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prettywordsyouleft · 5 years ago

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Bonding Session

Summary: The kiss scenes in the dramas you watched never left you truly satisfied. Sharing that knowledge with your new housemate ended with taking a turn that definitely changed your view on how someone should kiss.

Pairing: Do Kyungsoo x reader

Genre: roommate au / flirty fluff

Warnings: none

Word count: 1547

“Kiss him! Kiss!” you chanted, hands clutching at your thighs as you leaned forward towards the screen. “Oh, ohhh!”

The couple who you were berating for taking so long to inch their lips together stepped close enough to do so, your heart now fluttering with anticipation. The feelings had been built within them – and within you – and finally, finally you would get your long overdue kiss scene in episode 10.

Their lips met and instantly you deflated, throwing yourself back into the couch, slapping your leg with your hand in annoyance. “That’s not a god damn kiss, that’s a lip press!”

You didn’t know how many Korean dramas you had watched now. Hundreds no doubt. You knew all the formulas and you were certain of what to expect in most storylines. Still, even though most kiss scenes were a letdown in your books, you loved the cliché romance and the build up of it all. You enjoyed the surprising times where actors like Ji Chang Wook gave it his all and you wished nothing more than to be kissed like that. Heck, with some actors, you’d even be inclined to lip press with them. And yet, it annoyed you that they threw away a good opportunity to kiss properly.

Each and every time.

“I swear someone needs to go there and teach them how to kiss!”

“I suppose you assume that should be you?” your roommate Kyungsoo calmly stated, and for a moment, you tore your eyes away from the screen, blinking slowly in recognising he was still there. Of course, he was. You had begged Kyungsoo to watch this drama with you, calling it a bonding session since you had been living together now for two months. You were still learning all about him and this was a great way for him to get insight into who you were as well. However, in reality, it was mostly just you screeching about the happenings on the screen and him quietly observing both you and the drama. You weren’t even sure he was enjoying himself.

You let out a small laugh. “Well, at least I’d kiss them properly. That scene was so steamy and then they dropped it with simply pressing their lips into each other. What a shame!”

“Do you even know what a steamy scene is? You’re watching a show that is entirely unrealistic. How does any of this happen in real life?” Kyungsoo mused, shooting you a side glance. He then shook his head. “I’m concerned you don’t know what real romance is if you sit here and swoon over things like this.”

Gaping incredulously, you shifted along the couch on your knees to poke Kyungsoo in the chest. “Excuse me?!”

He smirked. “I’m only stating the truth, Y/N. What boss is going to fall in love with someone that ridiculous?”

“I’m… I’m like her!”

Kyungsoo shrugged, folding his arms across his chest. “Don’t go fantasising about your boss anytime soon.”

“Oh my God,” you breathed, pushing him again with annoyance. “You know nothing about romance!”

“And why do you say that?”

“Because they clearly have a bond and it’s obvious they like each other!”

“Despite how he treats her? Come on, even I had hoped you’d have higher standards than letting a man that infuriating into your heart.”

“He has some redeeming qualities,” you bartered and Kyungsoo scoffed.

“His abs, right?”

“Hey, I like arms!” you blurted out and pouted when you were done. You decided you would stop watching the show with Kyungsoo after this episode. You didn’t need him bashing your cliché romances. Nor did you need to defend your love for them. You already knew they weren’t realistic.

That was the point. If all that was shown on TV was like real life, you wouldn’t need to watch it. Being able to escape into another world was worth it to you. It meant you could enjoy the emotional rollercoaster ride that came with someone else’s love life.

Since yours was nonexistent.

Moving back to your side of the couch, you reached for the remote to stop Netflix from rolling onto the next episode. Kyungsoo flicked his attention to your face and you could see the ghost of his smile still tugging at the corners of his lips.

“Why did you stop it?”

“It’s clear we like different shows,” you announced glumly and sighed. “You don’t have to watch it with me anymore.”

“I don’t?”

You shook your head. “I don’t want to bore you any further.”

“Who said I was bored? If I didn’t want to watch it, would I have sit through the last ten episodes?”

He had you there. Still, you shot him a look. “You made fun of the story.”

“You did too. You were annoyed that they didn’t kiss properly,” he pointed out and you nodded whilst throwing your hands up exasperatedly.

“Well, they didn’t! That isn’t a real kiss.”

“So what is then?”

“What do you mean?” you questioned warily, watching as he moistened his plump heart-shaped lips. You blinked again, wondering if that was a forewarning to another speech about your lack of realistic romantic notions or if he was thinking along other lines.

Coughing awkwardly, you reached forward to gulp down some of your drink from the coffee table, washing away the brief image you had. Kyungsoo cocked his head to the side, resting back into the couch and watched you intensely. “You seem so full of opinions about kissing yet where is the proof?”

“How can I give you proof?” you chuckled weakly, shaking your head. “I’m just generalising. You could go there yourself and kiss her better than he did too!”

Kyungsoo smiled with immense satisfaction. “So you did just think about me kissing, huh?”

“What?! No!”

“Then why did you grow embarrassed and reach out for your drink hastily?”

You cursed him inwardly for being so observant. “I was thirsty.”

“I bet you were.”

“Okay, I’m going to start the next episode now!” you announced, thumbing the remote control buttons quickly and turned your attention back to the television screen. You cringed; the other thing that annoyed you about Korean dramas sometimes was the replay from the last scene at the start of a new episode. You were acutely aware of your heart thumping away in your chest and this time, it wasn’t because you anticipated their lacklustre kiss.

Kyungsoo moved swiftly, shifting across the couch so fast that you didn’t even have a chance to react until you felt his lips upon yours. He didn’t move them immediately and you almost laughed against his mouth at the fact that he was mimicking the couple onscreen. When he was certain you weren’t about to baulk on him, he started kissing you properly.

Your eyes fluttered shut, responding to his earnest approach with equal measures. You reached out to wrap your arms around his neck, a hand threading through the strands of his hair as you breathed him in.

Now this, this was a kiss. It took your breath away and had you begging for more. The temperature between you rose and you were soon flush against him, his chest heaving along with yours. You vaguely heard the characters behind you talking to one another yet it didn’t trigger you to stop.

You were too wrapped up in your own kiss scene.

When you finally separated from the kiss that truly trumped all kisses you had ever witnessed, you watched Kyungsoo closely. His eyes were blown with lust, though you could see that some of his boldness had overwhelmed him. He retreated a little, still touching you, just not fully pressing you into the couch anymore.

He cleared his throat noisily. “So uh, how was that?”

“Hm?”

“You know, for a kiss. Does it match up to your scale?” You shook your head, smiling softly. “No.”

“Oh.”

Leaning into his space, Kyungsoo caught you easily, his hand encircling your wrist as your palm pressed into his chest. “It exceeded it.”

“Really? I thought you lived for these dramas?”

“Oh I do, but I never said they could kiss well. That moment we just had though, I’m sure would rival even the best actors in the industry.”

Kyungsoo chuckled. “As long as it gave you all the feelings you were hoping for then it was good enough.”

“Should we turn off the drama or?” Glancing at the screen and feeling disconnected from the characters now that you had your own potential love interest sitting next to you, Kyungsoo shook his head. You frowned and then gasped when you came to a hasty conclusion. “You didn’t just do all that to tease me, right?”

“I’m not that cruel. But let’s keep watching. According to your statistics, there will be more kisses before they start hugging instead of passionately embracing each other, right?”

“Well, yeah…”

Kyungsoo took your hand away from his chest, instead linking his fingers with yours, knowing that you had exclaimed earlier on how that was one of your weaknesses in these shows. He shot you a smirk. “We have some kisses coming up to watch out for, since we need to outdo them, right?”

You grinned. Maybe watching dramas with Kyungsoo was a good way to bond with him after all.

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notafrogblog · 4 years ago

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Who wants to read an entire fucking essay I’ve been writing over the last few months it’s about viddy games wooooooo

Video Games's Popularity

16% of entertainment hours in 2018 were spent playing video games, according to a study by The NPD Group, an American market research company (Stych). Video games have become more and more popular as they have become easier and easier to access through consoles, computers, tablets, and phones. Video games and gaming have become some of the most popular topics to watch on youtube, twitch, and other platforms, which is shown by the fact that youtube has a trending section just for video game content. I myself watch video game content whenever I get the chance. Merriam Webster defines video games as "an electronic game in which players control images on a video screen." If you use that definition for video games, it means gaming is a lot more widespread and prevalent than you'd first think. It would be a struggle to find anyone below the age of twenty who's never played a video game in some form. There are thousands of people in online communities who discuss video games and the people who play them, on sites like Reddit, Twitch, YouTube, Tumblr, Instagram, and more. Video game music, posters, clothing, and general merchandise is popular and lucrative for the companies that make and sell the products. People continue to invest their time, money, and energy into playing and enjoying video games. Video games are such a big part of the online community and my life that I decided to take this opportunity to learn more about them.

While researching this paper, I found different types of sources than I was expecting. Many articles on video games are outdated, poorly written, or simply didn't contain much information. Most possible sources were game reviews, tabloid-esque gossip, or talked about events occurring recently in the gaming community. These weren't very helpful for the type of topics I wanted to discuss. When I set out to write this, I expected to find more analyses of video games or game genres as a whole, or perhaps more in-depth writing. Although I did find articles that were in-depth, they were often very niche, scholarly, or outdated. Video games as a culture moves indescribably quickly, with new games always being released. The vast amount of content and places to share said content on the internet makes video games so widespread, it's near impossible to categorize and talk about video games a whole, rather than individual games or franchises. I suppose that's why there are so many game reviews. People are always looking for new games to play, new content to view. I did my best to find articles and sources I could use to talk about video games a whole, as a culture, and as a complex and nuanced form of entertainment. Part of my own interest in video games is due to the large variety of games and game content available. I would consider myself fairly knowledgeable about video games, especially after researching this essay. But I don't know much about games as a whole, or why people play them. As much as I love to talk about and watch video games, I don't play them often myself. I wanted to know what made other people love playing video games so much. Both my brothers are very engrossed in their respective games and consoles, and I found myself wondering what compels them to put their time and energy into something that doesn't give me that same satisfaction. Which begs the question, why do people play video games? What keeps them coming back? What makes video games so enjoyable?

I started by looking in the school databases, and on credible sites like the Washington Post and the New York Times. Video games is such a broad topic, but many articles focused on specific games or events. While I researched, I wondered what is so compelling about video games. I had some hypotheses. Video games often have a plot, a list of tasks to complete, or some sort of storyline. I found an article about the stories and plotlines of first-person shooter games, one of the most popular genres of games. In the article, David M. Leeson explains what differs between a multiplayer and a single-player shooter: "Most multiplayer shooters are gameplay-driven: play sessions consist of one or more matches, in which players compete with each other (either individually or as teams) to win the game, either by scoring points or capturing objectives. Most single-player shooters, by contrast, are story-driven: play sessions consist of one or more levels, in which the player is told the story so far and then must overcome a series of obstacles to find out what happens next." Already this provides some insight into what compels people to play video games. Multiplayer shooters, such as Fortnite, some Call of Duty games, Battlefield games, and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, depend on other players to keep you interested. Winning a match is the main objective. In single-player games, the goal isn't to win a round, it's to complete the story. In a way, this makes a single-player shooter similar to a book or a movie. The difference between them is that the player takes an active part in moving the plotline forward, which keeps the player interested and motivated to find out what happens next.

A storyline isn't the only thing that can be necessary to keep a player motivated. The gameplay plays a big role in keeping the player interested in continuing the game. Games have two main parts, speed and strategy. Speed-based games rely on fast reflexes, immediate feedback, and quick thinking to be enjoyable. Games like these require you to be in the moment the whole time, ready to react to whatever is thrown at you. Games that are more speed-based include titles such as Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and endless runner games such as Temple Run or Subway Surfers. Despite being very different games in style, aesthetic, plot, and goals, these all rely on speed as a main mechanic. Another aspect of games is strategy. Strategy-based games take a slower route, and are more based on planning and thinking before you act. Strategy games often have some sort of back-and-forth mechanic between the player and some sort of other entity, usually a non-player character (npc) or the game itself. This includes games such as battling games such as Pokemon, storyline games like Stardew Valley and Animal Crossing, and many mobile games. Strategy games require the player to think about what they want to do before they do it, and often have multiple storylines or options for how to play the game or what to do when. All games have elements of both strategy and speed, but usually one takes precedence over the other. Each category of game has its pros and cons and its own problems.

There are a few problems with speed-based games that the developers must remedy for the game to be enjoyable. Firstly, games with speed-based mechanics are often very easy to pick up and learn. Many Super Smash Bros. players will mash buttons or spam attacks rather than use combination attacks or the full variety of moves available. Speed-based games must introduce a learning curve for players to learn new skills, become better at the skills they already have, and some sort of challenge that requires those skills to be used. Another problem with speed-based games is the lack of variety. One character with only one set of moves can quickly become boring to play. Most games don't have this problem, with many games having multiple characters. Breath of the Wild, however, only has one playable character, Link. Nintendo keeps BotW from becoming boring by having Link have many weapons and clothing to collect and choose from to use, food items to temporarily boost stats, and a way to upgrade Link's health points as the game grows more difficult. Many endless runner games (i.e. Subway Surfers or Temple Run) lack this attribute, which causes players to become bored of them after playing for a while. While they may include customizable or lots of character choices, the changes are purely cosmetic and don't impact the gameplay.

Strategy games have issues as well, most notably those to do with speed. Strategy games often have a slower pace, and making the pace too slow can cause players to become bored. This was an issue with the role-playing game Final Fantasy VII, a 1997 turn-based rpg by Square Enix. Final Fantasy VII is set to have a remake by Square Enix, the first part of which was released on April 10, 2020. An article I discovered addressed some flaws in the original game as well as what the remake should have to make the game better. The article reads: "Modern releases of Final Fantasy VII include an option to speed up combat by a factor of three, and after turning it on, you quickly learn that you almost never need to turn it off to more carefully manage the flow of battle, such is the monotony of just attacking and healing over and over. This speed boost is greeted by latter-day players as a crucial "quality of life" improvement. It doesn't matter how many oakleaves you've acquired in 22 years; when letting the player essentially skip the gameplay is treated as a godsend, you don't have a very good game." (Vogt) As said in the quote, the ability to speed up gameplay shouldn't be necessary. The gameplay is also described as monotonous. Games must be interesting to keep players motivated to continue playing. Keeping players interested in the game is a big part of video game making.

Game designers and developers must put player enjoyment first when making a game. Even if the ultimate goal is to make money or gain popularity in the community, player enjoyment is what leads to a game's success. If a player isn't having fun playing a game, they won't recommend it to others, or join an online community about it, or even continue playing it. For this reason, I decided to find information about the process of game design and development, where ideas came from, and how enjoyment of the game came into the mix. I found an academic study of a game jam in 2013. A game jam is an event where multiple groups of game makers come together to make games in an allotted time using a given prompt. The study discusses multiple aspects of the game jam, including initial ideas, prototyping, and game development and testing, the latter of which is shown in the quote here: "Participants [in the game jam] removed systems within the game (e.g. attacks requiring combinations of buttons rather than single buttons) or reduced the total number of components used (e.g. fewer game levels or types of enemies). Swapping mechanics occurred when already implemented systems were buggy or dysfunctional or when playtesting (personally or with others) showed them to be overly complex or unintuitive." (Zook) This quote shows how game developers must think about how the players will interact with mechanics, especially mechanics they aren't used to. Mechanics are how you do things in the game, whether it be with certain buttons, an item, movement, interaction with the environment, or a combination of these. Mechanics must be easy to pick up on and learn for beginning players, but difficult to master so as to keep players entertained. The quote shows how initially complex mechanisms such as button combinations or buggy systems can be unintuitive for the players, and therefore need to be fixed. If a player has difficulties with the game's function, it won't be fun to play. Games must be fun if they want to keep players interested.

For this paper, I interviewed one of my friend's younger brothers, an avid player of video games. Ian plays video games for a few hours every day, he says, on xbox, nintendo switch, and mobile devices. In the interview, he says that what he thinks makes video games enjoyable is having fun. Although he plays video games more suited to younger users, there were a few things he had to say about games he disliked. The main things he didn't like about games were the difficulty (too hard, too easy) bad graphics, or he "wasn't as interested as he thought he was." His viewpoint as someone who plays a lot of video games is very useful for the question I'm asking. Difficulty of games is something that is hard to balance for game developers. As discussed earlier, the mechanics must be intuitive so the player can pick up on them easily. However, if the entire game is easy, the player will get bored, just like Ian did.

"What makes video games enjoyable?" is the question I've tried to answer. So, what does make video games enjoyable? I'd say it's a variety of things. Video games are so complex, and what makes them entertaining is even more complex. There's such a huge variety of video games available to play, on dozens of platforms and consoles, and in many different ways. Expecting to find just one answer for such a broad question would be unjustifiable. So, I've determined a couple things that make video games enjoyable. As Ian said, games should be fun. Fun means different things to each person, so different games will be better for different people. Different difficulties and styles of games will be different for different people. A more casual game style, like mobile games or kid's games, might be more enjoyable for a gamer like Ian. However, strategy based games such as Pokemon, Assassin's Creed, or shooting games such as CS:GO might be more suited to older players. In short, what makes video games enjoyable is the variety of games there are to play. Games are for everyone, and each type of video game has people who enjoy it, and people who don't. There is no one clear answer to this question. Unfortunately, this means that if I want to be more involved in playing video games, I'm going to have to try some games and find out what I like. If you're interested in video games, I suggest you do the same.

Works Cited

Jabr, Ferris. “Can You Really Be Addicted to Video Games?” New York Times, 22 October 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/22/magazine/can-you-really-be-addicted-to-video-games.html. Accessed 2 November 2020.

Leeson, David M. "Northrop Frye and the story structure of the single-player shooter." English Studies in Canada, vol. 37, no. 2, 2011, p. 137+. Gale In Context: High School, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A294194389/SUIC?u=midd34407&sid=SUIC&xid=e5b85bc6. Accessed 18 Oct. 2020.

Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/video%20game. Accessed 5 November 2020.

S., Ian. Personal interview. December 2020.

Stych, Anne. “Americans' favorite forms of entertainment are digital.” bizjournals, 28 March 2019, https://www.bizjournals.com/bizwomen/news/latest-news/2019/03/americans-favorite-forms-of-entertainment-are.html?page=all#:~:text=The%20shift%20to%20digital%20is,research%20by%20The%20NPD%20Group. Accessed 2 November 2020.

Vogt, Ryan. "For all its greatness, Final Fantasy VII wasn't a good game. Let's remember why." Washingtonpost.com, 7 Apr. 2020. Gale In Context: High School, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A619723232/SUIC?u=midd34407&sid=SUIC&xid=0b17c660. Accessed 11 Oct. 2020.

Zook, Alexander and Mark O. Riedl. "Game Conceptualization and Development Processes in the Global Game Jam." School of Interactive Computing, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, http://www.fdg2013.org/program/workshops/papers/GGJ2013/ggj13_submission_4.pdf. Accessed 11 Oct. 2020.

#idk what this is #hopefully now I won’t fail english class

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veinereastath · 5 years ago

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Far Cry: New Dawn was a disaster, and here’s why.

Okay, just to be clear - this is my personal opinion, not pure, cold facts that I’m trying to push down people’s throats. I just felt the sudden urge to break down piece by piece my utter hatred towards this game. So, let’s go. What exactly went wrong with it, and why Far Cry 5 was way better? I will try to present my ramblings and point of view by putting both of these games side by side. So, when reading every sentence in this... thing, add in your head a “it’s vei’s opinion” bit to avoid misunderstandings. Thanks in advance! First thing, to make everything clear - Far Cry 5 was not a perfect game. No, actually, it was far from so; there are many games much better plot-wise, with more entertaining gameplay, bigger world, more interesting side quests and so on. But, one thing for sure, this game has a spirit, an unique aura that makes many people want to come back to it and replay it over and over. The way Ubisoft portrayed Hope County is absolutely fantastic - the music, the landscapes, the characters. It was something new, something fresh, and despite quite a lot sceptical voices when the first trailers came out, it turned out really well, and in general, people really liked this game, or loved it even. Yeah, some people hate the endings, the fact that every single one of them is bad one way or the other and that you can’t basically win (I always thought this was fantastic, because, hey, you can’t be a perfect hero every time - even so, I love how this game, Seeds especially, mock the “hero attitude” that protagonist tries to have). But even so, Far Cry 5 was mostly a success, right? And the canon ending when the nukes get dropped seemed to leave a perfect opportunity for a sequel. So, what could go wrong? Well, about that...

1. How long is this game? New Dawn is short. It’s fucking short, because I installed it right after it became available (fun fact, this was the first and the last game I ever pre-ordered, so imagine how excited I must’ve been), and started playing it as soon as I could. In my case, it was around 2-3 am. I had a break then, woke up at 7 am and continued playing. I was playing it slowly - completing the side quests, because I wanted to know what has changed in Hope County, and, of course, I was looking for some easter eggs regarding the Seeds (surprised pikachu - there weren’t any, Old Compound, John’s bunker and Ranch are too obvious). Took me around 5 hours to move on and actually start playing the main story. I was pretty sure that it will take me at least 10-15 hours to complete it (why was I thinking so, don’t ask me, I guess I still have way too high expectations after what Witcher 3 expansions have shown me). Again, surprised pikachu! I finished the whole game in 16 hours. Sixteen. Including liberating all the outposts (1 star in each, didn’t bother to get 3) and finish all side-missions + driving around the County just to look around. The hell? And it wasn’t a DLC? Just for a little comparison, because, yes, FC5 can also be completed pretty damn fast if you rush it, but my 1st playthrough of it, with all the quests and admiring the landscapes took me 33 hours. Which leads us to the next point on this god forsaken list, and that is... 2. The map.

The next reason why I am shocked this game wasn’t a DLC - the heckitty hecck they did with the map in New Dawn. Radiation zones? Sign me the hell up, they make sense, are cool and stuff, but adding them just so you could bite off half of the original map is stupid, and extremely lazy thing to do. Okay, you can take off some parts, but if you’re doing so, add something new - some new paths, caves, mountain routes, something. And no, expeditions don’t count. To make it worse, the parts that were deleted were one of the best parts of the FC5 storyline. Faith’s Gate, Drubman’s Marina, Jacob’s Armory, Wolf’s Den, and the fucking Veteran’s Center. The opportunity to make this a haunted location with an entertaining quest in it was HUGE and it was absolutely wasted. It’s not like they couldn’t done it, we’ve got the mission in old Joseph’s statue, and the crocodile pikachu in Inquisitor’s Grave (which, by the way, shouldn’t actually exist - this bunker was blown up to pieces, but it seemed pretty decent in New Dawn, there are barely any sings of explosions, not to mention that “The Confession” room is untouched!). You bought this game with an intention to actually go back in time and find out about something that FC5 didn’t tell you? Kekus maximus, you don’t. Have some photographs instead (which are a nice addition, but seem lazy). To give this post even more personal hatred - I really don’t like the Henbane River region, so you could literally hear my heart breaking when I saw that we got 50% of the River, 80% of the Valley and 10% of the Whitetails, which were my absolute favorite. So fun!

3. The Villains. I must admit, in the trailers, back when the hype for this game was insane, Mickey and Lou seemed to be quite interesting. Even though back then it was obvious that Highwaymen won’t have that kind of depth that Eden’s Gate had, it was still something I was looking forward to, even though those vibes aren’t really my cup of tea; but most of my excitement was born from my love for Far Cry 5, so if course I had to try out the sequel. So yes, the trailers were quite nice (just not the live action one - that was a fucking disaster, and killed my hype for a few days afterwards).

Mickey and Lou were quite fun, but to little extent, sadly. I liked their sister-sister dynamics, they really seemed close, and it was nice that shey were so different from each other - Mickey was more calculating, while Lou was living for the action and brutality in itself. The Highwaymen as a faction in itself wasn’t really that great for me, because their only purpose was to cause mayhem, and I simply don’t like something like this. But the sisters were something different, right? No, they weren’t, and that’s the point. I felt like there was little to no depth in their actions - it was all for fun, and I find this just boring and pointless (pr maybe I’m the boring one). I know that this is often how the world works - people take and destroy simply because they can and because it’s considered cool. We suck as a species, that’s official and well known, but I expected something more entertaining from a videogame. Maybe I shouldn’t, but I did. And Mickey and Lou were literally Highwaymen members with a VIP crown above their heads and nothing more. They left their mother? Okay, that is something that could lead to other interesting things. They killed their father for power? Huh, alright, I can work with that. The point is, it didn’t give them that much depth, their main purpose was to plunder everything. Which would be all good and nice if they were some kind of a side-faction. But this was The Villains™, and I wanted to feel something more towards them. And to be honest? I didn’t even hate them. I felt absolutely nothing, they just existed and I didn’t care, because they didn’t make this game interesting. What I will say now may sound brutal, but I will say it: I don’t consider two young people (they were around 19/20) just wanting to blow everything up “for lulz” a good villains. I fucking don’t. It was a huge downfall after what FC5 has given to us. I was just so bored when fighting the Highwaymen, because they were shallow, and their personalities were only focused on one thing.

Of course, there is also Ethan. Yes, I hate him (he even has a very punchable face, what a coincidence!), but I admit he was somehow a nice touch in this game. Yes, he was a prideful, irritating kid, but while I was just utterly bored by the Twins, Ethan actually managed to make me hate him. The only thing that I’m quite bothered by is that I don’t believe that he’s actual, biological son of Joseph. To put it shortly, and say it louder for the people in the back - The Twins were just meh. Boring. How was the situation in FC5 better? Oh boy.

Putting their obvious... Attractive physical appearance aside, and focusing purely on their personalities, because that’s what I’m trying to explain - they were something else, and something new. Ubisoft took a risk with creating four villains for a single game, because it’s extremely hard to give each one of them the screentime they deserve, and make them interesting and unique. Did FC5 succeed? In a way, yes. I’m not saying that Seeds are absolutely perfect villains (they aren’t), but they can eat Twins for breakfast and still stay hungry. To show you what I mean, have some short descriptions: JOSEPH: Cult Leader, “The Father”, a person who claims to hear the voice of God himself. Someone from a broken family and difficult life, who was in prison (according to song dedicated to him), lost one job after another, lost his wife, killed his daughter, and then formed a religious cult. JACOB: military veteran suffering from PTSD, with a massive knowledge about history and psychology, someone who literally brainwashed nearly half, if not more of the County, and manages to combine religion (something he clearly isn’t really fond of) and personal, darwinistic look on life. JOHN: former lawyer, a person skilled in adapting to any environment, charismatic manipulator abused as a kid, forced to spend most of his life pretending to be someone he hated to be, battled with addictions, emotionally unstable and with sadistic outburts. FAITH: young woman devoid of purpose in life, also battling with addictions in the past, probably on the verge of suicide at some point, who was manipulated (and quite possibly drugged) in order to comply; a broken girl hiding her pain behind lovely smiles. Sounds pretty diverse, right? And I bet that at least one member of this family was somehow entertaining for everyone. Now, here’s what New Dawn has given to us: MICKEY: the more calculating sister; young girl who followed her father and chose brutal life, creating entertainment for herself by making others suffer. Shows some kind of regret when you defeat her by the end of the game. LOU: the more brutal sister; young girl who followed her father and chose brutal life, creating entertainment for herself by making others suffer. Doesn’t show any regrets towards her actions.

And honestly, that’s it. I really tried to write something more for the Twins, but I couldn’t put my finger on anything. That’s all we know. And yes, I know that there is a major difference between them and the Seeds, which is the age gap - FC5 villains are simply older and have more life experience, but honestly, this doesn’t make it better. Mickey and Lou could have much more depth and be far more interesting despite them being young. Age is not a problem in such a case. I suggest to compare Mickey and Lou’s descriptions with the Faith one, since she’s just few years older. There is a difference, isn’t it? And even when playing both of these games, the Seeds just seem to be better developed than the Twins. Ubisoft did something weird, because they managed to focus on four villains and make each one of them interesting in their own way, but made just two main villains flat, and nearly identical. 4. Radio calls. This is a continuation of the point above, because it’s also something I wanted to point out and is connected to the villains of both games. The things you can hear directly from The Twins can be mostly described as “hey rabbit, you’re pissing us off a bit”. Same with the things they say at outposts and direct them to the Highwaymen - it’s always about the same thing, and there isn’t a single line that I found interesting or worth remembering (okay, my bad, the fact that Mickey and Lou seemed to be dissapointed after Nana chose to stick with the Captain rather than them was a nice touch). Meanwhile, I can recite most of the dialogue lines from the Seeds from my memory, and it’s something I could do after 2 playthroughs. They seem to be on a whole different level - and yes, it is true that to some point, the “rabbits” thing is similar to “the weak” theme of Jacob, or “the sinners” in case of John, but it didn’t seem to be that much tiring to hear about. Faith’s radio calls were interesting, because with each one of them you could hear her demeanor towards the Deputy changing - in the beginning, she was friendly, but after you destroyed Joseph’s statue, she was scared, and at the final confrontation - maliciously hostile. Jacob started his radio calls history with a threat towards you, and kind off keeps that all the time, but the closer you get to the final meeting with him, the more... Okay, how the fuck do I describe it in a non-thot way amused (I guess we can call it this way?) he sounded. He was still far from friendly, you still didn’t have any doubts he’s your enemy, but there was something in those radio calls, something that suggested he actually sees the Deputy as something more than just enemy, as a tool he crafted all by himself and he was proud of it. John welcomes you with this cheesy ad at the beginning of the game, and as time goes on, he goes even more obsessed with making you atone and confess; not to mention his absolutely fantastic reactions to stealing his house and destroying his sign. His calls are something unpredictable, because once he’s all official and charismatic, but suddenly he switches to this ominous mode that actually makes you want stop for a bit and look around you, as if he was lurking somewhere. To sum it up, this game made you feel like if you were actually developing some kind of a relationship with each one of the family member. But the radio calls from the Twins seem to be always the same, it’s all about “rabbits” and “problem solving”. Yes, it might've been better if only one sister was all about it, and the other one had something else on her mind, but making them nearly identical was a lazy move. 5. Landscapes.

Far Cry 5 was amazing, because every region was different and had something else to offer. Henbane River was full of Bliss, which created weird hallucinations, Faith dancing around you was also pretty interesting addition, and The Pilgrimage was also a nice touch (I recommend going with it, it’s a really nice experience, actually). Holland Valley was the pure definition of Montana countryside, and it felt fantastic to walk around and see those little farms, cows, windmills and so on. Whitetail Mountains were also something unique, with less open spaces, a huge amount of wildlife, combining massive mountains with deep forests. And even though the colors of this game could be simply described as beige-green, I didn’t really feel bored when wandering around. New Dawn had a cool concept, actually - makind the post-apocalyptic world colorful, instead of making it a grey wasteland was something new and I was excited. And, honestly, I really liked how it all looked like during the first 2 hours of playthrough. After that... I was just so done. The pink colour in itself wasn’t bad, really, but the way they added it everywhere made me feel sick. Those flowers were nearly everywhere and they were always the same. And while I love screenshoting landscapes in games, New Dawn didn’t really felt like something I wanted to spend time on. I like to admire the views of FC5, but not in ND. Combining the small as hell map with nearly the same flowers on your every step was a bad solution. 6. Other. To mention other things - well, I guess we could mention the music, but I feel it isn’t fair, actually. Both games did this well in some way, FC5 songs are certainly something unforgettable, and I mean both the cult ones as well as the OST. New Dawn did what it could - gave Highwaymen music that fits them. The OST, however, isn’t that good. Maybe because it just doesn’t feel unique to me, while the different type of music in each region in FC5 is, for me, unforgettable in many ways. I won’t really talk about The Deputy >> The Judge metamorphosis, because everyone sees it in a different way. I personally don’t consider it as a bad thing, it’s quite a nice plot twist, and I like it (even though I went with a totally different path with my deputy OC).

Okay, I think it’s time to get to the main point. Why I consider New Dawn as a disaster? The Villains were devoid of any depth and felt exactly the same, the map was small as hell, the story was way too short (and these two things should be enough to make this game a DLC, not an actual installment of the franchise), the landscapes were repetitive, 90% of what was left from FC5 (locations, for example) didn’t get a chance to shine. Just imagine how much more entertaining this game could be if we would find some old recording of the Eden’s Gate songs somewhere. If there were mentions of some terryfingly huge wolves roaming around, if the members of Prosperity actually mentioned something about John Seed (which house they are living in!), if we could visit the remnants of the Faith’s Gate, hear the ominous “Only You” when approaching the Veteran’s Center and read some old notes about experiments that were happening in there, and so on. Basically, the main opportunity that got wasted was focusing on continuating FC5 legacy in a more respectful way. The things I mentioned above seem like small details, but they really could make the experience something else entirely. So, yeah. I hate New Dawn, in case someone didn’t notice. :)

#listen I wrote it between 12 pm and 2 am #I couldn't sleep because of this #and I bet I forgot about something important #but whatever #I just needed to get it out of my system #fcnd #far cry new dawn #far cry 5

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loverspersonas · 5 years ago

Text

the most beautiful moment in life | v

pairing: ot7? x reader

genre: hyyh au, high school au, angst, drama, fluff, smut?

length: 6.8k

summary: Eight strangers with different stories happen to meet one day, by fate or some kind of cruel, exquisite happenstance, and realize that they’re not as different as they thought.

a/n: so the story is a little slow paced right now, because i wanted to set the tone and relationship a little with all the characters first before really diving into the hyyh storyline. soon, the entire gang will get together and that's when the friendship and adventure can actually begin. and thank you to everyone who’s reading and liking and looking forward to my writing!

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It was some time in the early evening during your shift at the Brew when the bill dinged and two familiar faces entered the cafe.

“Y/N!” Sana exclaimed with a smile. Her bright pink hair was pulled into a bun on her head that day. And behind her, Li-on walked in, comparatively less excited than her.

You couldn’t deny you weren’t at least a little glad to see her. Sometimes the cafe wasn’t as busy and that was when you tended to get bored fast. “What are you guys doing here?”

“Why else would we come to a cafe if not to get coffee?” Li-on asked. You looked at him patiently. “Okay, so maybe that’s not the only reason. But in all honesty, I do want coffee. Can I get an iced cappuccino?”

As you started on his order, Sana placed her hands on the counter. Her lips were pulled into a grin. “Guess what I have?” From her bag, she pulled out a small pack of Carpe Noctem’s organic cigarettes.

Your jaw dropped as you took it from her quickly, hoping your co-worker or any customers hadn’t noticed. “I’m at work! You can’t go waving this around so casually!” When you were certain that no one had heard, you let out a breath and looked at the pack like it was the most prized possession you could hold. “Sana, I love you.”

“Aw, you’re sweet, babe."

Li-on held his hands up. “Woah, guys. Maybe at least get a room first.”

Both of you looked at him at the same time, but it was Sana who said with a laugh, “Li-on’s just uncomfortable around any form of PDA.”

He scowled. “Am not. You know what, Sana—“

“Come on, guys,” you spoke, waving your hand in between them as though they would start a fight. “I’m working. Do this some other time. Preferably when I’m not here.”

While Li-on moved to study the menu on the board, Sana leaned over the counter, pushing her hair back. “Anyway, I was going to ask you. We’re going to Cypher later tonight. Want to join?”

Your eyebrows furrowed as you scribbled Li-on’s name on a plastic cup. “What is that?”

“It’s an underground club. They do a lot of performances, mostly rap and hip-hop. It’s pretty cool."

“I’m sure.” You nodded sarcastically, not wasting a second before saying, “I’ll pass.”

“You didn’t even think about it,” Sana said as she tugged on your arm. “Come on, Y/N. It’ll be fun.”

You shrugged her off of you, not in a rude way. You just weren’t much of a touchy person. “When has a night club sounded like fun? And besides, we’re barely legal.”

She looked at you incredulously. “This coming from the girl who smokes on a pretty much regular basis? Anyway, that’s what fake IDs are for. Besides, you don’t actually have to drink anything. You like music. Why not come for that?”

“I don’t like rap music,” you reminded her, focusing mostly on preparing the drink.

“That’s true,” Li-on said. He moved closer to the two of you again. “Every time I play Drake, you yell at me to turn it down. Also, can I get one of your banana nut muffins?”

With a scoff, Sana turned back to you. “That’s because Drake is overrated. Most of these singers and rappers are the complete opposite of mainstream artists.” She gave a small shrug then. She wasn’t going to fight you about it, but she would’ve liked if you chose to come yourself. “We haven’t gone out together in a while. And it’s good to try new things, right? At least, say you’ll think about it.”

You were still uncertain. Clubs and bars weren’t your scene and most of the places Sana and her friends liked, you ended up leaving early. But the look on Sana’s face made you hesitate. You supposed you hadn’t had a chance to go out with her in some time. It was mostly you unloading your problems, and that made you feel guilty suddenly. “I guess…”

The bell dinged again, a reminder that you were still working and your personal life would have to wait. You motioned for Sana and Li-on to move to the other counter before you gave him his muffin and drink.

“Hi, what can I get for you?” you asked as you returned to the main counter.

“Y/N?”

Only when you looked up, properly registering the two new figures who’d arrived did your mouth open in surprise. “Namjoon… and Taehyung.” The latter stood close behind the former, sending you a small nod of acknowledgement.

“Since when have you been working here?” Namjoon asked, surprised. “I’ve never seen you before.”

“A few months,” you replied. “I only work a few days a week, so… um, what can I get for you?”

“Right,” he said with a nod. His brown hair was covered by a baseball cap, but he wasn’t wearing any glasses today. “I’ll have an iced americano.”

You entered it in the machine, glancing up at the younger boy. “Same thing for you?”

You wanted to ask what they were both doing there together. As far as you knew, none of you were close and hardly spoke outside of detention. Well, this week proved different, because fate seemed to be conspiring for the eight of you to cross paths again. It wasn’t that you minded it; in fact, a part of you believed it even before now.

Taehyung shook his head, his hair almost falling into his eyes. His hands were idly playing with the skateboard he’d brought with him. “I don’t like coffee.”

“Okay. How about a frappe then?”

“You don’t have to—“

“It’s no problem,” you interrupted, already writing their names on plastic cups. “Besides, you can’t come to the Brew and not get a handcrafted drink made by yours truly.”

His mouth quirked into a slight smile as Namjoon chuckled and said, “Handcrafted? Really?”

You raised your hands to show him. “These are the hands of an espresso goddess.” In reality, you’d never actually made an espresso until a few months ago, but he didn’t need to know that.

He handed you some bills. “I bet.”

“It’ll be a few minutes.”

After they walked over to wait by the serving counter, you started the espresso machine. That was when Sana and Li-on came up to you again.

“The hell?” Sana’s voice made you briefly shift your attention to the pair. Her eyebrows were raised high on her forehead, expression one of disbelief before looking at the boy with her. “Did you see that?”

Li-on nodded like he was in shock. “I did.”

“Y/N,” she said as though forcing herself to be calm. “That’s Kim Namjoon and—why did Kim Taehyung just talk to you like he knows you? And did you talk to him like you know him?”

Your eyebrows furrowed and you would’ve sent her a strange look if you weren’t so preoccupied with filling a cup with ice. “Um, yes? What’s the big deal?”

Sana’s eyes widened. Her voice dropped to a whisper-yell, but in the way she was actively moving her hands, you could tell she was trying to hold back from exclaiming. “The big deal? How do you know him? How does he know you?”

“We’ve talked a few times. Why is that so shocking?”

“Because he’s him!” she exclaimed—this wasn’t too shocking since it was really only a matter of time— and raised a hand to point in the direction of the mentioned boy and then gesturing to you. Thankfully, the two boys were too busy with their own conversation and gazing around at the decor to notice. “And you’re you!”

You waited a second, trying to grasp what that was supposed to mean. “Am I supposed to be offended right now?”

“He’s like that kid from the other side of the tracks,” Li-on explained. “So is Namjoon, in a way; he has a better reputation with the school and teachers though which kind of separates them. For Taehyung, everyone knows of him, but not in that privileged, arrogant or pretentious popular kid sense. More like the kid you’d rather not get involved with. Basically, people like him and people like you don’t mix.”

“People like me?” you echoed. That pretentious and privileged category was supposed to be what you were; that was what everyone thought of you. But now, you weren’t even that, and still, you were being cast in that light. All of a sudden, your mind was filling with this anxiety and these thoughts that people were never going to stop judging you. That that was all you were ever going to be.

“Li-on, when are you going to learn to shut up?” Sana snapped under her breath.

Pushing back the loose strands of hair that had come undone from your ponytail, you sighed. “Look, I’m busy. You should go.”

Sana opened her mouth but then closed it right away, studying your expression. Her features softened. “Let me know if you decided to come, okay?”

You didn’t say anything, waiting until they were both gone before finishing the drinks. You slid them across the counter, not noticing when Namjoon and Taehyung walked towards you.

“You okay?” Namjoon asked after a moment. “What was that all about?”

“Nothing,” you answered. You didn’t want to think too much about it or you’d only feel more anxious. You didn’t want to seem so bothered by it, but you didn’t realize that the boy in front of you could tell. “So, how did you guys end up coming here together?”

They exchanged quick glances, a little surprised by the abrupt question. Good, you thought. Take the attention away from you. “We ran into each other earlier,” Namjoon said. “Decided to get a drink.”

“I’ve seen you with those guys before,” Taehyung finally spoke. “They your friends? It’s kind of weird how all your friends only seem to upset you.”

How could he be so quiet for a minute and then go on to be so crude? you thought as you narrowed your eyes at him. And to use that incident in the storage room against you? “You don’t know anything about me.”

He didn’t appear to be taken aback by the sharp remark, but eventually nodded in a way that told you that he knew you were right. “Right. Leave you to it then.”

He turned to leave and your eyes flicked past Namjoon. His expression made you start to think that maybe you’d come across more rude than needed. “Taehyung, wait,” you blurted, after sighing. “I—didn’t mean it like that.”

He looked at you and shrugged. “Doesn’t matter if you did.” It was almost frustrating how he could act so unbothered. You wished you could do the same.

“Do you guys think about it?” you decided to ask. “How we all ending up at Han River. How we met in detention and found that writing…”

“Honestly…” Namjoon started. His mouth pressed into a line as he thought about it. “Yeah. Every time I see or talk to one of you guys, I think about it.”

The relief that swept over you made you realize that you were glad to hear that. You thought it couldn’t have just been you. It was starting to mean something how you kept running into these boys all of a sudden— and now you knew that they were running into each other too— after years of going to the same school without so much as a hello.

“Y/N.” You looked behind the boys to see Sana walking back into the cafe. “Look, Li-on says dumb things all the time. In fact, even when he’s not drunk or high, he’s going on about… oh.”

Her gaze finally fell on the two you were previously conversing with and she stopped awkwardly. It was either what she’d just started to say or the fact that she’d been talking to you about the said boys earlier that made her stop.

When Sana and the boys only once sent each other awkward and uncertain glances, you decided to try and alleviate some of the awkwardness. “Namjoon, you know Sana already. Taehyung, this is my friend, Sana. Sana, this is—“

“I know who he is,” she cut you off, taking a step in his direction. Despite her shorter height and bright pink hair, the fire in her eyes seemed to make Taehyung a little nervous. He didn’t move back, but his posture straightened. This wasn’t so surprising to you, knowing how many people she could intimidate if she tried. “Y/N is my friend and she’s free to talk to whoever she wants. But I’ve heard the kinds of things you like to do in your free time, and if I hear she ends up getting dragged into any of it, I’m going to take that fucking skateboard and shove it so far up your—“

“Sana!” you exclaimed, mouth opening in shock. You shot the boys an apologetic smile. “She’s joking. She gets like this sometimes. It’s the caffeine.” With a sharp look and a jerk of your head to the side. “Sana, do you want to wait over there for a second?”

She tore her glaring eyes away from Taehyung to look at you, before begrudging saying, “Fine.”

You released a sigh. “Sorry about that. I don’t know where that came from.”

“A little scary, I’ll admit,” Taehyung said, clearing his throat. Some part of it seemed to have amused him a little too. “But sounds like she’s looking out for you.”

“It’s good to see you guys are close,” Namjoon added. “Maybe this year, everything won’t be so fast paced. When you’re with people you actually like, fun things are actually fun.”

Taehyung nodded. “That’s a good change from people like Yuna, you know.”

Your mouth opened slightly, either from surprise or because you were going to say something. But what?

“I don’t think you’re arrogant or pretentious, for the record,” Namjoon said, making you look up in surprise. So, they’d heard everything. “I think you need to stop viewing yourself that way before you expect everyone else to do the same, you know?"

They took their drinks after a couple parting words, already starting to leave. But you couldn’t just let them without saying something else. Not after the things they just said, the fact that they remembered your conversations, the little things you mentioned. Even your own old friends didn’t do that. Just the fact that it seemed like they cared even a little bit.

“Hey, wait,” you said, suddenly unsure as soon as they looked at you again. “I don’t think you guys are ‘from the wrong side of the tracks.’ And we’re not complete strangers anymore, you know? Any of us. If you want to talk or just hang out…”

“Funny,” Taehyung said, something like a smile curving on his lips as he glanced to the taller boy beside him. “I think you said something like that too.”

“I think this was a mistake.” With one arm folded around you as though you were trying to comfort yourself, you glanced around the area uneasily. “This isn’t really my thing.”

“Maybe not,” Sana said. “But the point is to try something new. Who knows? You might end up liking it.” She tapped your arm, making your gaze turn to her. “And hey, don’t think too much about what Li-on said earlier. He’s an idiot. Certified and all.”

“It’s not that, it’s just—“ You bit your lip, thinking of all the kinds of people around you, very different from all the friends you’d ever had. Why did you agree to come again? “I feel kind of out of place. I think everyone can kind of sense it too.”

Sana looked at you, speaking calmly. “Y/N, there’s no sign on you that says former cheerleader, competitive swimmer and princess of Sky Academy. No offence,” she added with the sharp way you looked at her. “No one actually knows who you are. That’s why people like it here. You can be whatever you want. So, just… loosen up a little.” She placed her hands on your shoulders, having to tilt her head up slightly because of the extra inches you gained from your shoes. “If you’re standing out in any way, it’s probably your uneasy vibe. And maybe the outfit.”

You frowned. “What’s wrong with my outfit?”

“Nothing,” she answered quickly, before briefly eyeing your black thigh-high boots, miniskirt and velvet blue blouse. “It’s just a little… too nice for a place like this. But that’s okay. You’re a nice girl.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means don’t take any drinks or pills from strangers,” she said while nodding. “And if you need me, I’m a text away.”

You let out a half scoff, half chuckle. It was almost rich for her to tell you to watch out for things like that, when you were pretty sure you were the more level-headed one. “Yeah, well, same goes for you. If anyone has to watch what they drink—“

She groaned, covering her face with her hands. “That was one time. Okay, a few times. Will you ever let it go?”

You gave this a considerative hum. “Probably not.”

With one last mild glare and a pat on the shoulder, Sana was off, either to join the several people on the dance floor or to find any of the people she knew here.

As you looked around the club, you knew that no one you knew could possibly be at a place like this. You didn’t mean it in a demeaning way. The underground rap scene had its charms for sure. It was sort of an anonymous setting, as though people outside who didn’t come here didn’t know who you were. It was a place for people looking to drink and dance and listen to a more raw, dirty kind of music. Everyone there felt like they were meant to be there. Except for you.

The bar was where you decided to go. It was located more to the side, so hopefully people would stop shooting glances at you whenever they walked by. Maybe Sana was wrong. Maybe somehow they knew about the kind of person you were and the things you’d done. Maybe they didn’t want you there.

“You’re new here.”

You turned your head to see the man now occupying the bar stool next to you. Your eyes subtly shifted toward the sleeve of tattoos on his arm and the half empty drink in front of him. You couldn’t give off any impression that this place and the people were intimidating to you. That would only set you apart more. “Why do you say that?”

“I know most of the crowd that comes here, but you…” His eyes followed your face and all the way down your body, studying yet appraising. “You’re definitely a new face.”

Your eyebrows lifted, deciding to turn your face away from him. “Um, okay?”

“How about a drink then?”

Sana’s voice rang in your ears again and your own common sense activating. “I’m fine, thanks.”

He leaned forward a little. “You sure? You look like you could use one.” When you didn’t say anything, he laughed. “Wait, don’t tell me. You don’t drink. How old are you anyway?”

A twinge of irritation passed through you. Did he really not understand ‘no’ when it was clearly right in front of him? And to resort to belittling you instead? “Even if I didn’t drink, there’s nothing wrong with that. And frankly, your persistence is starting to get on my nerves.”

He was still staring at you when he said, “You’re cute.”

Rolling your eyes was something you couldn’t stop yourself from doing at this point. “And you’re annoying. I think we established that already.”

“What’s your name?”

You raised a brow, only then turning to him again, wondering why he didn’t get the hint. You severely hoped he didn’t mistake your insults as a way of flirting. “And why does that concern you?”

He smirked. “How else will I call you?”

“She won’t.”

Your eyes snapped towards the new voice, jaw nearly dropping when you saw a familiar figure standing beside you, his gaze like ice towards the man in front of you. “Yoongi?”

He didn’t tear his gaze away from the stranger, but directed his words at you. “Lets go.”

The man with the tattoos gave a low chuckle, something similarly cold in his voice. “Relax, man. We were just talking.”

“Well, now you’re done talking,” Yoongi said with a finality in his voice, leaving no room for arguing. “And we’re leaving.”

You’d never heard him speak so commandingly before, and you could see now why some people might find him intimidating. After you followed him to the other side of the club, he turned around to look at you, incredulous and maybe even a little angry. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Funny,” you said. “I was just about to ask you the same thing.” He could act as intimidating as he wanted, but you wouldn’t forget the quiet, aloof boy who went to the same school as you, who, along with six others, you’d felt a sense of familiarity with. You took a moment to assess him, out of the academy’s uniform, now in ripped jeans and leather like everyone else around you. He blended in with all these people. Maybe they were his people.

He rolled his eyes, not in the mood for witty or sarcastic banter. “What were you doing, talking to that guy?”

You had to admit you were a bit taken aback by the hostile undertones you caught. “I don’t know. I don’t even know him. What’s wrong with you?”

Why he seemed somewhat irritated by your lack of awareness, you weren’t so sure about. “Look, um, I don’t know how to say this without potentially sounding like an ass. This isn’t a place for you.”

“Wow, thanks,” you said dryly. It was easy to act like his comment didn’t affect you, but of course it did when that was all you’d been thinking since you’d got here. “I’m not edgy enough to be here, is that it?”

He shot you a puzzled look. “No, I just mean… there are some weird people here, okay? Sometimes even dangerous. Like that guy you were just with. Do you really think he just wanted to talk?”

Was he really presuming what you thought he was? You crossed your arms in kind of a defensive manner. “What, you don’t think I can take care of myself?”

“That’s not what I meant,” he said, edging on frustration because of your constant retorts and dismissals to answering his questions. “It’s not you I’m worried about, it’s other people.”

“Why are you worried?” you asked, both confused and disbelieving. It was starting to feel like he was singling you out or putting you down, and now what? He was looking out for you? You couldn’t believe that when he’d already expressed how he felt about you and the rest of the detention squad. “I thought you didn’t care. I thought there was no such thing as fate.”

There was a minute of him just processing your words, dark eyes shifting with whatever thought appeared and disappeared. Finally, he scoffed. “Of course I don’t.”

This didn’t surprise you or hurt you, but maybe somewhere deeper, it was a little disappointing. You shrugged. “So, then why are you here?”

“I…” He looked like he wasn’t sure if he even wanted to speak. “Like music.”

Your eyebrows lifted from surprise. “You do?”

He gave a tentative shrug, maybe even a little nervous. “I’ve been playing since I was a kid. I just like coming to watch.” He looked directly at you, fleetingly analyzing you. “You’ve clearly never been to a show.”

You raised your arms in disbelief. “Seriously? Is my outfit really that bad?”

“What?”

You studied his face for a moment, coming to the conclusion that he really had no clue what you were talking about. “Nothing.”

“I didn’t mean you look bad, just that you seem… out of place.”

I feel like it too, was what you wanted to say. If he could sense it too, who was to say other people couldn’t? You knew you were making a big deal out of something small, but the last thing you wanted to do was stand out. As the princess of the academy—that was what everyone called you, at least—at some point, it had been normal to be put under the spotlight, to be seen. But the last time all the attention had been on you, well, lets just say, it was the same time you lost that title.

“Look, I have to go.”

You looked at Yoongi when he’d spoken again, suddenly starting to feel anxious at the prospect of being left alone in this place. “Go?”

“Yeah, it’s just for a bit,” he reassured you. Despite saying that he didn’t care, he seemed to understand your nervousness as your eyes darted around you. “Don’t talk to any strangers and don’t do anything stupid.”

You scoffed at that. What was he, your father? There was no time for another snarky comment on your part because he’d already disappeared, leaving you amidst the crowd and the flashing lights.

“I leave you alone for not even half an hour and you’ve already managed to do something stupid.”

“Smoking is not stupid,” you replied, unbothered and without looking at the boy as he came to stand with you where you’d found a quiet spot outside the club. Anyone else, and you would’ve been alarmed. But you had a guess to whose voice it was. Or maybe the nicotine was getting to your head. “It’s not good, but it’s not stupid. In fact, it’s quite an effective way to relieve stress.”

“Yeah, and very effective for developing cancer,” Yoongi retorted. From his peripheral vision, he looked over you. “I never thought I’d see the princess of Sky, smoking at an underground rap club.”

You sent a grin his way, blowing out a ring of smoke that disappeared as it reached him. “I’m just full of surprises today.”

While he seemed unbothered by the smoke, there was a hint of amusement across his face as he watched you. “That, you are. Toss me one.”

You passed him the box from your bag. It was your favourite brand, Carpe Noctem, that had been introduced to you by one of Sana’s friends. “I thought you were too smart for cigarettes.”

“Organic?” He turned the box around to show you the front of it, his expression half amused, half incredulous. “Really?”

“What? I have taste.”

He snorted at that, tossing the pack back to you. “Sure you do.”

You watched from the corner of your eye as he lit his cigarette. “Where’d you go anyway? You missed the last performance.”

“I had something to take care of.” He didn’t really leave much room for you to further question it, despite how vague he was being. He took a drag from the cigarette. “So, you stayed for that. How was it?”

You had to take a minute to gather your thoughts. “I was… surprised, to be honest. I wasn’t expecting anything like that when I got here.”

“How so?”

“Most rappers rap about drugs and sex and partying,” you explained. “Superficial things. But this one… he wrote about how life can get hard and scary all of a sudden. Like we can grow up so fast without even realizing it. That things are going to get hard and you’ll want to give up, but you just have to push through even harder.”

“You sound like you can relate.”

You shrugged, eyebrows furrowed in a thoughtful manner. A part of you definitely knew the reason why you were openly spouting out all this was because of the slight buzz from the cigarette. But either way, you wanted to keep going. “I think everyone can relate. We all have these thoughts, we’re just too scared to say them out loud. I think it was brave of him to write about it.”

More brave than you had ever been, at least. Maybe if you’d been able to voice your thoughts and feelings, you wouldn’t have lost everything that wasn’t yours anymore.

Yoongi’s voice broke through your thoughts. “I didn’t think you liked rap music.”

“Yeah, I mean, I guess I’ve never thought of myself as a rap kind of girl. But I think this guy could possibly change my mind.” You rolled the cigarette between your fingers, a grin playing at your mouth. “Maybe I should ask for an autograph. Shit, I don’t think I even know his name.”

“Agust D.” He noticed your quizzical glance. “He comes here often, so I’m familiar with him.”

“Have you ever met him?”

“Not really,” he answered with a shrug. He put out the cigarette. “The performers like to stay under their stage names. They don’t really socialize still in costume, you know.”

“Makes sense.” As your phone buzzed in your pocket, you got rid of the cigarette and reached for it. Once you read the text, you couldn’t stop yourself from sighing in annoyance.

“Something wrong?” Yoongi asked, when you didn’t say anything for a while.

“No.” You let the screen go black, your mother’s name disappearing with it. “Just my mom, asking why I’m not home yet.”

He grinned, lopsided. “So, the princess has a curfew after all.”

You rolled your eyes, lighthearted but still annoyed. “Just when I was beginning to think you were actually slightly tolerable.” With a glance at the night sky above you and another at the time, you realized that maybe it was a good time to get back home anyway. You could feel most of your energy draining too. Or maybe that was from smoking. “It’s late. I should get going.”

As you pulled out your phone to text Sana, Yoongi asked, “Are you waiting for your friend?”

“No, I don’t want to make her leave early because of me.”

“I’ll help you get a cab.”

Your eyes shot towards him in surprise. “You don’t have to—“

“Hey.” It was that tone again. It wasn’t demanding or rude, but calm and finalizing. “It’s fine. You look like you’ve had a lot to smoke anyway. Come on.”

You avoided eye contact as he motioned for you to walk first. Sure, it was a nice gesture, but you were ready to say it wasn’t necessary. Maybe you were overthinking it. Not everyone had ulterior motives. Sometimes people could do good things just because they were inherently good. The question was: was this boy, who you knew but didn’t know at the same time, doing this to be kind or was there something else to it?

“Let me know when you reach your place,” Yoongi told you as he opened the taxi’s door.

You started to nod but realized something. “I don’t have your number.” You raised a finger before he could say anything sarcastic. “And don’t say something stupid like this is my way of getting your number, because I assure you, that’s the least plausible case.”

When he rolled his eyes, it was playful and amused. “Whatever you say, princess.”

You shot him a pointed look as he entered his contact on your phone. “I’m beginning to think you don’t actually remember my name.”

“Just get in the car.”

“All right, all right.” He closed the door once you were in, and you looked up at him momentarily through the open window. Why was this so weird all of a sudden? “Um, thanks.”

He nodded, his version of ‘you’re welcome’. By the way, he was avoiding direct eye contact too, you thought that maybe it wasn’t just you who felt weird. “Get home safe.”

As the taxi began to drive away from Cypher, you didn’t look as his figure grew smaller in the side mirror.

As you walked towards your apartment building, your were coming up with what you would say to your mother. A late night study session at Sana’s house sounded believable. But then how would you explain the smell of smoke on your clothes? You slowed your step when you saw a figure sitting on the porch steps in front of the building’s entrance.

“Jungkook?” Your guess was confirmed when the boy’s head jerked up at the sound of your voice. “What are you doing here?”

He looked at you as you moved towards him, as though only then seeing you and realizing what he was doing. He got to his feet. “I’m sorry. This was stupid. I’ll just go.”

“Wait,” you said quickly, holding a hand out to stop him. He glanced at where you’d grabbed him by his arm and you awkwardly let go. “You’re here now, so you might as well… stay a little longer.”

He turned around fully to face you, staring the floor for the most part. He looked like he’d thrown on a hoodie and just left the house by the way his hair was a bit disheveled. You only then realized that despite your first impressions of him and him being a little younger than you, he was taller you. “I just—I couldn’t stay there,” he spoke finally.

“Your home?” you asked, frowning.

“No,” he said right away, a darkness covering his eyes. “That’s not my home.”

You decided not to pry anymore for now. It was like seeing a different person suddenly, one that wasn’t just quiet or closed off but had so many more shades you never thought of. “Have you eaten yet? There’s a ramen place a few blocks away.”

You led the way when he didn’t refuse the offer and ended up sitting at a table at the restaurant near the windows. The waitress recognized you and took your orders right away, even bringing the food to you in a surprisingly short time with free drinks. While you ate, you couldn’t help but steal glances at Jungkook. He was pretty concentrated in his food in a way that made you think he didn’t get to enjoy meals like this often. Was his home life really as it bad as it seemed?

“You didn’t have to pay for me.” Jungkook’s voice broke your trance. You’d just left the restaurant and were walking down the sidewalk leading away from the bustling town centre.

“Well, I wasn’t going to let you.” You raised a hand to count on your fingers as you continued talking. “Firstly, this isn’t a date. And the guy doesn’t always have to pay. And second, I refuse to play into society’s gender conforming roles.”

He laughed quietly. “Thank you, Y/N.”

The tenderness in his voice warmed your chest, and made you look away. “It’s just ramen.” There was also no need to mention that this was coming out of your pay check.

He shook his head. “Not just for this. You stopped me from doing something so stupid, and you’ve tried reaching out to me after, and I…I was being an asshole. I’m sorry.”

You hummed lightly. “Asshole is kind of strong.” You didn’t like the tension in his shoulders so nudged him playfully as you walked. “But apology accepted.”

“So, where did you come from?” Jungkook asked after some moments of silence. “Why are you dressed like that?”

You groaned for what seemed like the hundredth time tonight, wishing you had a coat or jacket to cover up. “Ugh, all right. You hate my outfit. I get it.”

His eyes widened like he believed he genuinely offended you. “What? No. You look pretty—I—I mean, nice. You look nice.”

You thought it was cute how he fumbled for the words, closing his eyes at the end like that could hide him from his embarrassment. Not wanting to only add to that, you decided not to comment on it. “Then you’re the first person all night to think so.”

“I don’t believe that.”

Stopping in front and turning to look at him, you sent him a big grin. “You know what, Jungkook? I think we should hang out more. I think having you around will be good for my self esteem.”

The shy introvert in him seemed to disappear when he snorted in amusement. “Are you sure? I think your ego is growing.”

“No, that’s my self esteem.”

“Nope, definitely not.” He blinked, shaking his head. “Sorry, that was too forward—“

You raised a hand in his direction to stop him. “Hey, you don’t have to be so careful around me. I can take a joke. Are you this serious with everyone?”

He thought about it for a moment before shrugging. “I guess so. I just don’t want to say the wrong thing, you know?”

You did know. Before this year, it was like you’d been walking on eggshells around your old friends, especially Yuna. You didn’t want to start any conflict or be thought of as anything less for not saying or doing the right things. But only now did you realize how exhausting living like that had been.

“That’s very dichotomous, don’t you think?” you spoke finally. “Like there’s only one right thing and one wrong thing. But there are a lot. Not just right or wrong, but shades in between and so many more. I think you were doing well a few minutes ago. When you weren’t thinking too much.”

“There aren’t a lot of people in my life I think I can be that… comfortable around,” he admitted with some reluctance, but you admired his courage for saying it anyway.

You nodded. “I get it. I’m a little introverted myself.”

His eyes found yours, full of disbelief. “You? Introverted? But you get along with people so well. Everyone loves you.”

The reflexive flinch was something you had to hide as Yuna’s words came back to you. She’d meant it in a bitter, patronizing way, but the boy in front of you seemed to really believe it. “I did what I had to do to get by. Anyway, people don’t actually know me, so they don’t technically like me. They just like what they think I’m like, what they expect me to be.”

Jungkook bit his lip, looking down at his feet for a moment. “Does that ever bother you? When people have these expectations from you?”

“Yeah, it used to.” You frowned when you noticed him. “Why? Are there people who’re expecting a lot from you?”

He sighed. He was somewhat more comfortable talking openly to you, probably because you’d shared something about yourself first. Something that wasn’t common knowledge or an easy thing to say. Something personal. “Just my mom… my stepfamily. It feels like they want me to be this poster child, good at school and quiet and submissive. Does as he’s told, doesn’t cause any trouble.”

“Is that what you meant before?” you decided to ask after thinking through it first. “That they wouldn’t notice if you disappeared?”

A sheepish, embarrassed smile crossed his face as he averted his gaze again. There wasn’t a lot of wind and it wasn’t very chilly, but a light pink colour appeared on his cheeks. “Ah, sorry. That was stupid.” He spoke after some seconds. “Sometimes I feel like an object there. Like I don’t have a voice. And if I screw up… they can easily replace me.”

You stared at him sadly, hating that someone so young, someone your own age, had to feel like their existence was meaningless. Maybe you felt more deeply about it because it struck a chord with you. “You’re a person, Jungkook. I’m sorry they don’t treat you like one.”

He shrugged, but it was like his shoulders felt heavy and carrying this burden was hard for him. “It’s been like this for a while. I thought I’d have gotten used to it, but some days, I’m just tired, you know?”

“I know,” you said quietly. “Tell you what. Give me your phone.” He seemed reluctant at first but complied. You added your number as a contact. “If you ever feel tired of anything, don’t do anything rash, okay? Just call or text. Tell me how you’re feeling. Rant, shout, let me take you out for ramen again, do whatever you have to, but…”

“I will,” he promised, taking his phone back. There was a small smile playing on his lips, a little shy and a little grateful. “Call, that is. Not do anything stupid. I’m sorry about that again. I must’ve really freaked you out.”

“Scared me a little, for sure. Maybe a lot.” You gave a small chuckle. “I’ve done my fair share of stupid things though. But at least, now we don’t have to do stupid things by ourselves.”

These past few days, in your interactions with these boys you’d met in detention, felt like a different you, one who was starting to feel okay with opening up again. A year ago, you wouldn’t have shared personal things with your friends so easily, mostly because you were used to internalizing your emotions. You had to when the picture of you that was painted for the entire school was composed and pretty and likeable. Your true feelings wouldn’t have fit with those words.

You’d never been that kind to people either. Being in the middle of the group you’d associated with, none of you looked to make friends with anyone outside your social circle. And to the people on the outside, you were all unapproachable. So you never got to speak with other people at the academy often. You wanted to think that this was a good change. That maybe it was okay to help people and to be kind to them, and to let them do the same for you. You knew that you would’ve liked that for yourself a few months ago.

part iv // part vi

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onf-headcanons · 4 years ago

Text

ONF IN PSYCHO PASS AU (PART 3)

Setting : angst, murder (influenced mass murder), futuristic society, you can read the introduction post prior reading this AU headcanon (for a better understanding cos some keywords will be slightly difficult for non anime audiences)

And warning long post and shipping hinting (I wont write it over explicit but if you are anime audience you can get the hint of which character I based so its suggestive should you integrated anime counterpart to ONF couterpart) if you are uncomfortable with that just kindly ignore it. Only adding it not just because to follow original series but also for the AU/headcanon storyline conflict purposes

Below is the known situation when the story starts in Yuto's POV

Yuto - Inspector

Changyoon - Inspector

Hyojin - Enforcer former Inspector

Jaeyoung - Enforcer

Minkyun - Analyst

Seungjun & Minseok - dead

And again sorry if its messy (Cos mainly I just want this AU to exist and making it to a birthday gift for myself XD)

The whole structure is followed the anime,but I will skip filler/solo case episodes and fast paced-ify to focus on main storyline. Also I will tweak my words/wordings to a more simpler format so that I wont cause you all headache.

1-6

(loosely based on episode 9)

Due to recent events, Hyojin felt that Yuto need to get an upgrade on his skills of being an Inspector. He has good hunch but he still needs a proper profiling skills. Yuto mentioned that he did get to learn profiling skills on his training but both his seniors felt it is not enough because of his inexperience.

Even though a bit apologetic, Changyoon agrees with Hyojin that Yuto need to catch up to obtain veteran skills as soon as possible. (He only joined 8 months ago) . They both have the same person in mind who could help.

It is off day for Yuto, so Hyojin arranged them two to go visit a former professor of training academy.

The former professor is nice enough to agree on giving Yuto a crash course in profiling and extra tips for observant skills. Back in office, Changyoon advises Yuto that he better be careful and Yuto has to keep his own stance when approaching with people like their professor.

"One must have their own clarity so that their hue does not get clouded by others easily." Changyoon says to Yuto with a stern look. Yuto understands Changyoon's points.

And since they got their young culprit for previous case, CID tries to interrogate her. Changyoon and Jaeyoung tried to talk with the young girl during Hyojin and Yuto's absence but fruitless.

But when Yuto goes into the room to give it a try, the girl starts to open her mouth but not confessing or revealing details. Instead she made a request while looking at the one way mirror behind Yuto.

"That man with red hair, he is your dog isn't it?" the girl's choice of word made Yuto uncomfortable. "I will only speak to him alone if you allow me to, no cameras, no writings and no one behind the mirror."

That request was bizarre, the whole CID understands the risk of doing that as well. Jaeyoung also offers to step up and increase the interrogation with a bit of violence, but being rejected by Yuto. "She has kept quiet for that long and you think suddenly change interrogation tactic after request was made will let her mouth loose? I don't think so." Yuto tries to convinceJaeyoung.

Minkyun is worried, not about Hyojin's interrogation skills, but should there is something deeper, he is worried that Hyojin might get caught up into it. The only thing that can save CID and Hyojin from trouble was digital record of what happen in the room, be it video or audio.

Hyojin only pats Minkyun's shoulder and gives him a reassuring smile. And then gives Changyoon and Yuto both a nod before heading out the monitor room.

"Don't get clouded and played by the criminal, Hyojin." Changyoon blurts out his concern before Hyojin's presence exits entirely from the space the team was in.

Hyojin unplugs the surveillance camera and to let the young criminal feels assured, Hyojin brought in a few piece of papers and tape to tape up the one way mirror so that those who are behind it could not see what is happening inside.

Outside/behind the one way mirror, Changyoon is letting out sighs of regret of letting Hyojin going in alone and without any record to be left. Is not that he does not trust him, but since the system views Hyojin as delusional, how much of Hyojin they can trust without going against the system? He is worried to the extent he is rubbing his stomach due to gastric. Yuto notices that but Changyoon brushes him off and endure it alone.

Meanwhile Jaeyoung and Minkyun agreed that tech department should come up with a mini audio recorder that wont gain suspicions

Back in the interrogation room, Hyojin finally sits in front of the girl who is smiling eerily towards him. Hyojin did not back off, but he is not with his bright persona and his tone is cold as he speaks, "So, I heard you wish to talk to me? "

The girl leans forward, still smiling while contemplating at Hyojin's face. "Yes, I have been dying to see you in person." she whispers. "If I remembers precisely, Hyojin? Am I right?"

Hyojin's hunch starts to alert him, he does not like this. He clearly understood immediately that the girl is trying to get on the upper hand for the interaction. But he persuaded himself that his name might have been leaked during the process of catching their culprit, could be his colleague or Changyoon calling him and the girl heard it, happens occasionally.

But he quickly adjusted his mentality. He raises an eyebrow and leans closer towards the girl, "So you go through all the length just to get caught and meet me? I don't think I have that kind of charisma though..."

The girl lifts her hand and rest a side of her cheek on her knuckles/back of her hand, her eyes were still locked with Hyojin's. " You underestimated yourself, mister." she hisses. "And no, I let myself got caught because I still wanted to live."

Hyojin is not a fool and by that phrase, he can tell there is someone behind the young criminal from her words. And this smart minor, is trying to seek refuge from CID/Bureau. What kind of existence behind her, so frightening that even a murderer with a grotesque MO felt intimidated? Or was it because she is still a kid?

"Now that is rude," the girl breaks of the silence, "To go off into your own train of thoughts while ignoring a young lady in front of you."

Hyojin knew he is busted but he still kept his cool and poker face. He was an Inspector/detective before though. "My bad." Hyojin apologies while mirroring her posture and smiles at her fondly. "So why do you even wanted to see me anyways? "

"That's because I heard a lot about you. To the extent that my ears are going to bleed." she replies. "It was boring listening to it, while I do hope he talk about himself more."

Hyojin raises a corner of his lip and mutters. "Are you sure it's fine for you to drop hints like that?"

The girl only laughs and pushes her upper body backwards, her back comes contact to the back rest of the chair she is sitting. "That is to make sure you are paying attention."

"So how is he like?" Hyojin asks with a interested expression.

The young girl's smiles broaden as she thinks of the said person. "Brilliant. smart and handsome. " Her smile vanishes as she continues, "But my instincts tells me that you definitely wouldn't want to get to his bad side."

"Is he your partner in crime? " Hyojin asks and the girl shakes her head.

"More like a consultant or a middle person. "

"How did you come in contact with such dangerous existence?" Hyojin tries to sound as concerned as possible. "Is it group?"

The girl shakes her head again and starts to tell her story how she met her consultant for crime at school. He approached her during her own free time drawing in the art classroom. (This part you can follow anime where Makishima interacts with the young girl)

"Why are you betraying him now?" Hyojin asks after he listened.

"I put all the pieces together and I figured out that, you, could be his weakness." She smiles at Hyojin again. "Its a woman's instinct and I am pretty accurate for most of the times." She winks at Hyojin while at it.

"How so? Was it something he said about me?" Hyojin tries to sound that he is intrigued.

"The context since its vague. For most of the times, he goes Hyojin once said blah blah blah... or Hyojin once did blah blah.." the girl mentions " But I can tell that he cares about you a whole lot."

"He tried to tell me some stories in one go everytime he monitors me doing my work but I could not focus to all of it because I was busy cutting up my artwork, I only remembered how he laughed when he said you are a red-hair maniac." the girl recalls. "And that is how I recognized you."

"Did he showed you a picture of me?" Hyojin chuckles

"No, " she retorts, "He said you will never lost your love towards dying your hair red. Never once he met someone in his whole life has such obsession with dying their hair red. Should the two of meet again, he is confident to recognise you instantly."

Hyojin could not help feeling confused, his circle was not large and once he has turned into Enforcer, his ties were all cut and he is living in seclusion/under confinement by the system. So who is this someone who seems to know about him in a personal level?

Noticed that Hyojin is perplexed, the girl suddenly laughs.

"Oh dear, could it be you don't even know who he is???" She laughs while hitting the table lightly with her fist. "Oh my, what drama is this!"

"Looks like you got a fan, mister! An obsessed one." She exclaims while giggling at her thoughts. "Awwww....I feel very much sorry for him now. I was being slightly jealous but now...hahahahah"

This does not make any sense to Hyojin at all. There are so many criminals out there but this criminal mastermind admires a plain Enforcer like him with 0 notable committed crime, to the extent of executing a psycho hazard?

Hyojin decided to drop the act and asks the girl in a straight face who the hell is the person who told the girl about himself

The girl still finds the whole situation amusing , nearly laugh her heart out. She catches her breath while Hyojin patiently waits for his answer.

"I will tell you his name, he calls himself J-US." She wipes the tears rolling from her eyes due to laughing too much. "Does it ring any bell?" the girl questions Hyojin.

No it doesn't. But Hyojin regains his cool.

"I met a lot of people in my life, it will take some time eventually." Hyojin shrugs his shoulder.

"You'd better," the girl inhales before she tells Hyojin. "Poor him if you never remembers."

The girl then ends the topic by telling Hyojin that she will cooperate about her MO/crime. But what she told Hyojin in that room, is only for him exclusively.

"I don't think anyone will believe you if you told them that you got a fan." The girl's smile is back to the eerie vibe just like the moment when Hyojin comes into the room.

Hyojin leaves the room, closes the door and frowns as he goes into his train of thoughts again...

Who is this J-US?

Is the girl even telling the truth?? They never talked about the possibility of a mastermind in front of her so why did she and why can she see through CID's concern, found a perfect timing to prove the existence of a criminal mastermind?

And why she deliberately shared about this J-US to Hyojin only and purposely does not want it to be recorded?

Did she and the criminal mastermind behind wanted CID to break and having distrust amongst themselves? (If so its a smart move considering Changyoon's attitude towards Hyojin)

And should Hyojin told Changyoon about this J-US, will Changyon believe in him? Hyojin's hunch told him no.

And the most important point of all,

DOES THIS J-US ACTUALLY HAVE ANY THING TO DO WITH THE TERROR ATTACK FROM 2 YEARS AGO??

To be continued at part 4

#onf #onf headcanons #onf imagines #onf scenarios #onf headcanon #psycho pass au #scheduled

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exdeputysonso-archive · 4 years ago

Note

Some thoughts that occurred as I watched episodes 9 & 10 of Low Winter Sun:

- I like it when people point out what a hypocrite Frank is.

- Oh, he’s blowing the whistle? Will he turn himself in as well?

- Nope, he’s fleeing.

- And turning into a Karen, apparently.

- You know what’s really sad? The cinematography is good. The music is good. The actors are all great, and doing their best. This show betrayed all of that.

- Frank is the wooooooooooooooorst.

- His ex-wife doesn’t deserve any of this.

- Oh, Sean.

- Nick! :D

- Damon! :D

- Frank >:C

- You could end this and save Sean if you just took some fucking responsibility for your actions you disgusting piece of shit.

- Maya! :D

- NO! Don’t pull Maya into your bullshit, Frank, she’s trying to do better!

- Damon and Nick’s painfully short moments of screen time are the only things bringing me any semblance of joy right now.

- Like, the real tension is with them. The real heart. I’m tired of not being invested in what I’m watching.

- Hahaha, I’ve been watching online and the upload of the 10th episode is a duplicate of the 9th 😂. So now I’ll be watching the last 25 minutes in German (which I do not speak). Well except for PJ’s scenes, thanks to you. A fitting end for this truly terrible time I’ve been having.

- Okay, so Maya and Sean are talking (in German).

- Now Maya is talking to Frank (in German).

- Joe is talking to his family (in German).

- Ooh, a scene with Damon and Maya! In German!

- Actually, I’ll just watch your supercut for what’s left of Damon, Maya, and Nick and simply fast forward through everything else.

- Damon is looking very beautiful against the incoming dusk (in English).

- (Actually, someone should gif him here 👀)

- Nooooooo, Maya, don’t just hang up! Say you love him back!

- 🎵 Fast forwarding past the boring stuff 🎶

- Oh no. The Worst Part is coming up.

- Nick is a good friend. I love him.

- (Someone should gif him and Damon together, too 👀)

- No, Damon, don’t go outside ...

- That was cruel.

- Maya was waiting for him :’(

- Nickkkkkkkk :’(((((((((

- Maya T-T

- Thanks to various Wikis I’ve concluded that both English and German Frank (and Joe) got away with it, for now. Fuck that.

- I’m so curious as to how they planned on continuing this. Would Frank become even worse? Would there be any comeuppance for Joe and the chief? What would happen to Maya and Nick with Damon gone? Just how the fuck were they going to continue something so utterly miserable.

- Anyway, this show deserved cancellation.

- Thank god you put the deleted scenes at the end of your cut, it’ll give me a chance to mend my heart.

- Damon is not supposed to be clean shaven, what is this 😆.

- Where were these scenes supposed to go??

- I’m not really into sex/intimate scenes – I find them awkward more often than not – but Maya kissing that woman was pretty hot 👌.

- What ... was that second to last one in the woods about? Was it foreshadowing something that ended up cut as well? I WANT TO KNOW.

- Annnnnnnd that’s it. Over. Yippie.

So, yeah. This left me in a bad mood. I feel like I’ll be fast forwarding to PJ’s scenes when watching the next few films. And maybe also rewatch my favorite moments from GenKill, Sinister, and The Wire. At least. Ugh, what a waste of potential that was.

(Oh, and I was being partly facetious about the giffing – as in I don’t expect you to gif anything unless you want to.)

Thanks for participating in my journey through nitty-gritty crime drama hell filled with hot men and women in seriously boring outfits 💖.

/Foolhardy

Behind a Read More because this is so long haha...

- Omg Frank being a Karen lmao. Y’know that’s one of the many problems with this show... no comic relief. Even dramas needs some it! This show is just so drab.

- I enjoyed the stuff between Damon and Nick and we didn’t get nearly enough of it. I’m sitting here thinking maybe if the show had gotten another season but 1.) nothing would be worth a second season and 2.) oh right Damon died (I’m in denial).

- Lol I feel like watching the main storyline in German at least couldn’t make things worse.

- Legitimately, I’m happy for gif suggestions because sometimes I want to gif and just need some inspo. I won’t promise anything, but always feel free to suggest! (Actually, I had one thing in mind from this show I was already thinking about giffing first.)

- Oh good so it sounds like you were at least prepared for Damon’s death. It’s still fucking brutal though. And going back to what you said about Damon being the flawed but sympathetic underdog... it’s just so upsetting because things go wrong for him, and they never turn around and go right! He gets double-crossed, his friend is killed, he’s abused by the police, things get rocky with Maya, and then to top it all off, he is killed off in such an abrupt and unceremonious way. I don’t blame PJ for talking shit about this show.

- Even though the ending of this show was frustrating more than anything, the very short bit we got of Maya and Nick grieving still devastated me.

- The clean shaven scenes are from the pilot. I’m so glad they went with scruffy Damon instead.

- I’m also very curious as to what they were planning for the next season. I don’t really see where Maya and Nick’s stories would have gone without Damon.

Anyways, thanks again for sharing your thoughts, and I’m sorry you suffered through this show. I didn’t want to dissuade you from your foolhardiness or possibly ruin too much of the show for you, but perhaps I should have given you more of a head’s up. I’ve enjoyed following your journey though! I’ve both loved the chance to think about Damon some more, and also the opportunity to complain about this show again. Hope you get to go watch some good stuff now and your mood improves! <3

#i'm sorry those were a lot of words lmao #i shouldn't let this dumb show get to me #but ugh the way they treated pj's character makes me go off lol #mel answers #ask #foolhardy anon #anonymous #long post

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unnursvanablog · 4 years ago

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All the books I read in 2020 / part 2.

The Golem and the Jinni - Helene Wecker: ☆☆☆☆☆

Loved how these myths and legends were used within this story. It is a beautiful tale of immigration and friendship and how Wecker conveyed that was just beautiful. The text did drag its feet in some places, but this story is also so character driven; their experience with the world, and their longings, so I understand that slow pace. Everything about it felt really sincere and it truly is a book that leaves you with something. I have never read anything like this before and I felt like it bridges the gap between historical history and fantasy well.

Naturally Tan - Tan France: ☆☆☆

I listened to this book in one sitting as I drove from the capital area and all the way home to the countryside. And I really enjoyed it because I really like Tan France and he narrated the audiobook himself. The text, the chapters and therefor the book itself goes a bit all over the place and it feels a bit vapid at times. It was about everything and nothing, really.

The Silence of Bones - June Hur: ☆☆☆

I am not so much for these types of mystery novels, so it was not something that drew me forward, but I did find the atmosphere that Hur created within the story and the historical elements really great and made the story quite enjoyable. I felt like learning a little more about certain parts of Korean history that I did not know before, and I really enjoyed that.

In the Labyrinth of Drakes - Marie Brennan: ☆☆☆

The world that Brennan has created continues to wow me. It is complex and it’s so much fun to travel around it. I love getting to know these characters at different stages of their lives and it just makes you like them even more. The story often runs into the same problem for me and that is that I find the first parts of the story so exciting, it is an adventure, but then it loses me a little towards the end.

The Will to Battle - Ada Palmer: ☆☆

After the amazing storyline of the second book, this book really lacked any excitement within the plot to propel you further and instead we got a lot of philosophical lessons and musings. In the previous books I felt like Palmer managed to strike a balance between those things, but not here. So little was going on. This story is deep, beautifully written, and complex and all that, but the text is often so long and dense, and my dyslexia just wants to skip these walls of texts that often just feel like statements about something philosophical but not real conversations or reflections from the characters.

The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep - H.G. Parry: ☆☆☆☆

I was hoping for a 'grown up version' of Cornelia Funke's Inkheart, and although that was not quite what I got, I really enjoyed this. I thought the world was well thought out, and the idea of the readers interpretation of the characters and even literary criticism can affect how they would appear in our world was a cool concept. In some places I felt that the story was a bit stunted or towards the end I was starting to predict where it was going, and there was a lot of misunderstanding between the characters so the story could continue, which got on my nerves. But for the majority of the time, it was a really fun read.

Midnight Sun - Stephenie Meyer: ☆

You can judge me for this. I judge myself too. It was strange to fall back into the Twilight world after completely falling out of it after reading the last Twilight book. But out of sheer curiosity, I decided to give this one a try. But wow… this was not fun and added almost nothing to the original story and Edward is just so damn boring and having to spend time in his mind was just kind of a torment.

The Absolute Sandman, vol 1 & 2 - Neil Gaiman: ☆☆, ☆

I was going to listen to the whole thing via the new and shiny audible version of the Sandman comics, but I could sit through more than the first two volumes. I could not tolerate the violence against the female and queer characters. Oh my god! You do not have to go that far to make your story edgy, or create a complex, dark world. Nothing that happened seemed to move me or make me want to keep listening to this story. It does not really seem to revolve around anything. Or maybe I am just too annoyed to pay attention to the story. Fortunately, Gaiman seems to have improved as a writer since.

Radio Silence - Alice Oseman: ☆☆☆☆

Listened to this and although contemporary YA is is usually not something that hooks me or interest me in any way, Oseman manages to make the story so genuine and down to earth despite all the teenage drama, and the character felt so real that it just draws you in. The daily problems of teenagers often seem too dramatic or unreal to me in books like this, but that was not here. The text is not to flowery, but not too simple either. The story just as a really good pace going on. Everything just flowed together.

Wicked Fox - Kat Cho: ☆☆☆

The story did sound like a kdrama to me and I was hoping it would be that. Just fun and cute and fluffy with some loveable characters and sprinkle of myths and legends. It was fun, it didn't go into too much depth with most things within the story. It kinda brushes over a lot of things. For me the book started of well, but then towards the middle of the book things start to happen to fast and there was not enough time spent on bulding things up, so in the end the story kinda went nowhere for me. The little bits of the Gumiho legend, at least how the legend was presented in this book, inbetween the chapters was my favorite bit.

The Silmarillion - J.R.R. Tolkien: ☆☆☆☆

You can tell that worldbuilding and just spending time making things up for this magical world that he crated was one of the things Tolkien enjoyed the most when it came to writing. The stories about Middle Earth, even the backstories, are so rich and lushus. I do struggle with the writing style, it does feel a bit dry to me at times, and it does feel like short stories set in the world of Middle Earth and not at tightly knit story which isn't always my cup of tea so it did take me a while to get into it.

The Left-Handed Booksellers of London - Garth Nix: ☆☆☆

The story really throws you straight into the action and you just have to find your bearings as best as you can while the story goes on. It was really fast paced and the story never really stops for too long to give you a breather. It was light and funny, a little weird and the character were whimsical, which I enjoyed. Sometimes I felt like I was in a Doctor Who episode, except with magic and not aliens. I just wish it would have let the story breath a little more for me to really enjoy the world that Nix had crafted and such things.

A Deadly Education - Naomi Novik: ☆☆

I do not know what happened here, but wow, this was so not Novik at her best. Neither the characters or the worldbuilding that I am used to getting from Novik was in this book and for the most part there wasn't a whole lot going on in this books. I can deal with a slow burning book and really just enjoy a good fantasy world but there was very little interesting things here to explore. I can deal with a unlikeable main character, but this one didn't grow at all during the book, she just kept on reminding us why she was cranky all the time and how much she delighted in it. There was a whole lot of telling about this magical school and the diverse world outside of it, but very little showing so it all seems rather empty and after a while I just started to skim over the text. And there was really no story there that kept me going and I could not see the purpose for anything that happened.

The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - V.E. Schwab: ☆☆☆☆☆

Oh, wow. The feeling that this book created inside me and the sincerity within the text just grabbed me and would not let me go. I made me feel a lot of things, and I love when a books do that. There are so many emotions behind it and you can really feel them. The atmosphere that Schwab creates in the story is great and it hooks you in, but it is the character and their stories that make you stay. I don't usually enjoy timejumps, but Schwab did them so well and they do explain the story and the motivations for each of the characters really well, although it get's a bit repetitive at times, especially towards the end.

The Moomins: The Exploits of Moominpappa, Moominsummer Madness, Moominland Midwinter - Tove Jansson: ☆☆☆☆

I love the Moomins, but there's just something so cozy about these stories and characters. They are part of my childhood, they are so light, whimiscal and funny, yet have depth to them, which is a balance that is difficult to achieve in my opinion. My journey through this book took me almost a year, as I only occasionally picked it up to enjoy the text and my stay in this small, strange world that Jansson created. I was savoring it.

Shine - Jessica Jung: ☆☆☆

SNSD, the band that Jesscia Jung was in, is my favorite kpop band since I started listening to kpop more than 10 years ago and their music is one of the main reasons why I got into kpop to begin with. So of course I was intrigued! The story here is something that I think could be inspired Jessica experiences within the kpop industry, or that thought never left me as I read it even if there were lot of unbelievable things going on within these pages. But it's definitely overdramatized at times. But how she talks about gender discrimination between female singers and male singer, from other people in the business and from the fans and the expectations that people have towards these singers and such. That felt really authentic to me. For all the glamor and the dazzle of the kpop world within this book the plot and the characters are a bit dull, and some of the more unbelievable events (like all of those trips and secret cafes) often pulled me out of the story. And I did not find the clichéd YA romance fun to read at all.

#book reviews #book review

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tillidontneedfantasy · 5 years ago

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‘Thank U, Next’ - Ariana Grande REVIEW: I think we’re ALL so fucking grateful for her ex

Only 6 months following the release of her fourth studio album, Sweetener (2018), Ariana Grande released her fifth, Thank U, Next (2019). According to Grande, the entire album was written in the span of two weeks with a group of her close friends and collaborators. Inspiration comes at you fast, and boy, did the latter part of Ariana’s 2019 call for some more art. And sometimes the only way to process tragedy is to create something beautiful from it.

Thank U, Next sometimes feels like an invasion of privacy, most specifically on “ghostin’,” a track about grieving the tragic loss of her ex-boyfriend and talented rap star, Mac Miller, while still trying to show love to her then-fiancé, SNL’s Pete Davidson. As beautiful and heartbreaking as the song is, it wasn’t even supposed to make the album, and any listener can understand why, but Scooter Braun insisted. Another intimate track about Miller that Grande did want to share, “imagine,” is a breathtaking daydream of the kind of life they could have shared together. Though much of the album is somber sentiments hidden behind playful melodies, exploring the difficult few years Grande has had to undergo in the limelight at the height of her fame, Thank U, Next is, at the end of the day, a celebration. “7 rings,” (which samples The Sound Of Music’s “My Favorite Things”), “NASA,” and the titular track, “thank u, next” explore Grande’s success, her star-power, and the important lesson she’s learned that she doesn’t need anyone but herself; she’s “so good with that,” as are we.

BEST TRACK(S): “thank u, next,” “in my head”

Pop artists and label executives will study the release of “thank u, next,” for many, many years to come. Discussing all of her most significant and high profile relationships in one verse, throwing shade at her own father in the bridge, the early 2000’s iconic empowered female romcom throwbacks in the music video, and just the title itself, “thank u, next,” all encapsulate a significant pop cultural moment. With this track, Ariana spins tragedy on its head and challenges us all to be positive about what’s to come, to find success in failures (”God forbid something happens / ‘least this song is a smash!”), and to be grateful for our past and the lessons it has taught us.

She isn’t as grateful on “in my head,” a track that reviews her blind spots in a failed relationship. The song begins with a voicemail from her friend, who lovingly but sternly tells her, “You’re in love with a version of a person that you’ve created in your head, that you are trying to but cannot fix…the only thing that you can fix is yourself.” The music is a bit distorted, just like her perception of this person. She claims that her imagination is “too creative,” seeing only the best of him, and that “they” (presumably her friends, just like the one leaving the voicemail) only see the bad, using the biblical tale of Cain and Abel to contrast their perception of this person. Just as her friend reprimands her, she is trying to help someone grow who isn’t willing to do the work themself. “I saw your potential without seeing credentials / maybe that’s the issue,” she contemplates in the outro. We all have had that experience of giving someone too much benefit of the doubt because we love them so blindly, believing we could be the ones to change something within someone somehow without them putting any of their own efforts forward; “in my head” is a good reminder that we usually can’t, nor should we try.

WEAKEST TRACK: “break up with your girlfriend, I’m bored”

Considering the mature content and storyline of this album, “break up with your girlfriend, I’m bored” feels like five steps backward. To make this track the closer instead of “thank u, next,” feels like a complete misfire. Despite its commercial success, this song offers the least out of everything else on the record; the most exciting part is the sample from *NSYNC’s “It Makes Me Ill,” which more than anything makes me feel the overwhelming urge to go listen to No Strings Attached (2000).

THE IN-BETWEENS

The fact that Sweetener was released only half a year prior to Thank U, Next, is present throughout the album, and although Grande went through events that made her evolve personally, she did not have quite as much time to catch up sonically. Songs such as “bad idea” and “make up” are very fun, but do not push her sound forward in any way. However, on most other tracks, that evolution is present in the lyrical content. One topic covered in "needy" and “fake smile” is Ariana’s difficulty balancing her fame and her mental well-being. “Fuck a fake smile" she declares. While this is especially true for Ariana, considering there are cameras constantly flashing her way and so much expected of her, this applies to all listeners as well: it’s okay to not be okay sometimes, and you don’t have to mask your pain for anyone, nor should you. As the process of creating art shows, being honest about your struggles makes the fight against them all the easier.

BEST PROSPECTIVE SINGLE: “NASA”

Immediately following her admission to being needy, she turns the tables around and asks for some space, reminding the subject of the song that she's a star, hence the clever title. "NASA" is an extremely enjoyable track and has all the makings of a successful single: impossible not to dance (or at least bob your head), easy to sing along, not too serious yet still empowering. The main takeaway is that Grande is not going to let anyone drag her under with them, and neither should you.

***

All of that being said, I would like to take a moment to destroy the notion that only despair and pain can inspire art. This simply is not true. The reality is that sadness is easier to access and explore than happiness; we have more words for it, more concrete situations that define it, more stakes in it. I wish Ariana Grande never had to go through any of the things she has in the past few years. But there are two ways that we can handle adversity: let it defeat us, or defeat it. Grande chose the latter with Thank U, Next. Not only is this a great example to set for her fans of all ages, but it is a great precedent for herself, too; the best use of your past is utilizing it as a means to move forward, and so, she marches on. But hopefully there’s some joy-inspired music on the horizon. We’re so fucking grateful for your ex(es) too, Ariana, but we’re ready for what’s next. Grade: 4/5

DISCLAIMER – REVIEWER’S BIAS: I have watched Ariana Grande go from performing on Broadway in the musical 13 to becoming a breakout star on Nickelodeon’s Victorious to becoming one of this generation’s biggest pop stars. I find Ariana’s voice to be phenomenal and for her music to be quite enjoyable. “Into You” is an all-time pop jam. I wasn’t a huge fan of Sweetener, so receiving Thank U, Next so quickly thereafter was a nice pallet cleanser for me. I feel like I spent the entire past year worried about Ariana, as there are many videos of her online crying throughout her shows, barely able to even sing. What I hope more than anything for Ariana is to be able to find the right balance for her to do her job and preserve her mental health so that she can continue to create more pop cultural moments for us all to look back on for years to come.

#ariana grande #thank u next #imagine #needy #NASA #bloodline #fake smile #bad idea #make up #ghostin #in my head #7 rings #break up with your girlfriend #pop #Album of the Year #review #music #grammys

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angieschiffahoi · 5 years ago

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are u satisfied with avalance's current storyline? or LOT in general? seemed weird that avalance only met in s3 and now they seemed to have settled to domesticity. or maybe caity & jes are just that good lol. there's so much storylines too, even mick. like b4 some characters tend to get sidelined now everyone has one

Alright, so. Yes & Yes-ish.

I would’ve loved to have some more slow-burn, some more angsty “getting there” stuff, a lot more bickering and getting on each other’s nerves before arriving to “stable loving couple” but I do love that they’re so natural with each other.

This is a super-hero show and it is so rare for the only main couple to be made of two women, who are given screentime and major storylines, together and outside of the relationship. Ava bonding with the crew? Aunt Ava? I mean. That’s good sh*t right there. We almost never get two well-rounded characters, who interact lovingly with each other, their relationship isn’t threatened by a love triangle and they get to be characters outside of the relationship.

Ava has grown so much and while I loved her as Agent Sharpe, I’m absolutely in awe of Avalance as co-captains. They are a team and you can see that, without them having to share too many lovey-dovey scenes or storylines.

I also realize this is a huge cast and they have to balance so many storylines. It is basically impossible for the writers to let them have the “main couple” treatment all the way. But I’m ok with what we got. It’s not the epic love story many were expecting, but I’m satisfied and enjoying most of the things this show does.

Last episode? Jeez, the angst.

To tell you the truth I wasn’t that satisfied of how they handled season 4 (I’m not a huge fan of Nate getting the spotlight; nothing against the guy, it’s just that his “emotional” storylines tend to be... boring). But the second half of season 5 was amazing and I adore how Charlie and Astra have been given the spotlight (I was afraid John would be overshadowing Astra, again, in her own story, but he’s off shagging Zari 2.0 during a zombie apocalypse and I’m down for that).

Before the show ends, for Avalance, I would like to see some more of their individual storylines. Sara has reached a point where they’ve overused her past (redeeming her fully) and probably don’t really know what to do with her in an individual storyline. So, I think it would be great if they don’t cure this magical illness and she has to come to terms with the fact that she will stay blind and a seer.

As for Ava: tell us more on those effing clones. It’s been two seasons! I want to know more!

Overall, it’s a solid ship and I thoroughly enjoyed the journey getting to where we are now. It was fast, but not without complications and incomprehensions. I’m good and looking forward to having them for as long as we can. (I’d rather the Legends writers go off and write another spin-off, than have them go on and write Sara out and give the captain mantle to someone else. Zari Tomaz was a perfect candidate and I would’ve enjoyed LOT with her as a captain, but I don’t think right now there’s anyone who could fill that spot.)

#legends of tomorrow #lot s5 #lot spoilers #avalance #angie rants #anon #anon ask #sara lance #ava sharpe

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ranger-report · 4 years ago

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Review: THE WITCHER (2007)

With the recent popularity of The Witcher across mass media thanks to the Netflix series starring Henry Cavill and his arms, I finally began what I consider an epic quest to play through all three of the Witcher games and their DLC. This is, by no means, a small task, but you know I might as well sacrifice myself in the name of entertainment. So I began to play The Witcher: Enhanced Edition, a PC game released in 2007 based on the books of the same name written by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. Now that I’ve beaten it I have quite a few things to say about it. But, first thing’s first, and that is easily the most obvious aspect of this game:

It has not aged well. Not at all.

To begin with, the graphics of the game are very 2007. A product of seventh generation graphical technology to be sure, it doesn’t help that it’s running on BioWare’s Aurora engine, which was notoriously difficult to use outside BioWare’s own house. There’s all kinds of graphical glitches, people pass through objects, character models and textures are fuzzy and sometimes plasticine, facial animations are sometimes downright frightening. There’s also the fact that the game reuses the same character model for multiple characters, both important and unimportant, leading me to confusion sometimes as I swore I just saw that goddamn priest I just killed wandering around the city. Except now there’s two of him. And all the merchants look the same, too! This being the enhanced edition there’s a number of upgrades and clarity that’s been added in to the experience, but it’s still dated for better or worse. What has aged well is the use of impressionistic paintings for the purpose of certain cutscenes, adding an extra dose of epic quality to some of the goings-ons. This also includes more “intimate endeavors” Geralt can engage in. Long story short, there’s a lot of women in this game who are willing to throw themselves at Geralt, and if you play the cards right you can get down to business pretty quickly. Sometimes too quickly; one time I brought a woman a loaf of bread and she had sex with Geralt. It was confusing and out of left field. But each encounter comes with a brief piece of tasteful nude artwork of the lady in question as blurred models bump and grind in the background. And, to be completely honest, the artwork is really well done. Although it is very jarring to play a game where sex workers are clearly labeled “whores” and “hookers,” most of the women have a good amount of agency in the proceedings, particularly the two primary romance options, Triss and Shani. Geralt can actually romance these two women to the point of committed relationship, which is refreshing to see that sex is not just a reward for “romancing” a character in a game, but something the characters enjoy, while the romance comes from genuinely caring about someone.

Despite the graphical despondency, main characters fare slightly better, as anyone who needs to be easily recognizable is, and are crafted with much more detail and fine tuning than regular NPCs. While this is fine, sometimes finding these characters is a chore and a half. The Witcher has a day/night cycle, and characters follow this, but when my map is telling me I need to be in one place to meet up with someone, I can’t count that they will actually be there depending on the time of day. And I can’t artificially move the time of day forward unless I have a campfire to meditate at. Meditation is an interesting mechanic, btw, as it basically acts as Geralt “sleeping” and also functions as your chance to level up and distribute talents. On paper, I’m okay with that. In reality, campfires and places to sleep are few and far between, unless you’re close to an inn or someone who doesn’t mind you crashing at their place. And oftentimes you’re running back and forth in linear paths across deceptively open areas, back and forth and back and forth in what can only best be described as tedium when you’ll approach the quest marker on your map, only to find no one there, and need to hoof it back to a fireplace to change the time again. This can also lead to extra consternation if the game crashes, which it did a handful of times during my fifty hours of gametime. Save often.

And, finally, there’s the combat. For better or worse, it’s an exercise in clicking on people to attack them, then clicking again at the right time when your icon changes in order to string together combos. That’s fine. Combat is also divided into three styles between two swords: strong, fast, and group style, with steel blade and silver blade. Strong and fast styles speak for themselves; group style is for when you’re surrounded and need to attack everyone around you. Steel blade is for humans, silver blade for monsters. Sounds simple right? It is -- too simple. Clicking on people is as easy as that, with little interaction otherwise. Sure, you have to figure out which style to use on which enemies, and you can couple in Signs (magic spells) to make your life easier, but repeatedly clicking on people to whack away is bland at best, frustrating at worst. Later on when you can level up your sword styles to include more powerful/deadly moves it becomes more challenging, but even then it remains a strange exercise in an odd hybrid of real time/tactical combat. Finding oneself surrounded can lead to death quickly, so if you’re not paying attention, you can go from overpowered madman to witcher meat in seconds. Literally seconds: enemies I would have no problem with one-on-one, or even two-on-one, suddenly escalate to an unstoppable force the moment that three or more come in for an attack. The game has a way of forcing Geralt into combat situations without warning as well, making it easy to be thoroughly unprepared for a deadly gangbang around a corner and a cutscene. The game also doesn’t have much of an autosave system, meaning that if you haven’t been hitting that quicksave button very often, there’s a deep chance you could get your ass handed to you and reload a ways back from where you were. Easily the biggest frustration for me in terms of playing the game. Enemies will stack status effects to clobber you; Geralt will attack and get hit; sometimes you can stagger enemies and one-hit kill them, but enemies can still attack while Geralt goes through the slow kill animation. I don’t know how many times I cursed the game in anguish as I was forced to reload yet again after a fourth monster swept in out of nowhere, or the one monster I was fighting decided to get in a Stun attack, then proceed to own my ass. Pausing the game at any time using the space bar can help to get bearings, but you can’t execute commands while paused. Saving in combat isn’t allowed either, so if a big fight starts and you realize you haven’t saved in a while, you’re screwed. Couple this frustration with the intensely boring act of clicking on monsters over and over again to fight them, and here we have the biggest weakness of the whole product.

That being said -- is the game worth playing in 2020? Despite being 13 years of age and regarded as the least accessible game in the franchise, what it brings to the table is a surprisingly effective storyline that involves subject matter which is shockingly relevant. Racial tension. Class war. Plague. Quarantine. Riots. Gray morals. Strange creatures. Frustration. Difficulty spikes. Blurred lines between human and monster. If that sounds hauntingly familiar, it’s probably because that sums up the first half of the year 2020. To say that I was expecting a 13-year-old game to reflect the state of current events would be a massive lie; in fact, at the outset of the game, I was struggling to maintain interest at all. However, as time goes, the story and the choices made are what end up being the game’s biggest strength, and ultimately its salvation.

The story opens up simply enough: Geralt of Rivia, our titular witcher, has been found in a near-death state and nursed back to health by his fellow witchers and former lover, the sorceress Triss Merigold. Coming back from the dead has cost him his memories, however, and the amnesiac Geralt is quickly plunged into conflict as a group of mercenaries called Salamandra attack the witchers’s base to steal the secrets of their mutations. Swords clash, magic flies back and forth, and Geralt is tasked with giving chase in order to retrieve the mutagenic formulae so they can’t be used for harm.

A great conceit in this is that Geralt having no memory of his past allows anyone unfamiliar with the world to gently ease in and learn about the world as he does. The game is set after the events of the books, so this gives an added bonus to readers already knowledgable of events. And as the player learns more about Geralt and his world, a variety of choices come into play. Most RPGs have this option to allow player freedom in telling a story, but unforseen consequences follow every decision; whether they come into play immediately or further down the road remains to be seen, but there’s a ripple effect that goes above and beyond the usual Choose Your Own Adventure details which essentially craft your character into a good guy or a bad guy. What’s brilliant about this is that the game never hints at this; it isn’t until the game breaks away into a cutscene with monologue does Geralt realize how his choices crafted this specific moment. For example, in the Salamandra attack, Geralt can choose to fight off a horrific monster or help Triss defend the witcher laboratory. Depending on that choice, some characters may live or die, and the game will let you know that when it wants to....usually to hammer home a point.

What works to this being the strength of the game even further is the deep narrative, which is often times complex to the point of frustration. But the story develops at a natural pace, and never presents any choice as being right or wrong, black or white, good or bad. The main gist is that the human city of Vizima is under quarantine, fighting off a vicious plague, but also defending itself from the rise of nonhuman freedom fighters comprised of elves and dwarves. The city is divided on this, particularly in class division, with any nonhuman residents living in the slum quarter, while the affluent humans live exclusively in the market quarter. There are humans in the slums too, make no mistake, but it’s very apparent who is allowed to live where. However, the game makes no stance on this whatsoever; Geralt is presented with a series of choices based on the information at hand, and as the game goes on, comes closer and closer to choosing a side between the freedom fighters or the humans as tensions comes to a head with violence. Every action has a consequence, positive or negative, but also depending on who the consequences affect. Questions of moral arise; what truly defines a monster? Is it appearance, or is it action? It’s difficult to really spell it out further without diving into spoilers, as the story should be experienced first hand without any warning. That being said, it’s refreshing to play through a game in which the character is clearly defined as being the hero, but then forces the player to ask if their actions are truly heroic or actually damaging in the quest to destroy the greater evil.

In closing, The Witcher is a mixed bag. Narratively, it’s a stellar effort that swings for the fences and sticks the landing. From a gameplay perspective, it’s a dated game that’s sometimes a chore to play through, even to the point of dire frustration. But it’s one that I can cautiously recommend. While it certainly took me six or so hours to finally believe that I had the hang of it -- I didn’t -- struggling through the first quarter of the game can yield beautiful results, especially once it rolls into the final, jaw-dropping conclusion. What I will say is that it really beats you over the head with your choices, even the ones you didn’t know you were making, and holds up a mirror to ask if your decisions were really for the greater good or not. Outstanding work in that regard. I’m looking forward to playing The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings now that I’ve beaten this, and someday I’ll even come back to see the paths I could have taken. Just with tempered expectations this time around.

Final score: 7/10

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