so lifelike and relatable.

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The prologue swoops in with a vehement bang, asserting its uncomfortable, dystopian motifs immediately. However, much of these will not be unraveled until later chapters. Minds Beneath Us has intriguing pacing; a bit of a slow-burner, but never a slow-down. The plot hook is immediately strong.

The game begins in a confusing frenzy: an older man named Ivan Zheng violently bangs on the door to a hospital room. Shortly thereafter, the player's screen begins to glitch, and Zheng abruptly ceases as we take control of him.

Throughout the game, the player will be controlling an "M.B.U.," some sort of assault-type silencer artificial entity created in lab. Humans who have had chipped brains, either during birth or unwanted surgery, will be susceptible to being "possessed" by MBUs. These entities are controlled at "the source," which is the area in the prologue, by a man named "The Calibrator" and the alien-tech scientists around him (I am unsure if they are actually aliens, but they are certainly quite advanced).

However, in the prologue, as Ivan Zheng tries to fight off the MBU and The Calibrator after making him harm his drugged underling, Albert Tsai, this being called "The Anomaly" invades the place. It kills everyone, except Ivan, Albert, and the MBU.

The Anomaly then mumbles to the player, you are free. Something like that. It asserts that the MBU potentially has its own free will and consciousness.

It then forces us far away into the body of Jason Dai, a seemingly average man who lives with Frances Cheng, his girlfriend, in a simple apartment in futuristic-city Wanpei.

This will be our main guy for the rest of the game. The point is, you are playing as the little man: Jason is just some guy who finally got employed as a large company, and all he wants is to survive and live a "cozy, quiet life" with his girlfriend. However, Dai is living in willing ignorance and refuses to look deeper into the societal ills around him. Can't blame him, though. In our modern day, as we have 24/7 access to the atrocities of the world. We must all must feel rather fatigued and powerless. There is bliss in ignorance.

However, Jason and Frances unwittingly get roped into some dark information and threatening circumstances.

The two work at Silencio, a flops farm under the Vision Corporation. "Flops" are computational power generated by "farms' in order to operate all of Wanpei's A.I. systems. This industry is literally the main pillar of society--if something happens to the A.I., or the cloud, everything falls apart. There are several flops farming companies, like Vision, Growell, and Tendril. The business Sunrise provides these corporations with necessary equipment including A.I.-powered security cameras and listening devices.

Flops farming seems weird, but it is a double-edged sword. On one hand, this provides job opportunities to many. The middling class, like Jason Dai, can work at these corporations for good benefits and decent pay. And . . . where do these farms get their flops from? Human brains, of course. People who are unfortunate victims of society, living in the "slums," the "shithole," or otherwise these "evacuation zones" because suburbs of Wanpei are prone to intense flooding (thanks, climate change), these poorer class individuals need money fast.

At the farms, those in need of cash are interviewed by Silencio's screening division to make sure they are able-bodied and relatively healthy. Once signed onto a contract, these "shithole dwellers" go down to the cellar, are tranquilized to be sedated, and are hooked up to these devices to transfer their brain power into "flops" to fuel the city's A.I. systems. They are then suspended from the ceiling. Literally, minds beneath us.

This seems . . . rather cruel and unusual. But, the contractors get a lot of money, health insurance, and all. The procedure is typically only weeks at a time and they are put into a deep, nourishing sleep via tranquilizers and feeding tubes. Its not very cushy. But, it pays the bills I suppose.

However, Silencio is very old in model, and not appropriately funded. There is risk when it comes to "juicing," and even more so with the industry's sketchiness. In chapter two of the game, Jason Dai (and the MBU) will witness mechanical malfunction, where an automated tranquilizer is repeatedly jabbed into a "juicer" in lethal dosage. And, one juicer will plummet from the ceiling.

However, there is more than meets the eye. Minds Beneath Us features topics of late-stage capitalism, profit over ethics . . . these threats do not only come from lack of funding, but internal sabotage, division warfare, and disgusting secret experimentation.

Players will learn that Silencio is producing an insane amount of flops, despite the farm not running at full capacity. The ops division accuses screening of sending down unqualified candidates, and the screening division accuses ops for recklessness with the machines. Jason Dai will ultimately get wrapped up into the darker recesses of corporate greed after Silencio's boss, Eva Yeh, sends a secret, disturbing hard drive to Frances containing alarming information about Vision. Having this knowledge that Frances and Jason should not have, an attempt at Frances Cheng's life occurs after confronting the CEO. Unfortunately, the company has close-knit connections to gang mercenaries, resulting in conspirators' untimely demises.

The couple get rescued by a subgroup within OWL, a secret police organization. These members include Nin Situ, 23, and Lawrence Chang. Situ, the lead, is very much like Jason--an individual that can be possessed by MBUs, and also someone who was genetically modified to be stronger and faster at birth. Jason Dai is this way too, unbeknownst to him until know, which makes sense. You are playing as this guy, and he can almost supernaturally kick ass during fights.

Not a surprise. I mean, here in 2024 we have the CRISPR gene-editing coming our way.

Jason and Frances have no choice but to join this ragtag group to ensure safety. Plus, genetically engineered individuals are typically hunted down and killed by OWL due to being (on average) mentally unstable or overly powerful foes to society. According to Situ, Jason will have to join OWL eventually to secure his life.

Jason Dai and his girlfriend have been roped into a world they do not desire. Goodbye to a peaceful life, and Jason will rely on you, the MBU, to protect him and Frances at all cost. A beautiful metaphor, not only does Jason not have any control over his circumstances, but literally no control over his body. You are talking and acting for him, like a puppet. But, since this game is all about the choices you make, you can either be a true asshole puppet master or a genuine friend for Dai.

The OWL group will go through lots of hoops to obtain critical data and discover the source of the flop output surge. You will come to realize the the gang of three is not exactly reliable, as they are literally operating without OWL's own awareness (or so they think). Despite the secrets, unreliability, and dangers of these missions, you all grow close to some degree.

The thing about Minds Beneath Us is despite the world's traumas and greed, most characters within the game, on a personal level, are good at heart. They all abide by their own morals and definition of "justice," either wanting to protect themselves and their loved ones (e.g., Jason Dai, Mr. Laio, 23), or do their best to benefit the community around them (e.g., Wayne Zheng, Eva Yeh, Frances Cheng).

The source of the extra flops is beyond sinister, however. The final chapter reveals an ungodly "Sleeping God" project happening behind the scenes: Vision's Red Room has conducted mass experimentations on these synthetic humans. They use manufactured tissues and nerves, like stem cells, to create a body and brain, and then they implant replicated/copied memories and egos of real human subjects onto them to give them a degree of consciousness, which outputs brain power. This is apparently a cheaper alternative than hiring contractors from the slums . . . you know, because they do not have to offer benefits and life insurance. Yuck.

They can be procured at a mass scale at will too. The scientists cut off the limbs and remove unnecessary organs to conserve energy for the brain. They insist that they are sub-human, inferior . . . even though Nin, Jason, and Lawrence witness the humanoids talking and breathing, mumbling "it hurts."

The production is beyond imaginable. There is a whole room full of hundreds of these guys. Turns out the extra flops had been outsourced from this facility. On the bright side, there is no extra unethical practice going on inside farms on full-fledged humans . . . but on the downside, who is to say that these synthetic people are not human? Who is to say this is not unethical and cruel?

Regardless, not much can be done about it. It has already kickstarted, and blowing up the place would only result in a major setback and kill a bunch of people, and cause havoc among an A.I.-powered society. OWL's little secret mission is--in all--hopeless. This is furthered by the fact the government privately legalized Vision's practices . . . because in the latest stages of capitalism, corporations control the government, right?

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As stated, it is incredibly difficult to summarize the story because so much happens. There is never a quiet moment. This expands further by the fact that the player's choices will affect the unfolding of the story. So, lots of different conversations and quests might happen, and there are scenes and critical information the player may not get because of a simple choice of dialogue.

As mentioned earlier, the only choice that affects the ending is the final one.

OWL accosts Jason, Lawrence, and Situ on Silencio's rooftop for committing "terrorist attacks" at Silencio and crimes with meddling, hacking, defamation, and violence. At this point, the MBU has become so embedded in Jason's mind, that Jason Dai himself will become pretty much "extinct" from his subconscious. The player cannot speak to him anymore, but he gave his opinion before hand--do not trust Situ, and/or if things go awry (which they did), use a stun bomb and escape the facility.

It is up to the MBU to determine the ultimate fate of Jason Dai. The MBU, surprisingly, will recount a lot of pleasant memories for some reason. Rather than think of the fear and horrors, the MBU will recall all the friends he made with his coworkers, and with the OWL agents, as well as Jason's love for Frances. I feel like this nostalgic trip is pushing the player into making a particular choice (which, in my opinion, is probably the "best" one), but it is all up to what you click.

No ending is good. Frances and Jason will never get their own life back, harboring this intense knowledge and faced with illegal crimes. Jason and Frances can never work at Silencio again, and seemingly the only guarantee for bodily safety is to join OWL.

The first option is to give in and join OWL, whilst keeping connections with Situ. Situ will hold out her handgun, awaiting for you to hopefully grab and take it, as an offering of trust. Choose this option, and she will seemed almost touched (but will not show it). Jason is now under the care of OWL . . . but now must forever engage in dangerous missions, unfortunately partake in the protecting of large corporations, and will never have the "privilege of dying in a bed." At the very least, Jason gets to keep all the relationships he made aside from his former coworkers.

Another option is to join OWL, but refuse the gun. Jason Dai has stated he wanted to sever ties with the untrustworthy Situ, and you have that option. Nin will state that she understands. A bit sad, but makes sense. She prioritizes her safety above all else, and will not hesitate to abandon Jason and others if her life is on the line (although, she protected you time and time again during the past few days).

Whether you stay with Situ or not, these two choices are likely the "best." Some cutscenes will play, featuring Lawrence and 23 packing up the operations room, and attempt to rekindle their friendship after 23's treachery. Back at Silencio, the office will celebrate their new boss and the new fate of the farm. This scene is highly dependent on the MBU's actions in chapter three, whether he chose to work for ops or screening . . or, regardless of the choice, if the MBU tried to fix Wayne and Justin's friendship, there will be a lovely compromise. Overall, it is somewhat happy, and the workers will reminisce about Jason Dai's kindness, but feel sad about his sudden departure. There will be other scenes of the former CEO being forced to step down after the Red Room got attacked, making way for Yuna Hsu to climb up the corporate ladder. "Sleeping God," sadly, will still go on.

A scene that the developers just added not too long ago is absolutely wonderful: Frances proposing to Jason Dai. They hug, kiss, and simply exist as a happy couple.

There will be a final scene dependent upon whether you severed ties with Situ. They are kind of similar, because Jason does not fully trust Situ anyways, but still views here as a "friendly acquaintance." She will apologize for what happened to you. And, still, nobody knows that Jason was possessed the whole time.

The third ending can only be unlocked if you chose to save Albert Tsai in the prologue of the game. Jason Dai can use the stun weapon, and cause everyone on the roof to become temporarily paralyzed while he makes his grand escape. Earlier, Ivan Zheng told the MBU that the only true way Jason's body can be protected is if he gets the hell out of dodge and join the "Moonflowers," where he will be given an entire new identity. Jason Dai seriously considers the offer. If the MBU chooses to do this, Jason must leave everything behind . . . including Frances.

There will be a scene alternate to the proposal. Nin will be on the phone with Situ, swearing up and down that they will locate her boyfriend. Bittersweetly--well, more bitter than sweet--Frances will continue to devote her life to finding Jason. This is sad . . . because likely she never will. So, ultimately, you may have protected Jason and avoided sending him to a militant career, but you have distressed Frances Cheng's life for all eternity.

When Jason meets up with Zheng, he will insist that he has "no regrets" and is ready for his new, safe, quiet life, despite the "Frances-shaped hole in [his] heart." I can almost feel the pain emanating from those words. Perhaps there is a sliver of regret.

Lastly, the MBU can choose to go ahead and blow up the sickening facility, despite Situ's change of plans. Jason Dai is in possession of the detonator, so one click--it's all gone. This seems to be the choice of justice at a surface level, but it will result in soooo many consequences. With this option, players may feel that they have ended project "Sleeping God," fulfilled their mission, and had the privilege of getting the last laugh at Vision . . . but . . .

Blow it up, the CEO will scream and go bonkers. The lead of OWL, "Grandma," will tell him to calm down. She will ask Jason if he has any last words. The best option to say is probably "Tell Frances I am sorry, and that I love her," then all of the OWL agents will shoot Jason dead.

Not only will this forfeit Jason's life, going against his desires, but this ending is definitely the most upsetting and dark. It will cause a mass outage in the city, inciting derailing of trains and ship wrecks (as everything is run by automation). Once the cloud is down, the world is down. Instead of the proposal sequence, the scene will feature an empty apartment with the television blasting: mass causalities, evacuations in place. Blowing up the facility is killing a lot more people outside of the Silencio than you may realize.

This also will not stop the Red Room's project. Yuna Hsu will assure that "Sleeping God" will go on and be built from the ground up. So, yeah, it was literally all for nothing.

And, a final scene will play, with a sobbing, disgruntled Frances, screaming at Situ and blaming her for robbing Jason's life. Everyone is just . . . sad.

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SETTING: 9/10

The game takes place in December of 2049, just over two decades from the current present. The setting is in the city of Wanpei, inspired by the potential future version of Taipei, Taiwan. BearBone Studio is a Taiwanese indie developer after all.

I like how Minds Beneath Us does not take place atrociously far into the future, and it maintains semblance of modern times too. I think I could walk out into Wanpei and not be overly shocked, but instead uneased. The thing about Wanpei is that the district where Jason and Frances live, there are still local "ma and pop" shops, but other characters explain this is very much not the case elsewhere. Only several huge, dominating companies own and control everything. Seems accurate.

Everything in Wanpei, and I assume a greater portion of the world, runs on artificial intelligence. If the cloud were to suddenly fail, chaos ensues. For example, on the news, it is said the a glitch or shutdown happened with the cloud, causing cargo boats' self-steering systems to fail, resulting in a collision.

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All the scenes are gorgeous. The game takes place mostly indoors or at night--since the main characters work the night shift--so there is forever a looming dimness, even though Wanpei is illuminated by blue light. The city is a vast array of techy neon colors, bright and bold people, with an overlaying nightly purplish hue. It is all very fitting.

The game alternates between several settings: the initial simulation room, Frances' apartment complex, the streets of Wanpei, Silencio and its floors (the rooftop, the main room on 1F, the screening offices, the consultation floor, logistics, the cellar, and the flop core). You will spend like 80% of your time in these places. Later in chapters 4 and 5, Jason will go to the White Scorpion gang hangout, and the ultimately this secret Vision lab where horrors await. The game does a great job at making the laboratory settings feel devoid and anxiety-inducing.

While you spend most of your time in the same places, there is always something new, usually extra side conversations and drama. You may go through the cellar completely fine one time, but another time you will witness a "juicer" plummet from the ceiling to the ground.

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COMBAT: 7/10

It is hard to give this section a full rating because there isn't really true combat. The game features 6-7 QTEs, or quick time events, scattered throughout the game. The QTEs are infrequent and not the most involved, but I think they work well in general. I mean, Jason Dai is not some sort of warrior superhero (even though Situ wants to be the Batman) despite being genetically modified. He considers himself an average guy, and usually avoids physical confrontation.

The MBU is programmed to be a "silencer" combat unit. But, the MBU ends up kind of being a peacekeeper if you want it to be.

The QTEs involve the "E" key to punch, the spacebar to dodge, and occasionally the "A" and "D" key to move forward or backward. These events usually start and stop quickly so you must be at the ready.

The first one happens in the prologue, when a drugged Albert charges at Ivan Zheng. You press "E" to grab him by the neck (which will break and kill him if you choose to inject the blue liquid). Other QTEs include a stabbing incident at Silencio, gang members at the hospital, White Scorpion mercenaries at the flop core, these strange medieval-sounding gangsters at the White Scorpion hideout, among others.

They are damn quick, yet scarce. Nonetheless, the QTEs are exciting and pulls you right into the scene, reminding players that you are indeed playing a video game. Jason will have a small health meter, but it will take several hits and missteps to put him down. Dying will only restart the combat anyways, and does not impact the fate of your game. The QTEs are fairly easy overall, but there is a difficulty spike around chapter 3, and I did mess up a few times. Perhaps I am just not used to PC gaming.

My favorite part is the combat animation. It is incredibly fluid and I can literally feel the ungodly force of Jason Dai's punches and grabs.

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Other QTEs might be something like quickly catching a blade Situ throws behind your neck, showcasing Dai's quick reflexes. There is also a running sequence towards the end of the game where Jason has to jump over obstacles and avoid the flurry of bullets coming at him.

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ENJOYEMENT: 10/10

Minds Beneath Us is sticking to my brain in vehement amounts. It really got me to introspect even hours upon completion.

In an in-game E-Zine, it says,

Humans learn. Advanced learning capability is what sets us apart from animals. Sadly, the oversupply of knowledge can sometimes be a curse. With the aid from state-of-the-art AI, we are unlocking secrets of the human brain faster than ever. This process, however, gives birth to a new kind of existential crisis called "Anthropocentric Dismay." Scientists tapping into the potential of AI are finding that computers work, fundamentally, eerily like human brains. If so, is there really such thing as the human soul, or free will? Meanwhile, life science is seeing a revival, as researchers work extra hard to find a new way to establish the uniqueness of humanity."

I think that this conversation is insanely appropriate now more than ever. What truly makes humans unique? What makes us special, exemplary, more capable than other species?

I also enjoyed this conversation between Kaylee and Jesse:

Jesse: What is the human mind? Layers upon layers of noises, is what it is. The life of an average human is utterly distracted. Focusing on one single thing is impossible. There are random factors affecting our thinking, such as the weather, the mood, so on and so forth. All these factors combined makes each of us unique. But ultimately, this uniqueness has no meaning. We're just constructs made unnecessarily complicated. Still, we worship this complicatedness, inventing names for it. We call it the soul, the free will. Does it have any value?

Kaylee: I say this will to live is the result, not a reason. Who is in a position to give a definition to the meaning of life? We many not be in a position to give a verdict, but we do believe it nonetheless. Humans, though, are not one single being. Humans differ, especially over things that are pure speculation. They exist because they already exist. There's no prescriptive meaning to it. If there's no assigned meaning, we should invent our own meaning. AI doesn't have such mental faculty. It's focused and efficient, yet not a living thing. Does the invention of automobiles make the existence of horses meaningless?

Even as of now, human laborers are facing quite the crisis. A.I. has entered the realm of employment, sifting through our resumes, and taking both manual and artistic jobs alike. It is easy to tell a robot what to do, to save ourselves some "precious time and resources," but as Jesse says, humans for the most part don't even know what they want, or at the very least cannot articulate is. What does this say: humans are too complex, indecisive, emotional? Or, in Kaylee's terms, the human life has more value because we have to figure it our ourselves and proceed by our own will?

We are in times where capitalism is becoming late-stage, where massive companies can take the world over whilst finding ways to mitigate being defined as an illegal monopoly. Corporations affect the government and law, thus society at large. Human labor already is unfortunately cheap, and that is why we have issues with modern day slavery, and why companies prefer to hire people regardless of experience for a little of a wage as possible.

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Companies can get a way with a lot, despite increases in surveillance and data leaks. Who knows what is occurring today? In Minds Beneath Us, it is seen that efficiency and profit is taken to the extreme and the treatment of these "humanoids" is utter, horrific torture. But, as said by Grandma, these experiments had just been legalized.

Science is not specifically a moral practice. Gather a bunch of intellectuals and sociopaths (and simultaneously both) in a laboratory setting and boom: the Holocaust, the Gulag, Unit 731, unethical animal testing, among others. It makes those individuals with a good heart feel powerless. That is what Situ and the gang felt, knowing that all of this dangerous activity is ongoing secretly, but nothing can be done about it without disrupting and displacing the entirety of society. The world is built upon corruption.

We can see with the ops and screening sectors that a majority of folks do have good intentions, whether it be wanting to protect their loved ones or serving a greater, positive purpose for the community at large. However, everyone is unintentionally adding fuel to the fire due to what jobs are available and the standard of living . . . and as Justin said, sometimes you just got to go with the lesser of evils, unfortunately. Everyone, including higher-up positions, are just trying to keep their head out of the water. We have made an uncomfortable society for ourself, haven't we? And whether you think the world is on the upward or downward spiral, there are deeply ingrained societal ills among us.

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I just love a good game that makes me question my own morality and worldview. Minds Beneath Us does its job so well; the world feels alive, dystopian, but realistic. The characters are wonderful and the visuals are stunning. I can play this game again and again and again.

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**I will say, there are a lot of questions that go unanswered. Some things are meant to be ambiguous, to challenge the players' own thoughts.

Such as . . . what is an MBU? How were they made, what do they all do? Just why? Regardless of the ending you get, all players get this bonus ending scene where the MBU is sent back to the simulation room, facing the Anomaly. It asks you just that: what do you, the MBU, think you are? A human? AI? A being that just exists?

I also wonder about some other things. For one, we never got to learn the meaning of 23's name. She said she'd tell us . . . but never did.

Finally, what the hell was Edith Yeh's role? 23 found her to be suspicious, and she certainly was to me. She also kind of looked like both Eva Yeh and OWL's "Grandma." She was the only member of screening who was upset at the increased communications between divisions. She was entirely absent from the end-game credits at Silencio. Hmm . . .

TOTAL TIME SPENT: 28 hours

OVERALL SCORE: 9/10

PLATFORM USED: PC

DATE OF COMPLETION: August 2024

[t0tallyspine]

HIIIII so random but I recently started playing disco alyssum it’s been so fun but like the game is so dense I don’t even think that I’m out of the prologue yet.

Anyways every time you reblog disco alyssum I scream and scroll past as fast as I can because fuck spoilers 💔 . But also you keep rebloggin im so happy random internet stranger that I already happened to follow loves disco alyssum as well. I’ll just block the tag until I finish the game or just scroll tumblr on *danger mode*. Either way this is my curse to burden.

Anyways this is your friendly neighborhood ask trying to change tumblr culture back to sending asks more often

HELL YEAH!!

I'm so sorry for subjecting you to Spoilers™. I get these de frenzies sometimes, it'll pass. Probably. And if you wanna scream about it at/with someone you probably figured I'm the guy😭😭

Thanks for the ask, asks are awesome.

[otome-mondays]

Collar x Malice: Unlimited Review 🐈‍⬛

Ok I know I recently posted a Collar x Malice review, but I’m going in order I played these games. Who’s ready to jump back into the world of Collar x Malice! So some background info to start: this is the first fandisc I have ever played, and as of writing is the only one I’ve played. Because of this, I’m not generally sure what the standards are for fandiscs. I also played this back in 2021, so it has been a while. Please go back to my previous review on Collar x Malice for trigger warnings (use the otome mondays tag)

Spoilers Ahead

Prologue

So to start off this game, we have a separate prologue. You do have to play the prologue because it unlocks all the after stories. So let’s see how this game starts out! Well, for starters we have one of my least favorite things: retroactively adding characters and events that would’ve DEFINITELY been mentioned in the original if it happened. Yeah, needless to say I was not please at this start and quickly became frustrated having to unlock routes. Oh, right if you want to play anything else you have to unlock each boy’s route separately with their prologue choices. So fun! Let’s actually move on to what I bought the game for, 3/10.

Sasazuka Takeru 🍩

So for the after stories, I started with Sasazuka. I saw a recommendation to just pick one that you enjoyed but wasn’t your favorite or pick your favorite to start the game since there’s no need for a route order. I did originally place Sasazuka’s route as solid middle ground in terms of my favorite love interest and also route itself, so it seemed like a safe bet. And thank god it was! This one starts up after the events of his best ending and him rejoining the cyber crimes division. The main conflict here is that Sasazuka and Ichika are learning how to balance work and life and being in a relationship together. The pacing was pretty solid and even though it’s short, it’s enjoyable! If you liked Sasazuka’s route, you’ll enjoy this after story. 8/10.

Yanagi Aiji 🚬

I decided after Sasazuka’s route, I was going to get Yanagi’s out of the way. I do enjoy all the characters, but Yanagi is my least favorite out of the LIs here. After the events of Yanagi’s best ending, we have the start of the after story. Yanagi’s started his private detective agency and everybody’s getting back to normal life. That is until Yanagi’s older brother randomly shows up and threatens him to rejoin the police. So this story mostly focuses on that conflict. This is another cute and short story, so if you liked Yanagi’s route you will like his after story. 8/10.

Enomoto Mineo 🪭

I honestly picked this route next on a whim, and I’m glad I did! This story picks up after he’s been reinstated into Field Ops 2 and now the couple work in the same building. Enomoto’s route definitely focuses on him maturing and developing his relationship with Ichika, and it’s so refreshing to have a portrayal of a healthy relationship in a game (which is rich coming from me tbh). Thanks to his after story, he moved up spots on my favorite LIs list. Honestly I don’t see how anybody would dislike this route. 10/10.

Shiraishi Kageyuki 🐱

Shiraishi yet again stealing the show for some of the best writing…it’s a shame he has this weird extra character. I feel like it’s obvious, but this story has a lot of angst. Because of Shiraishi turning himself in and all of his crimes he committed, he’s under arrest and contained in a special cell. Unfortunately, random extra dude is the main issue in Shiraishi’s story. It is nice to see his growth though as a character. I feel like they did him dirty by making a third of his route flashbacks to the og game. 7/10, Shiraishi fans will probably enjoy but it could’ve been way better.

Okazaki Kei 🏃‍♂️

So I saved my favorite for last, and I’m glad I did! After the X-Day events have wrapped up, Okazaki returns to HQ and Ichika stays with SRCPO. This story also focuses on the two of them trying to navigate being in a relationship and work and life. I was a bit disappointed to see that Okazaki kind of regressed and goes through the same growth all over again but speed run edition. Even though it ends good, this story is kind of meaningless because of this. It isn’t a bad story, just disappointing. Sorry for all us Okazaki fans, 7.5/10.

Other Routes 🐈‍⬛

So let’s talk about the additional bonus routes. To play any of these extra stories, you do need to play through all the after stories. First, let’s go over the Adonis route. This takes place after Yanagi’s tragic end. Ichika joins Adonis after everybody she has cared for is murdered and Zero convinces her to join. It was nice to see Ichika interacting with the Adonis members and how they showed Ichika and Zero have a horridly toxic relationship. If you do want to see all this route has to offer, you do have to replay it a couple of times. Due to this, it’s a little more repetitive than enjoyable at points. Still nice additional content, 8/10. We also have some extended short stories, one from Kazuki’s perspective during X-Day, a semi-Minegishi route, and a semi-Yoshinari route. Kazuki gets an 8/10, Minegishi gets a 4/10, and Yoshinari gets a 7/10.

Overall Thoughts 🐈‍⬛

I like the idea of a fandisc and I think some elements were executed very nicely! Unfortunately, I do have a few issues with some of the content here (mainly the random dude being added and prologue entirely), but I still would recommend it for anybody who enjoyed Collar x Malice! 8/10

Since characters stay the same here, I’m not adding an LI ranking. I will add my route ranking though!

Route: Enomoto > Sasazuka > Yanagi > Adonis > Kazuki > Okazaki > Shiraishi > Yoshinari > Minegishi > Prologue

Resources 📝

I once again used CGs and screenshots from the game and I relied on Otome Kitten’s walkthroughs.