#this guy's meant to be like a boss character rather than a player so i'm not too worried about him being broken

[tokiro07]

Inscribed: Aaron Alphonse Betterman (goes by Alphonse)

Epithet: A - suggests A) priority, B) singularity, and C) indefinite identity

Abilities:

Just A Guy - allows Alphonse to become indistinguishable from others in a crowd by enforcing "A" as an indefinite article. Alphonse can apply this to a target as well, to hide a person or object from enemies

Birds of A Feather - allows Alphonse to warp himself to an ally or vice versa

A Single Hit - when striking an enemy with this move, Alphonse has a chance to reduce their Stamina to 1 instantly depending on the success of his roll. The damage can be reduced to half, a quarter, or 1 based on his own attack roll and his opponent's defensive roll. In the unlikely event that one party rolls a critical success AND the other rolls a critical failure, the failing party's Stamina is reduced to 0. The less Stamina this attack takes from the target, the more Stamina it costs to use, making it a high-risk/high-reward move

One of A Kind - a passive ability that increases Alphonse's abilities when he is fighting without any allies or underlings, either making rolls more likely to succeed or increasing damage on success

Alphabetical Order - an anytime ability where Alphonse can forcefully rearrange initiative to follow alphabetical order, nearly ensuring he goes next in the turn order, as few names come before "Aaron"

Alpha and Omega - Alphonse's Epitome, wherein his commands are given absolute priority over all others, making his word irresistible for the duration

[inposterumcumgaudio]

Maybe you could talk about the department of achieves?

Oooh! Certainly!

The Department of Archives, Printing, and Recycling serves a lot of functions in the game. Because it exists in place of what would be a tutorial level in any other game, I'm going to talk about it in the way that one typically would a tutorial level, by breaking down each part you encounter and explaining its intent.

But, as I implied, it's not a tutorial at all! They just plonk your ass in front of a redactor and tell you to make choices. They don't give you time to read anything but the headlines of the articles Arthur judges on his own and your only hint as to what criteria he's judging is that "Mrs. Bower Wins Garden Prize" is acceptable while "No Swimming in the River" is not.

Been here two seconds and we're already in over our heads. But that's okay because it turns out the choice you're going to be asked to make is not so tricky.

I think it would have been fun if you taking your Joy gave you, like, five minutes of some silly shit before dumping you to the credits. You know how like every Far Cry starts with the bad guy telling you to sit tight for five minutes and if you actually do it, you get an alternate ending? Ah well. I'm asking a lot.

Anyway, you choose to Remember, obvs, and so you're presented your new primary objective: Find Your Brother. But you're Arthur Officeman, not some intrepid adventurer, so rather than leaping into action, you sit and stare at your desk in a fog of regret for several hours until your boss comes to ask what the hell you've been doing all day, remind you that bureaucracy never sleeps, and say that you have an office party to attend too.

You do get a little tutorial, I guess, in how sitting and standing work, how to pick up objects, and how to apply them to other objects all in in the part where you have to change the power cell. Then its back to the redactor.

I think the redactor... mini-game? is kind of a twofold mean trick on the player. I'm the kind of person who thinks that's fun, but I think most people are not.

On one's first playthrough, you have no idea by what parameters an article should be redacted or not. You might have guessed that articles that are negative should be rejected while articles that are positive should be accepted, but you'd be wrong! And maybe you think, "Well, this article just put my character into a tailspin for six hours so I should probably reject that one even if it is positive." And you'd still be wrong! And the funniest part is, you also have no idea that these choices you're making have no effect on your game whatsoever. So you're probably reading the articles carefully, learning about the lore, trying to find anything to give you a clue as to how to do your boring office job when you thought this game was supposed to be about finding your brother.

(And then you go to Clive's office and the "correct" way to do his articles is backwards to make him look bad. Then you can go to Prudence's office and do hers too, but hers don't even give you an achievement, just a richer understanding of the world. *eyeroll*)

The prologue was added to the game fairly early and not changed much. Originally, the game was meant to involve much more binary choice making like this, so it's hard to tell if the meaninglessness of the choices was always intended (à la the intentionally meaningless choices the Lutece twins present you with in BioShock Infinite, a game to which We Happy Few is often compared) or if it was dialed back to it when the choice making mechanics were also pulled back.

Alternative to all that, if you secretly are an intrepid adventurer or particularly goal oriented, you could just get up after you choose what to do about the scrap prize article and never bother redacting any others.

All right, we're really in the game now!

You go out the door and the first thing you see is a window into a room full of glass pneumatic tubes. And Arthur muses aloud at it, "Do you think the canister wonders what life's like outside the tube? Of course he'd have to break the tube to get out. And that would break it for everybody." It's a metaphor for the game. Arthur (you'll learn if you die) is a poet, after all.

Next is Clive's office. Boy's a mess. And based on the lore notes (if you choose to read them as you pick them up because you cannot access the menu at this point otherwise) and the environmental storytelling, he does not like you.

What's funny is, you probably already know that you are playing as one of "three moderately terrible people", but you're still the hero of this story and Clive's office is a shithole, so presenting you with the knowledge that he hates your guts sounds like a him problem. Clearly the terrible person here is Clive. His office is the office of a terrible person.

Moving on to Prudence's office.

Oh, her office is a shithole too. But she can be excused because Arthur likes her, she's been on holiday, and she isn't writing to Victoria pretending to be a "naturally shy woman". Prudence's office is also where we learn that her overdue vacation may be the result of her also being off her Joy.

Now your fellow executive coworkers' offices might have shown their respective inner turmoil, but up to now, the rest of the Department has been ship shape.

Turning the corner from Prudence's office is your first clue that it's not just she and Clive but the office itself that is struggling to cope.

It's at this point that you can watch helplessly as your coworker Hopkin Jones is forcibly injected with Joy by a Doctor, despite his protestations that he's already taken it. (This mechanic was definitely removed from the game; originally Doctors were supposed to be able to do this to you too). Tells you Doctors are not your friend, but also reinforces Victoria asking Arthur if he's off his Joy and then Arthur himself wondering if Prudence is. Any signs of disquiet will be regarded with suspicion.

A story I have been meaning to do is that Hopkin wasn't actually unhappy at all (at least not emotionally), but rather he was upset about the flooding in his office and maybe was a little too plaintive in asking Victoria to arrange a council worker to come fix it. Not liking his tone and thinking he would do well to make do and mend, she sent a Doctor to perk him up instead. Which is also a metaphor. We do not fix problems in Wellington Wells; we put on a smile and pretend it's not a problem at all.

As we move on into the editor bullpen, the chaos only intensifies.

The entire office is in disarray. You are starting to see the genuine scope of the disorder now. The whole room is a winding maze and halfway through, you are confronted with your first glimpse of Uncle Jack.

Remember how we just learned Doctors are not our friend? Very clever, Compulsion.

The room actually also gets in progressively worse condition as you move between the desks. You can't see the knocked over chairs when you walk in the door; it's only once you're around the bend. And once you turn the other corner...

The tube is broken and the canisters don't know where to go outside of it. Dohoho. Foreboding. Foreshadowing.

And then you finally attend Dierdre's birthday party and see the scene that sold this game, the second best cutscene in the entire thing. There's not much to actually say about it artistically that hasn't already been said.

I have some fun trivia stuff about it for you though.

Guy on the right is Clive. You can tell because before Victoria even starts supposing about Arthur being a Downer, he's already gearing up to run and go tell on him. He's been waiting for this day and his moment has finally arrived.

There's some weird glitching that happens with the props being held by the characters in this scene. Victoria's riding crop doubles when she sets it on the table and the one in her hand hovers and gets lodged in her torso in a way that her hands mostly hide in the scene. If you wait to hit the "pinata", the other guy on the left will have two kazoos in his hand.

Here's the scene on YouTube so you can check those out:

The cake Victoria made for Dierdre actually has her name on it even though you're never free to move in that room and the cutscene never gets close enough to show it.

The rotten fruit basket also has flies on it, but the particle effect has a very short draw distance so it's not visible in the cutscene either.

As for practical insights about the Department of Archives, now that my level design analysis is out of the way, one really must wonder at the concept of the redaction office at all.

It's terribly inefficient. Would it not be easier to burn old newspapers? Why are people reading old newspapers with such frequency as to need to have a whole office for editing them? I suppose that must be for the same reason whoever works in the Inter-Network room has four copies of Emma in there with them. But even still, why not just dispose of old newspapers if they're so troublesome?

What is the purpose of individually reading old articles (exposing editors to them in a way that reminds me a lot of those stories about what it's like to work as a Facebook content moderator) and having them make a judgement call on it? What is the point if, like the article with Percy's photo, a single news piece can cause one person to destroy the entire town when it was still deemed acceptable for everyone else to read?

I have to wonder if there wasn't initially some move to preserve these papers. As someone who uses newspapers.com for other projects, I can see the appeal even in a world that wants to forget the recent past. In this respect, I think particularly Vanessa Tinker-Bell and Clive Hamilton at the O' Courant would have made the argument for it. At the same time, I think they'd also both see the wisdom in cutting the unhappy parts out without having to be convinced of it. Vanessa was herself trying to edit Les Misérables to leave out the sad parts.

Redaction is still a very inefficient solution to this problem, but it is also a relic of wartime procedure and bureaucratically slow. It's thematically perfect, really. Exactly the kind of meaningless work Arthur Officeman should be doing in this world while also being the perfect catalyst for him to abandon it.

On a final note, I wonder then if the Government Printing Office that Arthur seeks out to replace his Letter of Transit wasn't merged into the Department of Archives, "Printing", and Recycling. That would be more efficient, while also making it more difficult to actually get anything accomplished there, since you'd then need a Letter of Transit to visit the office that prints the Letters of Transit.

[fantasyinvader]

So, I picked up the first Injustice game this weekend. Used copy, cheaper than it would be to buy it off the PSN. Definitely feels like a weekend rental title, though that might be because I've only played the story mode rather than go for individual character endings and such. I've always been kinda interested in this though, despite me sucking at most fighting games, because it always sounded more like an expanded version of the Justice League episodes surrounding the Justice Lords. But I've always been a bit wary because, despite being a fanboy of the character, I've always heard it was Batwank.

I'm a fan of Batman, but he's a very flawed character. So pushing him as this paragon is, well, it's never going to sit right with me. Batman is a character who takes the law into his own hands and at times goes too far. I'm not a fan of what I've heard about the White Knight stuff, but even in Nolan's The Dark Knight it was always a question of how far Batman would go for Gotham. While he might not kill directly, but is totally okay leaving someone to die in this incarnation, he ultimately needs to go full Big Brother in order to stop Joker. It's a line to far for Lucien Fox, who quits afterwards. The fact is, Batman can be like Dirty Harry or Cobra in his pursuit of justice when handled improperly. That the law comes across as a hinderance to him by protecting criminals, so it's okay when he breaks it.

Considering the backlash The Punisher has gotten and talk about him being retired, it's a delicate balance for such a character.

But back to Injustice… it was okay. I don't feel like it was stroking the ol' Batdick too much. Was Insurrection!Batman the good guy? Yeah. But he also roped in the regular timeline Justice League without asking them in order to unlock the Kryptonite weapon, and we had to beat him up in order to bring regular Supes to deal with Proto-Homelander. So, very flawed good guy needing the regular Batman to remove his pointy lil head from his Batass. I think the problem with Insurrection!Batman is that we're given only the barest amount of context for the story in order for it to work, with the rest meant to be fleshed out by the comics, comics which paint this guy in a worse light as he didn't support Superman emotionally after Metropolis was nuked and instead treated him like scum over Joker's death.

Having Batman fight Supes as the tutorial sucks though, especially since they kept fighting Superman for the final boss.

But that's really it. It's more like the game is supposed to get players interested in the comics for this timeline, and if you have problems with that timeline then the story doesn't work as well. I mean, regular Supes and Wondie get some really epic moments to their credit, Regime!Flash switches sides after Shaz…the real CAPTAIN MARVEL is killed for saying Regime!Superman is going too far which also works with the explanation that not all the heroes broke bad. They're just afraid of this Superman who is like a less-fleshed out Homelander. If only there was such a skin for that final fight.

So the basic story has overall a decent execution that's hampered by supplimentary materials, much like Gundam SEED. It set up a fertile field to expand upon it's story, but for many people said expansion ruins it.

I'm going to go watch Superman The Movie tonight.

[rosesvioletshardy]

how to lose a hockey player in 10 days - mat barzal chapter 1

chapter 1 is finally here and i'm sorry for the wait hopefully you guys like it

also i don't think i mentioned this but the reader does use she/her pronouns

summary: when 2 people are given similar bets, things may not go the way they think it'll go

series masterlist

mat masterlist

main masterlist

# of words: 3,902

warnings: mentions of drinking (all characters are of age)

----------

It's been a few days since Y/N got the offer from Adam and a few days since she’s wondered if it was worth risking her career for something that she wanted. She knew she had to get an answer back to him before the season ended and playoffs began, but she couldn’t figure out what to do. On one hand, if she does it, she’ll be able to write about things she actually cares about and not things that could send a player off the edge if they read it. On the other hand, if she doesn’t, she’ll be stuck writing things that no one wants to read as long as it gets Adam and the company more money. She talked to her friends about it and they thought she should go for it, especially if she wanted to talk about something she cares about. Y/N was going to get more opinions from people she could trust but she was leaning towards the idea though she hated herself for it.

Now she was sitting in her living room with her roommates as they all sat around watching a game as usual for Y/N to talk about and write an article on later. Her roommates were often okay with her doing this almost every other night or her coming home late because she has to interview players before and after games, not to mention her eyes being focused on either her computer or her phone so she made sure to have the perfect article written. This time it was different. They wanted to do something different rather than just go to sleep after writing down notes and highlights from the game.

“We need a night out.” melissa blurted out as the 2nd period came to an end

“What?” Y/N asked shocked, seeing that it was a weeknight and that they all had work the next day

“We. need. A. night. Out.” melissa said taking a small pause between each word

“She’s right. Specifically you. You overwork yourself too much.” jack mentioned

“Exactly. Also didn’t you have this like bet thing with your boss? That’s the best way to meet a guy, like I know there are single guys on both teams that are our age or even near our age. It may be Wednesday night, but you haven’t gone out since who knows how long.” melissa exaggerated

She wasn’t wrong. Either the islanders or the devils would probably be out celebrating after the game tonight and you couldn’t help but pull yourself together to say the words and plus the three of you haven’t hung out alone that didn’t involve more friends of theirs since who knows how long

“Okay, you’re right. I’ll go. Just let me finish writing my notes and let the game finish?”

The two roommates simply just nodded and went back to paying attention to the game. Y/N couldn’t help but think about the consequences that’ll come out of what she’ll be doing. She quickly shook away the thoughts and looked over to her friends. She knew that they would support anything she did and she was the same with them. When she first told them about what she and Adam had talked about, they first thought she was crazy but they supported her and would stand by her incase she needed reassurance.

For Mat on the other hand, the night out after a game meant a celebration night rather than needing a night out in general. After scoring the overtime goal, he figured that there was going to some sort of celebration with rounds on him. He didn’t mind it, especially if it meant celebrating him. The locker room was filled with the electric energy of the guys congratulating him as soon as he came back from the post game interview with claps and yelling going all around.

The ride over to the bar was quiet, there was occasional talk before they entered and headed over to their usual spot. Jack ordered their usual drinks as they tried to spot out anyone. The three friends subtly scanned the bar but not trying to make themselves seem suspicious. On the other side of the bar, two hockey players sat as they talked. One with his girlfriend by his side and the other by himself. Their team had their wives or girlfriends out with them if they were able to make it but it was their star player who truly stood out. His best friend has been trying for the longest time to set him up, but in the end, they were never successful

“I’m just saying, you need a girlfriend. Like right now.”

“No I don’t, we have playoffs to focus on and no offense to Riley, but a girl at the moment will just be a distraction. Not to mention I can make any girl fall in love with me, it doesn’t matter if it’s 1 day or 5 months. I can sell myself to any woman”

“Alright, alright I give up. If that’s how you want to be then” Anthony said while taking a sip of his beer

“No, I’m not done with this.” his girlfriend, Riley, said leaning forward getting more interested as to how Mat was acting

“Alright, I'll tell you this. If you can get a girl to fall in love with you in 10 days, then we’ll stop trying to set you up” she finishes

“I’m down with that” anthony added now interested as to what his girlfriend just said

Mat sat there and pondered for a moment as to what Riley told him. There were things that he could get out of but part of him was telling him that it was a bad idea but the other part of him told him to go for it, especially if it meant that Anthony and Riley would stop setting him up.

“Why 10 days though?” Mat asked, curious about why Riley had chose that specific time frame but not questioning it further after his question

“5 days is too short and 5 months is too long” Riley started

“I mean I fell in love with Beau a week into dating but I didn’t say it until 3 weeks” she finished making beau shrug and smile as he remembered the day and immediately told mat as soon as she was gone

“Alright i’ll take that bet” he said, leaning forward over the table with a hint cockiness in his tone

“You sound a little cocky there Mathew” Riley said

“Not cocky, confident”

“Okay then, at the end of the season gala, if you go to it with a girl that’s really in love with you, then we stop setting you up or bothering you about your singleness” Riley concluded shaking Mat’s hand taking that the bet was now on

“One condition: she has to be within our age. Meaning no one older than 24, but not younger than 21.” mat had explained to them

“Fine.”

The three then scanned the entire bar looking for someone that can fulfill the bet that was made. On the other side of the bar sat the other three friends looking for someone for a similar reason. It was hard for the both of them since neither party knew who was single and who wasn’t and whatever choice someone made there was a downside to it. There was either a partner that they weren’t aware of, they were a little older than their age range, etc. It wasn’t until Jack spotted someone he was familiar with. He nudged Melissa’s arm making her smirk and nudged Y/N making her look over. Mat Barzal. Melissa saw that he wasn’t with anyone and knew that he could possibly be single and good for Y/N. Riley and Anthony looked over and saw her and looked at each other. Riley recognized Y/N. She’s seen her in the building they both worked at and gossip tended to spread around there quickly but it never left the fifth floor but they’ve maybe only interacted with each other once. Riley soon nudged Anthony signaling that she needed to talk to him in private. “Hey, we’re going to get more drinks, do you want anything?” Anthony lied to Mat

“No, I'm fine.” he answered back, showing that his beer was still somewhat full. When they slipped away, Riley pulled him to the bar where they were somewhat out of Mat’s view but still visible

“What, why’d you drag me here?” anthony asked while signaling for another drink

“Over there at the table, 2 girls and 1 guy. We have to get Mat to notice her. I’ve seen her in the building I work at. I think her name was like Y/N or something.”

“Okay what does this have to do with anything” anthony questioned

“Someone told me she’s working on an article and has to observe for 10 days on a hockey player. I love Mat, I really do and he’s our friend and I know we said we won’t mess with his love life and such but the bet and everything.”

“But”

“But I think she could do it for him” Riley finished as they looked over to her talking to her friends

The two smiled at Mat who was looking around the bar to try and find someone but not make it too obvious as to who they were looking at. They threw in some jokes at who their friend should date but they decided to be serious about the situation and kicked Mat’s shin, making him yell out in pain

“Ow! What the fuck was that for Riles?!”

“You see that girl? On the other side sitting with the guy and the girl? I think we found your target” riley said sitting back in her seat

“This is your chance. That’s fucking Mat Barzal. He could be easy” Melissa yelled in Y/N’s ear over the loud chatter

“I know”

“Looks like he’s looking over to you” jack added on as he saw Mat look over in your direction, with a smirk before looking away and went back to talking to his friends

“I’m going to get a drink” Y/N told them as she slid out of her seat, empty handed

“But your drink-oh okay i see what you’re doing, go ahead” Melissa finally caught on as she let you go

Y/N ordered a new drink and pretended to throw looks over her shoulder, trying to get Mat to notice her. Mat did notice her but he tried not to make it obvious that he was looking at her and just gave a smirk while looking away. It went on like that for a few minutes and Y/N had sent Melissa and Jack texts in their group chat about whether or not Mat was going to get up from his seat and make a move on her. Mat noticed what she was doing and knew it was bothering her, so he kept it going for a few more minutes before he set his drink down and slid out of his drink

“Where are you going?” Anthony asked his best friend out of curiosity, knowing what he was going to do

“I’m going to get a new drink” mat smirked

He walked through the small crowd as people congratulated him over to the bar where there were a few people drinking, including Y/N. He waved down the bartender signaling for another beer and while he waited, he saw the woman from the side of his eye as she slowly took small sips of her drink.

“Hi” Mat voiced, making Y/N turn her head to him

“Hi” Y/N voiced as he began to talk to her, making them both smile

“I’m Mat”

“This is going to sound weird, but I know. Mat Barzal of the New York Islanders” Y/N started

“But I’m Y/N L/N” she finished

“Pretty sure I knew you knew who I was but it still didn’t stop me from coming over here. Especially after you’ve been throwing looks to me all night”

“And who said you haven’t been throwing looks at me? You came over here to talk to me by pretending to say you needed a new drink to your friends, when yours looks half full.” Y/N shot back as mat laughed and looked down before looking back at her

“Okay you got me there, but I couldn't help it. Especially when the person I wanted to talk is so beautiful” Mat told her as his voice got lower, causing the blood to rush to Y/N’s face

“You really know your way to make a girl blush don’t you”

“Well I have been known to break hearts since I was a teenager” he finished as the two smiled and stared in silence

“Unattached?” Mat asked Y/N with curiosity

“Currently” she answered

“Likewise” Mat agreed, adjusting in his seat

“Surprising” Y/N said sarcastically

“Psycho?” he shot back, joking

“Rarely” she answered leaning forward, smirking

“Interested?”

“Perhaps”

“Hungry?”

“Starving”

“Leaving?”

“Now?”

“Mmhm”

“Okay, one second” she told him getting out of her seat and headed over to where Jack and Melissa were

“So?” Melissa asked leaning over the table

“We’re going out now for something to eat. I’m going to see if he’s the keeper”

“And if he is?”

“Tomorrow night, i’ll flip the switch” she finished handing over her car keys over to them as she turned around to walk back to Mat who was now waiting at the door

“Good luck babe.” Melissa started

“And be safe!” jack finished as the two watched their friend walk out with the hockey player as he put his hand on her back while opening the door for her to leave first

“This isn’t going to end well”

“Yeah, but we have to support her” melissa added as she took the rest of Y/N’s drink

Y/N and Mat walked out and headed towards Mat’s car where he proceeded to open the door for her so she could get in. She thanked him before climbing in as he walked around to go to the driver’s side. The car ride wasn’t silent as the radio played quietly and the two adults began to talk a little more about themselves before arriving at the restaurant that Anders had told the team about before. Mat was doing his best to impress her by being the perfect gentlemen that his mom taught him to be and making sure all his attention was on Y/N, despite them meeting and going out for about an hour

“Alright, what do you think” mat asked breaking the silence after he had just broken another crab leg

“About the food or you?” Y/N questioned him

“Both”

“This is delicious, and I’m still deciding” She winked, making him laugh

“Well, is there anything I can do to help” he asked before taking a drink of his water

“Yeah, you can answer some questions for me” Y/N started as if she didn’t know much about him already

““Some” sounds a little too indefinite and since I already answered a bunch today, I’ll let you have three”

“Are you guys always out celebrating with beers and drinks after clinching a playoff spot”

“I mean, i mean we’re not supposed to but a little alcohol every once in a while with a little partying doesn’t hurt anyone” he answered honestly before continuing

“What about you?”

“What about me?” Y/N had answered with a confused look

“Your name sounds familiar, have I seen or heard of you before”

“I do work with the NHL and write articles, specifically within the New York area, so you may have had a question from me or so before and after games” she answered, the last part being half a lie about having to have asked him stuff seeing she preferred to be behind the computer majority of the time and mainly worked with the Rangers and would rarely be called to work with the Islanders

“Okay now your voice and your name seems familiar” mat started

“I don’t mean to impose or sound rude, but how come you choose to only write?” he finished

“I’m honestly not sure. I do love talking to people about what they do but it’s the way that the questions sometimes come out and sometimes you don’t get the response you want or they sometimes take it the wrong way. You think with a masters you’d know how to talk” Y/N explained to him as he genuinely listened to her

“I still got one more question to ask you”

“Go ahead” mat responded leaning in

“True or false: all’s fair in love and war” Y/N asked him as mat let out a small chuckle before answering

“True” he answered, making them both smile.

The two of them continued to eat and talk until they realized that they were some of the few people left there and had the owner come up to them and ask them to leave. After they looked at the clock, they quickly thanked them and paid for their food before heading back to Mat’s car. They had decided to go back to Mat’s for the night seeing that Anthony was going to be with Riley and it meant that Mat would get some alone time with Y/N to see who she was. Same with Y/N, she thought it was a great idea and would tell Jack and Melissa about it soon.

When they entered his apartment, she took in every detail that was inside. Y/N noticed the pictures of the team, his family and friends that were on the side table where Mat dropped his keys on. It wasn’t really what she was expecting for someone his age, but she figured that his mom and sister could've helped him and Anthony out when they first got it.

“Nice place, it’s very tidy”

“Thank you, probably wasn’t what you were expecting? Can I get you a cold beer?” he asked as he headed into his kitchen

“Sure. Can I use your restroom?” Y/N asked before Mat told her where it was

As she was walking up the stairs, she noticed that it wasn’t filled with a lot of things but it wasn’t bare either. There would be the occasional wall art you’d find at a Home Goods but it still fit who he was as a person. Y/N didn’t need to use the bathroom, but she did need to call her friends to tell them what was going on

“Finally you call! What’s going on?” Melissa exclaimed already begging for any kind of juice

“Nothing’s going on right now, but we did go to a restaurant and stayed there until close just talking and now-” Y/N began before Jack cut her off

“And now what?” he asked curious as to how she said it

“I’m in his apartment?”

“HIS APARTMENT?!” Melissa yelled causing Y/N to move her phone away from her ear as she snooped in the mirror cabinet

“Melissa, I’m not going to sleep with him”

“Oh that is a lie. You can’t hide those lyin’ eyes”

“No, no. Because I can practice some self-control, unlike some people” Y/N said,

“Wow Y/N that hurt” Jack said holding his hand to his heart

“Anyways, i’m going to dangle the bait-” “What’s the bait?” Melissa asked confused at her friend’s wording

“She’s the bait” jack explained

“Okay, got it then what?” Melissa then asked

“Oh shit I can’t talk right now, I have to go. It sounds like he has some music playing” Y/N said as she began to hear music from his bedroom

“Record everything! Take notes! We’ll talk about this later!” Melissa finished before Y/N finished the call

Mat was downstairs making sure everything was looking good and was tidy before playing something from his smooth R&B playlist and grabbing the beers. It’s kind of weird that he might now have done this with a regular date but because of the bet, he wanted to make sure that everything was going according to plan and that he could get Y/N to fall in love with him. When she exited the bathroom, she didn’t really expect much to happen but she saw the candles lit and heard the music playing before Mat came and gave her the opened beer.

“There you go”

“Thank you”

The two smiled at each other before Y/N decided to pull an ultimate move and place her bag down on his bed and laid down. Mat had no clue as to what she was doing but it was working for him and she could see it through the way his breath hitched as she rubbed the spot next to her. He walked back and leaned against his dresser. She continued to pat the spot making him laugh and pat the spot on the dresser next to him. She gave in and got up and went over to him before she looked at him and pressed her lips against his. He quickly pulled away after a few seconds, and whispered

“Hey, let’s not go too fast”

“Yeah. yeah.” Y/N agreed before pulling away and started to get up before Mat stood up and pulled her in for another kiss. Y/N wrapped her arms around his neck after setting their beers down and began to kiss back. She soon pulled away and decided what to do next.

“We’re moving too fast. You’re right-it’s too fast”

“Okay” he answered as they both pulled in and locked their lips together.

Mat held onto her waist before he moved them to his bed. He began to kiss along her neck before she began to talk again, knowing it would frustrate him

“Still too fast. I’m sorry. I want you to respect me.”

“I do. And I want your respect”

“I respect you for respecting me”

“I respect that”

“Good” she finished knowing she got him right where she wanted him as they both got up. The two of them sat in silence before Y/N decided it was a good time for her to leave and continue with her plan.

“I’m going to go.”

“I can take y-” Mat began before Y/N cut him off

“No, it's fine. Um. I can call an uber.”

“Okay. Can I at least get your number?”

“For you? Anything” she smirked as she took a pen off his night stand and wrote her number, more importantly her work number, on his arm

“This is my work number. It’s not fake, don't worry. Maybe I can give you my phone number soon” she said as he let out a laugh

“Okay that’s cool. I see what you’re doing.” he started

“I’ll call you tomorrow after practice”

“I’ll be expecting it. Good night mat” Y/N said as she kissed his cheek before heading to her uber

After she had left through the door, Mat went out to his balcony and watched her get inside the car but before, they stood there staring at each other

“Goodnight Y/N L/N” he had yelled from his balcony as she just waved to him

“Oh you are already falling in love with me” he said to himself, smiling at her

“I’m gonna make you wish you were dead” Y/N said to herself as she blew him a kiss before climbing in

Mat walked back in his room, smirking at the thought that she had left her purse on his nightstand.

[gear-project]

Hello, there seems to be tale of a new Guilty Gear installment rather than an Xrd addition from the recent anniversary interview. Honestly I'm a bit saddened by this especially considering the statement made for newer games to be simpler (I also really just wanted Testament to eventually show up in Xrd with all its crazy mechanics rather than a new game). But anyway, can you confirm how true this rumour is?. Is it really that Xrd has come to an end after what feels like a short time?.

Since Baf0’s conversation on Twitter on the Dengeki Report kinda blew it up, I’ll reiterate it here (since Dustloop posts don’t last forever… full translation courtesy of RedSilverSnake):

—The password to unlock Testament and Dizzy in the arcade version of X was “misosoup,” apparently because a programmer working on the game was overheard saying, “Now I want to drink some miso soup…”[I mentioned this earlier.  FYI GGX also had a button code in the console versions.  Look it up at GameFAQs.]

—The development team was casual with naming conventions at the time, to the extent that one of the ideas of what to call what became roman cancels was “cosmetic galaxy.” [I explained some of GGX history, Roman Cancels are wordplay for Roman Candle, a Firework… this symbolism actually transferred all the way to Revelator when Sol talks about Fireworks in one of the closing chapters of the story.]

—There was a question about Fanny from GG Petit, but Ishiwatari says he can’t answer anything about her because he wasn’t involved in her creation. [Sammy Staff were part of the people who assisted in her creation, but the GG character poll suggested that Ishiwatari wasn’t above putting her in a future game if players still wanted her to appear.]

—Advance had a unique move for Venom that Ishiwatari meant to hide, but it somehow made it into the game. [They describe it as a Bomb technique, which I think was hinted at in Night of Knives as well when Millia clashed with Venom.  There’s an item called Calvados Bomb in MOM Mode that generates poison which might have stemmed from that idea.]

—Not everyone who worked on XX knew that Bridget was a boy, which led to a shocked exclamation from a designer. [Story Mode states officially that Bridget is Male and identifies as Male, wishing to become more “manly” as part of his interests. 4chan be damned.]

—When the topic of the series’ bosses being women came up, it was mentioned that Leopaldon’s gender is unknown, but Ishiwatari says that he thinks the dog piloting it may have been female, thus keeping this tradition unbroken. [Gears can be considered “gender neutral” in some cases, because of their DNA, but yes the Dog inside Leo’s mouth COULD be Female, but we don’t know for sure!]

—Leopaldon’s designer did the effects for Jam’s new super in Xrd. [It was also said that Da Eun, Kum Haehyun’s Head Maid was the girl who appeared in Korean #Reload’s original stage.]

—Overture’s total development time was five years, so Ishiwatari says he has a lot of memories about it. [Black memories, I assume, given the reception. >_>]

—The name of Overture’s genre, melee action, has a double meaning; the “melee” part is homonymous with the Japanese word 命令/meirei, which refers to orders, like the ones you give to servants in the game. [Hopefully they’ll do something more improved in a Crusades-like setting someday ala God Eater.]

—Ishiwatari was fixated on how roman cancels could be changed in Xrd, and Pachi recalls racking his mind over the suggestion that they be possible at any time, even during a downed state. [FYI the only way to cancel a knockdown is to recover before it!  BlazBlue has Emergency Rolls and Quickrise motions for this reason, also there was a hack in Accent Core (PSP version codes) that could allow for unlimited cancels in to anything at one point, so the coding is there for it!]

—One idea that was tested during Xrd’s development was being able to roman cancel KOs, but this caused a bug among certain characters where they’d just fall right after getting up following the RC.[This is where the idea of Resurrection came from (related to the Gill boss character from Street Fighter III).]

—Bridget was #1 on the Revelator poll to decide the next playable character until the very last day, when Dizzy got a sudden boost. [Poor Order-Sol…]

—The staff had specific ideas for other characters in the poll, such as Izuna dashing rather than having a regular walk (like in Cross Tag Battle). [I’m sure he’s still in the works for the next game as Izuna was mentioned in Revelator.]

—One of Haehyun’s attendants actually debuted in the Korean version of #Reload, having been added to one of the stages. [Her name is Da Eun, and she is voiced by Elphelt’s VA in Kum’s Episode!]

—Ishiwatari also says that Xrd is probably finished as of Rev 2, and maybe hints that work has already started on the next real sequel.

Now, on to THIS:

As I said, GGXrd Revelator (excluding the add-on Rev2) is technically the SECOND of the Xrd Series… Rev2 (while it is a standalone game now), is the equivalent of “X Plus” to Guilty Gear X.

Most likely there is production for a THIRD XRD game… Revelator’s story hints at it, AFTER STORY hints at it, even the GUILTY GEAR BEGIN novel suggests something’s going to happen after REVELATOR…

So you KNOW something is gonna happen.  Basically the statement is “We’re done with Revelator Add-ons”, is what they’re saying.

So the next GG is gonna be BIG.  That’s all you guys need to know.  Keep supporting ARC System Works, and maybe (JUST MAYBE) the next GG will get a dub like BBTag has!

All we have to do is support any releases (including GG1 and Accent Core for the Nintendo Switch, Steam, and PS4 releases).  Guilty Gear The Missing Link should be coming in the next few months along with Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R.

I’m banking on this because HAPPY CHAOS (a hinted character) says so!  So you should believe in HAPPY CHAOS!