#sigh. I spoiled myself that she’s not supernatural at all which is disappointing

[daisyachain]

Aoi OWNED.

[bitteraristocrat]

Leisurely

“If I may be so bold, young Master, when I was your age, the relationship of master and servant was far more brittle and distant. I find this arrangement unusually comfortable, ho ho ho.”

No more than a fortnight prior had Ciel passively suggested an afternoon spent with the elderly house stewart, considering Tanaka often spent his time away from the chaos and boisterous events with which the manor was ridden with. Humbly, and with great honour, the servant accepted, and their proposal became fruitful later on an autumnal afternoon in the midst of an univolving week end for the noble of the two.

The elderly house stewart sat himself conspicuously beside his employer, as the new equinox danced about them. Hues of a spectrum, ruby to bronze, scattered at their feet and above their heads in the trees, whilst downy wool protected them from the ice of the air. In spite of the chill, London’s weather proved balmy for their tea, for which Tanaka had brewed a fine Sae Midori Gyokuro, specially chosen for his young Lord as it was sweeter than a traditional sencha, and recently harvested, bearing in mind the oncoming Autumn.

“As I said,” Ciel replied with a gentle smile, pausing to sip at his tea before returning the cup to the cushion of his begloved palm, “I reckon I could benefit from an afternoon devoid of stress, whilst equally indulging a change of pace. If I may be so bold in turn, you are far closer an acquaintance in war than a servant, old man.” Tanaka chortled again, and gave a subtle nod. A glimmer in his grey eyes told fond memories of the predecessor, although, he would not dare voice his reminiscence. The previous earl, too, often allowed nonchalant moments such as these, and Tanaka had no doubt that his current master inherited a mutual generosity. If nothing else, it was an excuse for the old gentleman to relish in his finest teas of the Orient.

Their time together was predominantly spent in silence, as Tanaka was wont to focus on the rustling of dried leaves, and Ciel calculated the taste and aroma of the tea. It was a socially incongruent moment, but no less enjoyed by the matter of impropriety. The older of the pair broke the silence with an overindulgent sigh, taking in both the decay and life of the autumnesque air. “Would you consider such a gathering with your other servants, sir? You need not answer if it offends you.”

The boy hesitated. The inquiry did not offend, but prompted him to ponder. It was not an unprecedented thought, nor was he repulsed by the idea. Cocking his head to the side, Ciel began his response with a scoff. “I wouldn’t mind it.”

And, thus, brings this narration to the chess game.

Incarnadine eyes bore into that of a vexed jewel of blue, and a board of black and white separated them. Having taken the old man’s suggestion to heart, Ciel proposed a game of chess to the head butler. Of course, given the circumstances of Sebastian’s kind, the young Master mandated certain rules of him for the sake of fairness; no telepathic nonsense or any advantage the demon might have over him due to the fact regarding his inhuman abilities.

“Your move, my Lord” Sebastian informed through a sigh, crossing his legs in almost a posh air. The sight of the two sitting in each other’s presence was twofold more disturbing than with the young Master and Tanaka.

“Knight to E5, to take your pawn,” Ciel muttered, thumbing the ivory piece before replacing the ebony pawn with it.

The devil wasted no time with his retort. “Bishop to E5, to take your Knight.”

His master leaned forward, enticed by his butler’s boldness. The Bishop was unarmed, to be slaughtered, as he deduced. Advancing, he picked up his Queen, taking note of the very few pieces left on the board. Fondling the white token, his gazed flit from one side of the board to the other. He decided on a defensive move. “Queen to B3.” Sebastian’s lips pulled to a taut frown. “How disappointing,” said the retainer. The begloved hand reached for the same piece and lifted it from the board. “Do you intend to leave her so defenseless and isolated? I will allow you a chance to change your motive, if you see fit.”

Ciel returned the tease with a sharp glare. “She isn’t as you say,” he reached for the piece and took it, “do you doubt my tactics?”

“Not in the slightest, sir,” Sebastian smiled, returning his attention to the black tokens which he commanded. “Although, it would be a pity if you lost your Queen by trying to play in a way that does not come natural to you. Knight to C5.”

“What are you on about?” The earl’s countenance contorted even darker as he digested the demon’s observation. He permitted the near defiance to simmer within him. It was unclear to Lord Phantomhive, master of board games and riddles alike, whether or not he could truly beat his inhuman opponent. Yet, with each move and puzzlement, they held each other’s gaze with a tender maliciousness. Calculated, albeit unnerving, their exchange and dance of glares and chess pieces was daunting for both parties, as if they now both feigned the role of predator, victory as their prey.

“You are an offensive player, as I have observed,” the butler continued, unembellished. “The occasional defensive strategy is undoubtedly necessary, but your intentions, here, bid a dubious omen; do I sense an irrational experimentation at play?”

“I thought I ordered you not to waste my time with your supernatural theatrics, Sebastian. If you intend to cheat by ‘sensing’ my motives, or some rubbish, I will find a better way to spend my afternoon.” Ingenuity took hold of Ciel’s demeanour as his hand reached to move the Queen. “Queen to B3, check.” The demon hardly flinched. Feignedly offended by his master’s accusations, Sebastian reclined in his chair to observe the board. His assessment ravished each unpigmented token that posed a threat; the Rook on B2, the Pawn on G7, and so on. A quietude gripped the air between them.

“Have you ever played chess with a human before?” Ciel cut the silence with his query, mimicking the languid stature of his counterpart as his spine pressed into the brocade upholstery. Sebastian replied with a slow nod and a modest shrug. “I have had the pleasure of doing so on the rare occasion. Although, none have been quite as engrossing as this. You spoil me, young Master. King to F7.”

“You flatter me,” the boy gave a halfhearted chuckle. “You spoke before that my tactics frequent a more offensive trend. Yours are the same. A quintessential cut-throat foray, yet your defense is the calculated bit. How very like a hungry predator.” 

“Does it entice you?” Sebastian’s lips grew heavy.

“It is cliché. You play like a devil, just as I had anticipated.” A beringed hand pawed at the ebony King and swatted it over. The butler blinked, brows knitting at his child master’s blatant boredom. It was true, their wits were matched, with the devil lacking permission to dominate using otherworldly tactics.

“Well, if you see fit to end our game, I suppose I shall humbly accept victory,” the devil snaked his fingers through a myriad of pieces, disrupting their servitude, and began to rise to his feet. The boy scoffed, “Clearly you haven’t the slightest clue as to how this game works, nor the austerity of the point system regarding the won pieces. As it so happens, I have more points than you” Ciel rose to meet the demon, a glower and crooked grin captaining his hauteur. 

“And, as it so happens,” he mimicked the little lord, “my ill-behaved master ended the game without much consent of his opponent,” the raven snarled, mirroring the wicked smirk.

“Perhaps if you hadn’t bored me,” Ciel’s prowling hands groped the chess set, pieces of monochrome scattering at his touch, “I would have allowed you at least a taste of victory.”

Sebastian took his master’s face in hand, clutching it with obsidian talons as he etched dimples into those milky cheeks. And as he snatched his prey, a growl emitted past his daggering maw, slaver pooling about his lips. In turn, the boy grunted and writhed beneath his counterpart. “What a cheeky little thing you are.”

The young Lord spat his fury with a thorny scowl;

So very like that day, you prey upon me now. Eyes akin to that of the beaded black marbles of a beast, only throbbing vermillion with slits of the abyss struck down the middle. They bug and twitch as you hang over me. Your breath pours onto my face, sticks to my hair and clings to my skin. It is hot and saturated, I find myself surprised that the slaver that pooled at the rim of your bottom lip did not spill out onto me. You vile, disgusting creature.

Whilst the devil held his prey and feasted on his gaze;

There you lay before me, so tauntingly, each fibre of me aching with the sheer hunger that is wired in my kind. Yet, you cause the network of my hunger webbed throughout this form to twist and alter out of my control. The very nexus of my being is unraveled simply at your musk. I am unlike those of my breed, entirely due to that wretched gaze of yours. Perhaps you think me far more human, but, rest assured, I all the more a devil when you fixate me with your rage.

A heated breath was shared before the pair withdrew. Strewn about the board, the chess pieces lay. With heady glances, they revelled in the mess they made.

-

|| A very rushed piece, but I was determined to finish it. Something of a guilty pleasure. ||

[missdreawrites]

Far Cry 5, and How I Feel a Week after Beating It

@weekend-writer, here we go. Hold on to your butts.

I just recently finished Far Cry 5, and mid-way through the playthrough, someone asked if I thought it was worth the 60$ USD and I had originally said yes. Now, having completed the game, I’m rethinking that stance. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not sorry I bought the game for full price, but I’m definitely a bit - sad over it. So I’m going to go through the game point by point, in a somewhat blistering, disappointed review.

Obviously, beyond the cut, there are SPOILERS ahead.

Let me start this out by saying I enjoyed seventy-five percent of this game. The graphics were amazing, the outposts were all unique, the characters were priceless (fucking Hurk Jr, man, I love him so much and dude, I ran around with a bear named Cheeseburger). The music was fantastic. I loved the theme, and the battle music, and even the scary uber-Christian hymns that played on Eden’s Gate Radio.

Now, for those of you who are looking for a bit of a rundown, the game is about a Rookie Deputy Sheriff - hereby known as Rook for the rest of this review. You play the Rook who goes to Eden’s Gate, an uber Christian cult in the middle of Hope County, Montana. You, Deputy Hudson, Deputy Pratt, and a US Marshall go to arrest the leader of this cult, Joseph Seed.

Like in Far Cry 4, you have a choice in the very beginning of the game. You can choose not to arrest Joseph - though you have to loiter for ten minutes or so as your partners and boss get increasingly angry with you, but eventually the Sheriff decides you’re right, this is not a battle we want to fight, let’s just go. Credits.

However, if you actually want to play the game, you have arrest Joseph and bring him to your chopper, wherein all hell breaks loose, and you crash because of course you do. Joseph Seed tells you that arresting him was breaking the first “seal” and anyone who has watched Supernatural within the last thirteen years knows what that means.

The rest of the events in the game are not all that important to this review, only that Joseph Seed has several siblings that you have to defeat to get to him after you escape and are set loose on the region.

There’s John Seed, a torturer who has Deputy Hudson. He’s obsessed with cleansing people of their sins. There’s Jacob Seed, a war veteran who has so many PTSD issues I can’t actually list them all, and he’s a manipulator who believes the weak should be culled from the herd. He brainwashes you a la Bioshock, only he uses a song to do it. Then there’s Faith Seed, and she’s not actually related to them. She was a junkie who came to Joseph for help, and ended up helping him create Bliss, this hallucinogenic drug that stretches the bounds of reality just a bit too much.

There. Now.

You have to liberate each region (John, Jacob, and Faith respectively) in order to unlock the final confrontation with Joseph. Each region has a bar that has little bubbles on it, once reach those bubbles, those are essentially check points of “pissing off a Seed sibling” and they send Hunters out after you.

1. Mechanic I hate number the first one: the Hunting Party

So you’ve pissed off a Seed sibling! They send a Hunting Party after you. The party arrives - even if you fast travelled to a different region, or even the other side of the map. Or like me, you’re a stealthy snipery jerkface and you kill the entire party undetected as they yell about finding me and “use the Bliss Bullets, John/Jacob/Faith wants ‘em alive!”

I kill all eight of the hunting party, and breathe a sigh of relief. There are no more red markers, Boomer says no one else is around. I venture out of cover.

Blam.

Screen goes wavery, then sparkly. Then Rook falls unconscious. Despite having killed the party, or left the party or hidden, these are scripted events, so I literally can do nothing to save myself. I have to get kidnapped by the Seed sibling, for Plot Reasons.

Annoying but manageable.

2. Mechanic I hate number the second one: The Rook

Unlike in the rest of the Far Cry series, you are not a person. By which I mean, you’re not like Jason Brody or Ajay Ghale, or even Jack. You’re still the Rook, of course but you’re not voiced, you have no personality. You can be male or female, and the only person in the entire game that mentioned my gender as female was freakin’ Hurk.

Your character makes noise - when you’re hurt or falling, you grunt and groan and cry out, but you don’t talk. You don’t emote. You are just a blank canvas. What’s worse, is they didn’t bother recording two sets of dialogue like Bethesda did in Fallout 4.

So all the cultists just call you by a gender neutral sound. “Get ‘em!”/”I saw ‘em over there!”/”I got eyes on the sinner!”

Y’all. Y’all come on.

This is especially hard to stomach when the characters are spewing just the most ridiculous nonsense at you. There’s a moment after you get kidnapped by Jacob, and Joseph is there. He goes on this - truly awful and ridiculous monologue about how he used to be a different person, he was married, a baby on the way. How happy he was. Then there was an accident. His wife died, and the doctors saved the baby but the baby was sick, probably premature, and they said he had to be strong for his baby daughter.

TW: he is not strong for his baby daughter.

The rook doesn’t say a damn thing to this horrible man who admits he killed his baby daughter instead of taking care of her. The rook just watches him, from behind bars. Yo, I was livid. I was like WHAT THE FUCK YOU MURDERER HOW DARE YOU PREACH PEACE but nope. My character was totally silent.

Y’ALL.

3. Mechanic that I hate number the third one: the Ending (collectively)

WARNING: Here be spoilers. If you don’t care about me spoiling the entire ending confrontation with Joseph, keep on reading. Otherwise, feel free to skip down to the conclusion, which I’ve helpfully put in bold.

SO THE ENDING.

After you liberate each region, gather all your Roster, finish your side quests and helping each person you find, Joseph Seed contacts you - he offers to open up his compound so you two can finally have it out. Now, I’ll take this moment to say that I put it off for a bit. I ignored Joseph so I could finish side quests, and my partner, who beat the game two days before I did told me no, go do it, you won’t want to keep playing after. Why waste that time?

I was thoroughly alarmed by that statement. So even though it was almost seven in the morning and I’d stayed up all night to play it, I drove my ass to Joseph’s compound and in a mirror of the very beginning, walked up to the church.

Immediately, I am placed in a cut scene. This has happened a few times throughout the game, Whenever John Seed implored you to say “yes” to whatever tortures he wanted bestow on you, to talking with your allies. However, the length of this cutscene dragged on, until Joseph is done preaching at you.

He says he’ll give you an offer. That despite all you’ve done, despite the fact that you’ve killed his flock and family, he’s going to offer you peace. He’s going to do the “right thing” and offer you peace. You hear something behind you - still in a cutscene - and turn around to see all your friends. The roster you helped out, minus the animals, all Blissed out of their minds (as noted by the glowing cloud around their faces) and leading tied up people into the compound. They aim their guns at Deputy Pratt, Deputy Hudson and the Sheriff, all of whom have been recaptured by the people you thought were your friends. Joseph tells you if you resist, if you don’t choose peace, then you can kiss your friends goodbye.

Then you’re given the ability to choose two options: Resist or Accept.

IF YOU CHOOSE RESIST:

He knocks over some Bliss barrels, and everything gets all kinds of fucked up, and your friends attack Pratt, Hudson and the Sheriff. After you fight off Joseph for a second or two, you’re able to revive them (not a new mechanic, you can revive anyone during the rest of the game) and all four of you start fighting Joseph. You have to fight your roster as well, but once they go down, you’re able to revive them as well - which puts them back on your side. However, Joseph will also try to revive them, which leaves them your enemy.

I guess “killing them” and reviving them is like cognitive recalibration? Either way, once all your roster-friends are revived an on your side, you turn your attention to Joseph and shoot the fuck out of him. It’s real cathartic… until you beat him and are immediately locked into another cutscene.

While Joseph monologues at you, the Sheriff (your boss, essentially) comes up behind him, declares him under arrest, and handcuffs him. Joseph proclaims that another seal has broken, and then the entire screen shakes with some kind of impact. The cutscene shows you, Hudson, Pratt, and the Sheriff a giant mushroom cloud, not too far away from where you are, across the lake.

There’s a moment of shock, and Joseph declares it the end of the world, just like he predicted. He was right, and the end is upon us, etc, etc yadda.

We all run toward a car, with Joseph in tow, and then you’re given control back just long enough to drive helter skelter away from the shockwave, as shit is getting set on fire, until you’re suddenly locked in another cutscene just in time to slam into a falling tree.

The screen goes black and red, as you come to, realizing that Pratt, Hudson and the Sheriff are dead. The car door opens and you fall out, blacking back out. When you wake up again, you’re in a bunker - the same bunker you woke up in before being set loose on the county after the prologue, and who should be with you?

Joseph. Seed.

He tells you that everyone in Hope County is dead, and it’s all your fault, why couldn’t you have just picked peace? But hey, it doesn’t matter - we’re family now and one day, we’ll walk through Eden’s Gate together.

“I am your Father,” Joseph Seed says, leaning back in his seat, and staring at you with those wide eyes. “And you are my Child.” He locks eyes with you, never blinking, as the screen fades to black.

Credits.

I was in fucking shock. According to my partner who was awake on the couch and watching me play through this, I kept clicking my mouse like I was trying to pull my guns to shoot him. Why couldn’t I just shoot him?

Now, I’m willing to admit that a lot that might have been a hallucination - the cutscenes make use of the Bliss (which is hallucinogenic) a lot - even though when you aren’t in a cutscene the drug only behaves that way in the most minorest of ways. I’ve been running through fields of Bliss for ages, and all you get is weird sparkling on the corners of your screen. Sometimes you hallucinate Faith Seed, or animals that aren’t there.

However, ultimately, whether or not it was a hallucination doesn’t matter. Because the credits roll and the game is over. Hope County is gone, your friends, your allies, they’re gone. Your only companion is the man you failed to kill, the man you failed to arrest, and you’ve lost.

You lost.

So, utterly livid, I reloaded my save just before choosing Resist, and instead chose the other option.

IF YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT PEACE:

Joseph lets you go. He monologues a bit more, but he lets you, Hudson and Pratt, the Sheriff, he lets everyone go. You retreat to the edge of the Compound, get into the same truck you’d get into if you chose to resist, and start driving away. The Sheriff talks to you a little and ultimately what he says isn’t important, because the radio turns on, as you drive away.

Remember how I said Jacob Seed brainwashed you.... With a song?

The screen goes red as your character starts screaming, and then the screen goes black.

Roll credits.

The game is over. The last time that song played, when you did Jacob’s Region, you killed one of your allies because he brainwashed you into doing it. The entire lead up to killing Jacob is one big brainwashing suckfest, and you do things you don’t think you’re doing until it’s over.

It’s very, very clear that you’ll kill everyone in that car with you.

You lose. Everyone in that car knows how bad Joseph Seed is, they’re your survivors, your witnesses. The people who could have helped you get more manpower to come back and get rid of Joseph with more than a song and a prayer.

But you kill them. You lose.

Both of these endings mean that the ninety hours I spent playing were useless. Nothing I did mattered. Either the world fucking ends, or you murder the people you spent the whole game trying to save. Nothing you did matter, you made no difference, and you lose.

I have nothing against games where you don’t win. I have nothing against games where the ending message is you lose. I have serious issues with being plot railroaded via cutscene into endings I don’t want. Why couldn’t I shoot Joseph? I shot Faith, and Jacob and John. Clearly due process wasn’t important THEN, so why are we arresting Joseph? He’s a dangerous man who knows how to use a dangerous drug to mind control people - but yeah sure, let’s arrest him.

CONCLUSION:

Am I disappointed I bought the game? No, not really. I’m glad I played.

However, I was left with this - bad taste in my mouth, a little. The endings were lackluster, I feel like a require closure to move on with my life - especially because I beat it a week ago, and I’m still stewing over the ending.

Like the original ending of Mass Effect 3, where I was left in shock, I hope that Ubisoft hears how disappointing those endings were and gives us a miniature DLC (to go along with the three weird ones they already have) that gives us a better option.

To the anon who asked me if it was worth the 60$ USD, I originally answered your ask saying yes, because I loved the game.

I hope you see this, and note that my answer has changed. If you’re a hardcore fan of the series, like me, sure - spend the 60. But if you’re not? If you’re a casual player who just liked the idea of the plot - give it a miss, until the next Steam Summer Sale or Xbox Gold Give Away.

This is a little disjointed, I started it while I was at work and then slept before finishing it but I am free and available for any questions via ask/message system. Anon hate about loving the endings will be added to the fire and will fuel the heating for my house. Ain’t nobody got time for that.