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joyfulhopelox · 3 years

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Strawberries & Cigarettes

Pairing: Jungkook x reader (Soulmate!AU)

Genre: angst, fluff

Warnings: mentions of sex (once), swear words, talks about death of minor character, mentions of smoking (don't do it kids)

Summary: As a child you detested strawberries, convincing yourself that you have an allergy to them. But imagine your shock when you grow up and realise that your soulmate connection has to do with the wretched berry.

Word count: 7.7k

rating : pg

A/N: This is square 4/25 for the @bangtanwritingbingo (Square: Strawberries) I have not written something remotely angsty in a while so this has been a challenge but i did it! And i am somewhat proud of it! Thank you @mochi-molala @sunshinejunghoseokie for listening to me complain about this it has been a journey. And most importantly, thank you @min-yoon-kween for being a beta queen and trying to read through this mess and managing to make 3am rambles onto words. I really appreciated all the support and tough love! @yoonjinkooked, @sunshinekims and @yoonia thank you for being there and listening to my 3am complaints whilst i was getting this done, your encouragement has been a massive help!

Copyrights @joyfulhopelox for both the work and the banner

As always please leave feedback and/or talk to me as i love to hear from you! Enjoy <3

The sweet, fragrant, slightly tart taste invades your senses once again causing you to sigh in frustration. How are you meant to find your soulmate if this unknown taste is all you have to go by? You couldn’t even pinpoint what it could be, the flavour being unlike anything that has ever touched your tastebuds.

“For real now Y/N, what do you have against fruit?” Your friend, Taehyung, inquires. You’ve adamantly refused his offer to share a fruit snack. It’s not like you had anything against fruit, far from it. You loved fruit. It was just the wretched strawberries lying there innocently on the bed of other berries, tainting them.

“It’s not fruit! I love fruit, you know that! Remember that time we snuck out into your grandfather's garden to steal apricots?” Your friend snorts. He remembers that time extremely well. You ate way more than you should have and ended up with indigestion for days after that.

“It’s just…” you grimace, looking once more at the red offenders. “Those”

“Strawberries?!” It was Taehyung’s turn to grimace. “How can you still hate strawberries after all this time? They are the best berry out there!” As if to prove his point he reaches for one and pops it in his mouth. You look away in disgust. “Oh come on Y/N, give them a try. You never know, you may like them now.” He pushed one towards you. Glaring at him, you rejected his offer.

“Tae, you know I can't! It’s not that I don't like them, I am allergic to them!” He responded with an incredulous look but didn’t say anything. Reading too much into his look you go to defend yourself. “I am! Since I was a child!”

“How do you know?” He raised an eyebrow at you. Shrugging, you tried to find a good answer.

Truth is, you didn’t know whether or not you were allergic to them. All you had was a bad memory from when you were a child. You had a very bad encounter with said berries. It was not a near death experience by any means, and it was not an allergic reaction. You were just a child, excited at the thought of trying a new fruit and so in your exhilaration you shoved it a bit too readily in your mouth. The innocent berry happened to go down the wrong pipe and causing you to choke and your family to panic. Ever since then you had sworn to never touch them again, telling everyone around you that you were allergic. That way you didn’t have to face the shame of retelling this childhood story and they couldn’t try forcing you to eat them.

It happened so long ago that you couldn’t even remember the taste. You couldn’t understand why everyone around you seemed to find them so delicious.

“I- just do ok? I had a bad reaction to them a long time ago, and I don’t want a repeat experience” you shrugged hoping that he would not catch onto the white lie you had just blatantly presented to his face. Side eyeing you suspiciously, Taehyung made sure to eat the strawberry he had picked up, sighing in the most dramatic way possible.

“Well then, more for me” his mouth was so full you could barely understand him. Disgusted you pushed his shoulder playfully. “Ew, that is bad manners. Did your mother not teach you to chew with your mouth closed?”

Taehyung pretended to look thoughtful whilst still chewing. “Nope, now take a blueberry and shut up” he pushed the assortment of fruit your way once again, this time making sure that the strawberries were out of your sight.

“Thanks Tae” you smiled gratefully at him, picking a blueberry out. Before it could reach your mouth, a loud thump resounded from next to you making you jump. Surprised your fingers let go of the blueberry you were holding so preciously.

“Oh man, don’t waste food!” a voice you recognised all too well spoke, whilst a hand made its way past your face and into the bowl of fruit Taehyung had so carefully prepared for the two of you. Long slender fingers wrapped themselves around the green stem of a strawberry. You followed the movement of the hand holding the strawberry to come face to face with the culprit.

“Hello to you too, Jungkook” Taehyung sighs, his smile instantly dropping. “What brings you here?” His deadpan expression was a good indication of how happy he was to see him.

“Uh, it’s lunchtime?” Jungkook looked at Taehyung as if he had grown a second head. “Is this not where we are supposed to eat lunch?” disposing of the green stem of the strawberry, he pops it in his mouth. You wanted to grimace, you had enough of Taehyung making a scene whilst eating that damned fruit. Now you are forced to witness the office heartthrob lick his fingers clean of the fruit juice that coated them. Simultaneously expelling a moan so sinful it was definitely not appropriate for office hours. You doubted it was healthy for your heart.

“Yes, but you guys in the graphics team have a separate kitchen. You know, the one you took from us last year? The big fancy one?” Taehyung was still bitter about that incident. It had been his favourite break room to spend time in. The room was spacious and had more than just a few tables scattered here and there, divided by a couple of couches where employees could lounge during their break. There was also a terrace with a lot more space and a pool table. Most importantly,Taehyung’s pride and joy, a gaming room. He would get lost in there during his break, and sometimes even after work until you would come and retrieve him worried for his health.

That is where he met Jungkook, and that is where he ruined your life by introducing you to said office heartthrob. At the time your department and his rarely interacted outside of company meetings. You were working as a business analyst and he was working as a graphics developer. Your jobs could not have been more different from each other.

Truth be told, you had seen Jungkook around the building on more than one occasion. You had the chance to speak once at a company gala in a drunken haze, where you realised you had a lot of interests in common. But you only got to know him the second time you bumped into him, when Taehyung decided to introduce you two. His handshake and shy presentation told you he was too drunk to remember talking to you that night so you did not mention it either.

Once you’ve been introduced, his presence turned into one of the ones you sought out during lunch breaks, you became more aware of the rumours flying around the company. Out of all of them the ones you heard the most were about him and his love for “dining and dashing” all the women he had taken out on a date.

Normally, you wouldn’t be the person to listen to such rumours and allow them to sway your opinion of someone. But you had witnessed on one occasion how he had indeed left a woman in the middle of a restaurant and fled the scene. After that you wondered if maybe you should be more weary of him and his bad habits.

Talking to him in person was a completely different story. He seemed incredibly shy at the beginning, it took him a couple of weeks to be able to look you in the eyes. Taehyung would laugh and say it is because he had a crush on you but you doubted that. How could you believe that? Not when you lived in a world where lovers were predestined. You were born with a bond that tied you to someone else, a bond that's unbreakable. Your soulmate was made for you and only you. You could have other lovers until you found your true one, you have seen it happen on multiple occasions but once you found your soulmate and that bond was complete you couldn’t be apart from them.

Soulmates, a subject that ruined your life as soon as you became aware of it. At the age of ten you found out that all humans on this planet have a person they are meant to be with forever. A person that is yours, and only yours. At such a young age you fell in love with the concept. Fairies and princesses in the stories your parents would read you before bed, they all had their one true love. When you found out that you were meant to have one true love, a soulmate, you were beyond ecstatic. For years after, it was all you talked about and all you dreamt about. It all came crashing down when one rainy night your father had a car accident on his way home from work. The crash took a parental figure away from you. Aside from having had to deal with the pain of losing your hero, you also went through the misery of witnessing the painful heartbreak that comes with having a soulmate.

Your mother mourned for days, she could not eat or sleep, she withered right in front of your eyes. It was heartbreaking to experience your only remaining parent destroying themselves right before your eyes. You were only sixteen at the time and could not do anything to help alleviate the pain she was going through. So you helplessly stood at her side for another three years until one day, her soul finally gave up.

Her funeral was a relief for you, it meant she didn’t have to struggle anymore. The pain was gone. So, at the age of nineteen, you became an orphan.

Turning twenty and a struggling pen pusher, you met Taehyung in a cafe. You crashed into him soaking his expensive suit in coffee as you rushed out the door, late for work. Apologising profusely and promising to pay for his dry cleaning you gave him your number. That was the first time you had hit a stroke of good luck in years. Later that day, when a text came through from an unknown number you expected it to be an extortionate dry cleaning bill. Instead all that was written was: ‘Coffee’s on me next time (not literally though) haha.’ You couldn’t help but laugh, he gave you a place and time and signed it with Taehyung. That had been the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

For the first few years of your friendship you’d wondered if he was your soulmate; and so, despite your aversion to the concept, you two started dating. It was difficult not to like him, he was good looking and you two seemed to have a lot in common. It didn’t help that the sex was also great, you had to admit he knew what he was doing. But after one too many nights of netflix and takeaways at his apartment, which ended in his bed, you both decided that you were not the one for each other. So, two years into your relationship you separated. Fortunately, the friendship you two forged remained, your bond stronger than before. At the age of twenty three, you moved in together as housemates. It was the most logical thing to do, you were attached at the hip anyway and rent was too expensive for a single person to bear. Twenty four came and went, stressed and always low on money, when luck struck you for a second time the day Taehyung told you a position had opened in his team. You decided to apply and rejoiced when you got the job offer. That night you and Taehyung celebrated with pizza and champagne.

Here you are three years later having worked in the same company, being promoted from a trainee to a junior business analyst, and life couldn’t have been better.

There was one thing that bothered you, and that was the strange taste in your mouth that you had begun to notice. At first it was so faint that you didn’t notice it. As time passed, it got stronger and stronger, until you could not ignore the slight tangy, sweet taste that lingered on the tip of your tongue. It wasn’t a bad taste, in fact you quite liked it. You were just annoyed at the fact that you could not place it. You tried multiple foods which you thought may have a similar taste but none of them satisfied that craving. You hid this information from Taehyung for a while, not wanting to make a big fuss out of it until the day he found you rummaging through the fridge mumbling to yourself.

“What are you doing Y/N?” he stood in the doorway confused as to why your head was buried deep into the fridge. You jumped not having heard him move into the kitchen and looked at him in surprise. The sight that greeted him was something he was not expecting. The hilarity of your wide eyed expression paired with the cheeks stuffed full of cherries made him double over in laughter.

Mumbling something akin to “stop laughing at me, i had a craving” you stood up and walked to the table dejectedly plopping yourself down on a chair. Taehyung sobered immediately noticing the forlorn expression on your face and whilst still wiping the tears from his eyes he approached you and sat down. “What’s up chipmunk?” he could not resist making a jab at you. Sighing you started picking at a stray thread off your sleeve. You decided it was time to tell him what has been bothering you for months, despite fearing his judgement.

“Have you ever had cravings?” you turn to look at him, your expression so innocent that he could not make fun of you for such a trivial question. “Of course I have! All the damn time” he scoffed at you.

“No, no what I mean is; have you ever had a taste at the tip of your tongue, on your lips something that isn’t what you have eaten that day, but it is there continuously lingering in your mouth?” the more you were explaining this out loud the stupider you felt. Your own words were confusing even to you. But it seemed like Taehyung knew what you meant because in an instant he jumped up from his seat and looked at you wide eyed.

“Y/N!” the grin on his face intensified. “Do you know what this means?” he grabbed your shoulders in excitement. “It means that you have found your soulmate!” your eyes widened in fear, your body stiffened under his hold. Realising what he’d said, and how you felt about soulmates he backtracked quickly. “Nonono, it means you are close to finding your soulmate. It means you have met them at last!” When your frozen body refused to move he realised that maybe that was not the best way to phrase it either. But the damage has already been done. Wide eyed, you flew off the chair and rushed out of the kitchen towards your own room, slamming the door in the process.

You called in sick the next day, and the day after, not leaving your room until you were certain Taehyung had left for work. He tried on multiple occasions to coax you out of your room, but to no avail. You stubbornly refused to acknowledge him. Mulling over your thoughts in the comfort of your room, conflicted at the realisation that he was right. You had met your soulmate, just not completed the bond yet.

“Y/N, are you ok?” the worry in his voice broke your heart, but you were too absorbed in your own thoughts to respond to him.

Memories of your parents, together and apart, thoughts of your mother and her suffering, memories of you together as a happy family all swirling around in your head. It was all too much to bear, and in the end your brain gave up exhausted, only to wake up the next day and start all over again. For a week you stayed in your room, but when Taehyung decided that enough was enough he formulated a plan in his head hoping it would get you out of your room. If you refused to come out for him, he would have to resort to other methods. He would invite people over, he knew you would not be able to resist the temptation of being a good host. So that day he called your colleague and his friend, Jungkook.

Later on that night, you laid in bed, thoughts ruminating through your head at a fast pace when you heard voices from the entrance. You could easily recognise Taehyung’s voice, the low timbre echoing through the house. It was the second voice that you could not pinpoint, and so, intrigued you got off the bed.

Your joints ached, having sat in the same position for so long and your head hurt from exhaustion. You knew you probably looked like a mess but curiosity was eating at your insides. So you took the chance and opened the door slightly trying to peek into the corridor. Unfortunately, your room was the first along the corridor, right around the corner from the kitchen. The kitchen where Taehyung and his mysterious companion were now exiting from. Your delayed reaction ended up with them coming around the corner almost bumping into you. Gasping, your eyes took in the unknown person whose voice drew you out of your miserable state.

“Jungkook '' you yelped. Startled at the intrusion, you slammed the door in their faces, your back now leaning against the door. You didn’t ponder too much on Jungkook’s shocked expression or Taehyung’s pleased one. Your heart was pounding, and for a second the blood rush from the adrenaline made your ears ring and your lips tingle. You were so focused on your embarrassment that you didn’t even notice the lingering sweet taste residing on your tongue.

Sliding against the door to keep yourself from falling you tried to regulate your heartbeat by taking a few deep breaths in. After a few moments, your eyes opened and took in the darkness of your room. Deciding that you were calm enough you got up, your legs slightly wobbly from crouching for so long. Turning on the light you looked at yourself in the mirror. Your hair was in disarray, your skin looked dull and the red that rimmed your eyes accentuated the eyebags under them. Grimacing at your appearance, you patted your hair trying to make it look more presentable only to give up after a few minutes. Throwing another worried glance at your door, as if you were expecting the boys to barge in at any moment, you contemplated going out there. You sighed deciding that you didn’t care if Jungkook would think you were impolite, you were not ready to face the world.

For the next couple of hours you tried to distract yourself from your thoughts accompanied by the loud hollers coming from the living room where the boys were playing video games. Too absorbed in your own thoughts you didn’t realise how late it had gotten, the rumbling of your stomach waking you up from your trance.

Opening the door you listened intently but there were no sounds coming from the living room. You assumed the boys had finally fallen asleep do as quietly as you could you tiptoed to the kitchen. The corridor was dark, the only light coming from the TV in the living room where you assumed the boys had passed out. Turning on the light in the kitchen you contemplated stealing Taehyung’s last pack of ramen when a voice from behind startled you.

“What are you doing?” you yelped, not having expected to have company.

Jungkook stood in the middle of the doorway, his eyes bleary with sleep, his hair poofed up and judging by the groggy voice, still half asleep. You tried to ignore the way your heart somersaulted at the sight of his messy hair, the way his hooded eyes were blinking sleepily at you and the way his small yawn made him resemble a rabbit. He was adorable and for a second you entertained the thought of telling him that.

“Food” was all you finally replied, secretly trying to fix your messy appearance. Jungkook hummed in acknowledgment. You looked away trying to ignore his eyes on you. The silence that followed was awkward, neither of you knew what to say. “Uh, I don’t know if that rascal fed you but uh….would you like some ramen?” you stuttered trying to break the awkwardness. His stomach growled as if prepared for your question. You stared at him in shock for a couple of seconds before you burst into laughter.

Jungkook smiled at you bashfully, too embarrassed to respond so you took it upon yourself and pulled another chair out for him to sit in.

The silence that ensued was comforting, neither you nor Jungkook feeling the need to interrupt it with small talk. You observed amusedly the way his eyes seemed to lighten up at the sight of food, the way the corner of them would crinkle in excitement and the small satisfied sounds at the food gracing his taste buds was something you found adorable.

The feeling of contentment that enveloped you was entirely new. As the calmness washed over you, you realised it felt like coming home. Not knowing what to make of it you continued to stare at Jungkook, hoping that the answers were hidden somewhere in his smile. Catching you stare at him mid bite Jungkook stopped and tilted his head in confusion.

“Is there something on my face?” realising you were staring at him for a bit too long you squeaked in embarrassment.

“Ah, no no no I was just lost in thought.” Hoping he would buy that excuse, you offered him a bright smile.

Jungkook had known you were staring at him, and for a brief second, along with the spiciness of the noodles burning his tongue, he felt something smoky intertwine. He wondered if it was the food, but the taste was too distinct. In an instant he could place it, the taste of cigarettes. It was faint but he recognised instantly that ashy fragrance. He wondered if his soulmate was a smoker and if so why would the taste bother him now?

He found out about the soulmate connection years ago and how he was meant to figure out which person was meant for him. Meeting your soulmate was supposed to trigger a taste that was only attributed to them. His trigger happened a few years ago when he started working for the company. To say he was excited was an understatement. He has dreamt of meeting his soulmate for so long and to know that they were in proximity was exhilarating.

In his naive search for them he decided to accept all the requests he has gotten from his colleagues to go on dates. Unfortunately for him, he realised too late that it was not the way to find the one that was meant to be for you. Just like the concept of a soulmate, if it was meant to happen, it would happen. He realised too late and after too many failed dates that he could not rush the process. So he stopped trying. Until that one day when he saw you on the roof of the building, during lunch time. You had no idea that you were not alone, had you been aware of that fact you may have not gotten out your pack of cigarettes. Jungkook could tell by the way your foot tapped the ground impatiently and the way your hands kept grabbing at your hair that you were stressed. He sat in silence not wanting to disturb you as you seemed to be hyping yourself up about something. You didn’t interact that day, but in his head he knew he had found you. The taste of cigarettes on his lips was as strong as the smell wafting through the air.

Normally he would not have been happy about someone who smoked in his vicinity, the harsh smell causing his nose to tingle in an unpleasant fashion. Watching you stress smoke that cigarette with the knowledge that you were his soulmate he found himself unbothered by that knowledge. He knew who you were, your mutual friend being Taehyung. He had introduced you two as soon as you started working for the company.

He will always remember that specific moment, the time when you smiled shyly at him extending your hand. He felt an unusual warmth all throughout his body, but he didn’t realise at the time it was your soulmate bond tying itself together like the ends of two loose strings.

He tried with all his might to figure out whether or not you had the faintest idea about your soulmate connection and for a few months he would insist on taking his break on the floor below just so he could spend time with you. Your lack of interest towards him and his advances told him that you were oblivious. You weren’t treating him differently than you would treat Taehyung and for a while he questioned himself. What if he had been wrong? Instead of keeping up appearances, he let himself slip into the friend's mould. If he had been wrong then it would spare him the embarrassment, if he hadn’t been wrong then it would do him no harm to be friends first.

The memories still fresh in his mind he knew now that you were his soulmate. Still a bit tipsy from the wine he had shared with Taehyung earlier he plucked up the courage and jokingly asked, “Is it because I am handsome?” The shocked look on your face and the silence that ensued were far from comfortable. Slowly Jungkook could feel the heat of the blood rushing to his face and he tried his best to hide his embarrassment with a cough. “I mean-“

At the sight of his wide eyes and red cheeks you started chuckling, not being able to hold your composure for any longer. “It was bad, but you’re adorable.” This time your face turned beet red. You both looked at each other like deer caught into headlights for a few moments, only to dissolve into laughter once again.

That night you talked to Jungkook as if he was an old friend. It felt comfortable to share stories with him, to laugh and to make jokes. It felt good to be out of your head for once. The worries that had plagued your mind completely dissolved in between the laughter and the wine that you were sharing.

At some point during the night you both moved into the corridor in front of your room, both sat on the floor, your back leaning against the wall. Passing the wine bottle in between the two of you the conversation carried on into the darkness of the corridor. The only available source of light coming from the kitchen dimly lighting both of your faces, casting shadows across the floor. You didn’t know when you got so close to him, your skin prickling at the heat emanating from his body. Or when your head dropped onto his broad shoulder, your eyes fluttering, heavy with sleep.

“Y/N” Jungkook whispered and you hummed in response. The familiarity of the scene made him smile. You looked adorable, cuddled into his side, your eyes laden with sleep.

“What if I were to tell you I found my soulmate?” His voice was fearful but his heart was hopeful.

Wide awake now, your head snapped up. “What?”

Even though it was meant to be a whisper your voice reverberated through the corridor. Gasping you stopped to listen for any signs of Taehyung waking up. When the corridor stayed silent you breathed a sigh of relief and cleared your throat. “What?” you looked alarmed at Jungkook.

“Is it that bad? That I found my soulmate?” he looked wounded and you quickly tried to clarify. “Nonono, definitely not bad, just...i am surprised” you looked hesitant. You didn’t know what to make of that information, on one hand you wanted to be happy for him. Not everyone thought like you about the soulmate bond. On the other hand you couldn’t fathom the idea that he may have found his intended love in life. The pain blossomed in your chest and you readily assumed the reason behind that being your aversion towards the concept.

“But what if….” Jungkook stopped. He looked unsure of himself and something pulled at your heartstrings. In an attempt to comfort him you placed your hand on his grasping it gently.

“What if, the soulmate doesn’t want me” he tried again, his voice meek. You gave him a sympathetic look, in a way you could relate to his worries. “There is no way your soulmate wouldn’t want you” you tried to ease his worries, your hand subconsciously tightening its grip on his. Jungkook didn’t respond looking lost in thought and for a moment you thought you had said the wrong thing when you felt his fingers intertwined with yours. The feel of his warmth combined with the softness of his hands cause butterflies to erupt in your stomach. The feeling so foreign to you, but not unwelcome.

“But what if I said my soulmate was you?” he tried again, his grip tightening, as if he was afraid you might slip through his fingers. Your heart stopped, your mind trying to catch up with his words. Taking the risk, Jungkook slowly cupped your face. Leaning towards you until your lips were only one whisper away he stopped. His warm breath fanning over your face, it smelt sweet, tangy. Before you could process your thoughts bumped his lips onto yours in a timid touch. Once, twice, three times, his lips ghosted over yours.

You could not react, the surprise from his confession still wrecking havoc through your body. Your eyes fluttered closed as you felt his soft lips touch yours with a bit more conviction. You almost allowed yourself to melt into the kiss a small moan leaving the back of your throat. He tasted sweet, just like...you could not place the taste, and yet it seemed so familiar.

You jolted out of the trance pulling away from him entirely, almost sliding yourself on the opposite side of the corridor. Like a deer in headlights you observed his every move, ready to flee the scene if he got too close to you. “Y/N”, Jungkook tried to reach a hand towards you. You flinched away from him and he halted. You looked scared of him. He could feel his heart break in two at the sight of your distress.

“Y/N” he tried again but you would not have it. You were unable to listen to any reasoning, your fight or flight reaction at an all time high. “Please go” you managed to utter.

When he tried to approach you again you let out a sob, the emotions of your revelations catching up with you. “Please” you pleaded, looking at him in despair. Jungkook’s heart dropped. The look on your face told him you wanted him gone, and as much as it hurt him he would listen to you.

Giving you one last pained look he turned around on his heels and walked down the corridor, swallowed by the darkness of the apartment. When with a click of the front door you knew he was gone, and you broke down in tears.

“Y/N? What’s wrong?” Taehyung, fully awake, having heard the front door close and your sobs echoing through the apartment, rushed to your side.

“I fucked up” was the only thing you could mutter over and over again. Taehyung was confused. Looking around him trying to find something that may indicate the reason for your cries, he spotted the wine bottle by your leg. Alarmed, he picked it up. “Fresh notes of strawberries”....

“Y/N are you daft? This has strawberries in it!” he tried to pry your hands away from your face to check for any signs of swelling. Your incessant cries lessened at that. Taehyung could barely discern what you were saying and so instead, he hugged you tightly to his chest letting you cry it out.

“I think I know the taste that has been bugging me” a couple of days after that night, you were in the break room with Taehyung prepared to have your lunch break. You had been successful at avoiding Jungkook, and you had a strong suspicion that he had stayed out of your way on purpose. That lessened your worries, you didn’t know if you would be able to confront him about what had transpired between the two of you.

“Really? What, when and how?” you could tell Taehyung was trying to hide his excitement underneath his grin. You refused to give him more information on the subject, not yet ready to talk about it. But if you underestimated something, it was his ability to put two and two together. “Is it Jungkook?” you stopped dead in your tracks, your heartbeat picking up the pace. At your reaction Taehyung almost grinned, he was happy his two friends had discovered each other. His grin faltered at something behind you.

You tried denying it, telling him he was mistaken. but with the sweet taste of strawberries lingering on your lips, even you knew that there was no mistake.

“Uhh, Y/N, I have to rush, I forgot that I needed to send some documents over” he quickly got up and rushed out of the room. Your bewildered eyes followed his retreat only to come across the man that had just entered the break room. You gasped at the sight of his athletic frame dressed in the dark coloured suit he normally wore for work. He looked handsome.

“Jungkook” you acknowledged him with a nod. He stood there looking at you for a moment, a strange look on his face as if he was prepared to say something but then changed his mind at the last minute. Instead he mirrored your nod and headed towards the coffee machine.

He passed by you in an attempt to reach for the pods that were on the table behind you. To get to them he had to step around your still body. You could not move, still in a daze, your lips tingling from the kiss you two have shared earlier. Your hands were trembling and you tried your hardest to stay calm and not give away the mixed feelings raging through your body. You cleared your throat and looked away in an attempt to hide your blushing face from him. Jungkook took you in silently, he didn’t know what to make of your reaction. Earlier when he had kissed you, your lips moulding together, you pressed tightly against his form, hands raking through his hair. You seemed to be reciprocating the feeling but now, when you were acting like a deer caught in headlights, he was not so sure of himself anymore.

Cautiously he approached you, his gaze unfaltering, he was afraid that if he stepped over the line you would run away from him again. He didn’t know if his heart could take it.

He couldn’t imagine that if you’d figured it out you’d react to him like this. He was waiting for you to realise it was him. However, the blank look on your face and your stiff posture told him otherwise. The soulmate connection urged him to take you in his arms and take the pain away, to make it better. But you didn’t know yet it was him, and he debated whether or not he should tell you. His heart lurched in pain, he didn’t know how to approach the issue. Knowing himself he’d make a stupid comment which would drive you further away. So he settled for actions rather than words.

It felt like an eternity until he reached you, toe to toe, his hand hesitantly cupped your face. You couldn’t move, your breath coming into short pants, your heart flipping inside your chest. For a second you feared you would faint, but the warm touch of his hand kept you grounded and so you focused on that. Closing your eyes you leaned your head onto his hand soaking up the comfort. Even though you were apprehensive about Jungkook and your connection, he has been nothing but kind and understanding to you. His awkward demeanour paired with his confident looks, an endearing combination in your eyes. After that night you two spent together in the corridor of your apartment you understood very well why most women in your company fell in love with him. What you didn’t understand though, was why he would break their hearts like that. Thinking about the rumours once again your eyes snapped open and you pushed his hand away.

“Jungkook,” you cleared your throat. You needed to get your feelings off your chest otherwise you would implode. You wanted to make sure you were both on the same page. You didn’t want to end up heartbroken like any of the other women in the office. Your stomach lurched at that, the thought of him rejecting you like he did those women sending shooting pains through your whole body.

Jungkook’s hands stayed a few centimeters away from your face, his face morphing into anguish. But as soon as it appeared, it was instantly gone, replaced by a smile, the same heartfelt smile he gave you the day you met. The day you had signed your fate. The day the taste of what you could place now as strawberries had invaded your tastebuds. He waited for you to say something, he was not going to push you, but his gentle eyes told you he was going to listen to whatever you decided to tell him. Taking a deep breath in you decided to continue.

“I- am not sure how to put this into words, so I am going to just come out with it.” tears pooled into your eyes at the thought of what you were going to say. He nodded but you could tell he was anxious by the way his hand helplessly dropped to his side and started fiddling with his pants. You blinked the tears away but they just kept coming leaving a hot trail down your face. The pain of losing your parents resurfacing at the memories flooding your head.

“My parents, they uh, died” you stumbled over your words, finding it very difficult to get a grasp over your emotions. You took Jungkook’s silence as a sign to carry on, “my dad passed away in a car accident, after that, my mother she uh” a sob wrecked through your body and you couldn’t carry on. Watching as your whole body broke down in front of him Jungkook decided to throw caution out the window and steadily wrapped his arms around you. In an instant you relaxed, the warmth and the comfort provided by your soulmate embracing you calmed you down enough for you to carry on with your story.

“My mother, she died heartbroken three years after my father” you sniffled embarrassed at the snot you could see on his shirt. Trying to pull yourself away from him you found yourself nose to chest with him as he tightened his grip on you. You didn’t have the strength to fight against his hold.

“Jungkook,” you pleaded, slumping against him, your forehead resting on his warm chest. In that position you could hear his heartbeat, the strong thump reverberating through you. The knowledge that you were about to break that rhythm pained you. “I don’t want to have a soulmate.” A fresh wave of tears soaked through his shirt. Jungkook felt as if your sobs had not only penetrated the material but also his heart, the coldness that gripped him rendering him speechless.

Despite the unbearable ache that your words have caused him, he remembered that you were also suffering. He decided that his pain was irrelevant to yours, the soulmate bond that forged between the two of you pushing him to alleviate your sorrow and forget about his own.

“Y/N” his voice sounded foreign to him, the anguish seeping through. He cleared his throat and tightened his grip on you, trapping your arms in between the two of you. You knew you were being selfish, your hard words chipping away at his heart. Despite that he was being patient and understanding, lending you the last of his strength. “Don’t, please” was his last attempt at asking you not to crush him. A plea followed by a soft kiss on the top of your head, his own tears threatening to spill down his cheeks.

His words pierced through you, a heavy feeling settling in your chest. It felt as if someone had placed a weighted lead over your heart. Your mind was fighting against the soul’s desire to mould together as one, to form that bond fully. But by doing so, you were fighting against the laws of the soulmate connection, the broken promise of being together forever caused you to feel agony like never before. Desperate, you managed to free your hands and wrap them around him, your fingers digging into the muscles of his back in an attempt to steady yourself. You let the pain course through you, letting Jungkook’s soft cries in your hair be a reminder of your self-serving fears. His breath was hot on the crown of your hair, his breath coming out in broken gasps and you finally understood.

This is what your mother had experienced. This is the pain she must have gone through when your father was gone. Only, you were voluntarily putting yourself and him through it.

You felt despicable, but most importantly, you were terrified. Thoughts running through your head, scenarios in which you and him were bonded and living a happy life, only for it to be swept from under you. You didn’t think you could bear that, but you knew that what you were doing now was not right either. There was no such thing as a bandaid when it came to a soulmate bond. You would suffer forever and it never got easier.

“Y/N, please talk to me.” Jungkook’s voice wavered but his tears had stopped. He was doing his best to stay strong for you. Burying your head into his inviting shoulder you inhaled his scent, it was something sweet. Sweet like that night when you kissed, that significant night when you realised he was yours and you were his. Trying to recall the happiness that you felt when you two kissed you whispered, “I’m afraid.”

Jungkook had never felt more helpless. Hearing you admit this felt even more painful than you rejecting the soulmate bond. He could do very little to alleviate your worries, he couldn’t promise you forever because he himself had no power over the future, but he could promise you that he would try his best to be there until it wasn’t possible anymore.

“I can’t promise you that we will last forever, but I can promise you that as long as we are alive and have a forever to fight for I will do my best to reach it” his soft words brushed through your hair, the hand on your back tightening its hold. Fresh tears spilled from your eyes, the hot trail competing with the warmth that was growing in your chest. His words were not enough to alleviate your worries, but they were enough to pacify the inner battle between your soul and your heart.

“Hey,” he gently grabbed your shoulders, breaking your hold on him. With some distance now in between the two of you, it was easier to look at him. Your heart broke at the sight of the tears silently running down his face, a contrast to the small reassuring smile he was offering you. If not for the pain in his eyes you would have thought he was crying for you only. However, his eyes spoke of agony for two. The relationship that was meant to be, the relationship that your souls craved and you had power over. The understanding encouragement he was offering told you that he would take whatever you decided. If your decision was to not pursue this, he would accept it and never question it. With this in mind you took a deep breath in, your hands hesitantly reaching out and wiping away at the trail of tears.

“I am afraid” you stopped glancing away from him for a split second. Jungkook’s breath caught in his throat anticipating your next words. You had the power to make him or break him, his heart in your hands. With your next exhale, you let all your worries out, your stance visibly relaxing.

“But I am not afraid to fight for a future forever, with you.”

Main Masterlist

#jeon jungkook fluff #bangtansummerbingo #jeon jungkook fic #jeon jungkook x reader #jungkook fluff #bangtanarmynet #bangtaninn #btshoneyhive #btsgoldnet #jungkook x y/n #jungkook x reader #jungkook fic #soulmate #soulmate au #angst #fic #junkook #bts fic #fiction

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daretosnoop · 4 years

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Legend of the Crystal Skull Review:

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!!

Atmosphere/Layout:

I loved this game so much! The Nancy Drew games are always stellar at placing you in the world of the game. I have yet to play a series that really roots you in its atmosphere. CRY delivered that at another level. I’ve been to New Orleans, and this game took me back to that trip. I loved how everything in the house was slightly crooked to reflect the kookiness of Bruno Bolet, as well as make things more eerie. I remember how the intro to the game scared me as a kid, yes, I got scared of the Skeleton man as a kid. Imagine freaking out to the skeleton man attack and then cutting to Renee’s creepy eyes as a kid! Even as an adult, Renee’s eyes creep me out, and no way was I ever going to drink that concoction! This game has a lot of odd things that you can eat: mysterious beverage that may or may not kill you, chocolate that definitely will, and expired bubble gum that surprisingly does not kill you. Okay, back to atmosphere. The ambience of the game was consistent, even when you played Bess’s portions which was supposed to take you away from the eeriness of the Bolet house for a bit. The rain effect and the semi-dark state of the house because of the electricity outage definitely amped up the fear and creepiness. You definitely took cautious steps in and out of the house. The graveyard. THE GRAVEYARD. THE GRAVEYARD. I think the exploration of the graveyard might be my favourite exploration spots of all the games. I love how you can see Nancy’s silhouette and hear her shoes as she traversed the grave. It was big enough to pique curiosity, but not so big that you would get lost. I also appreciated how every grave section had its own design as it made things more memorable. I know some people didn’t like the graveyard scavenger hunt, but I relished it! The earlier games (1-5) had this slight ruthlessness to the game play. There was a slight edge that kept the reader hooked and just a touch fearful, and this game maintained that edge. I really appreciated that, especially since it would pater out a bit in later games.

Music:

This game has one of the best tracks: “Legend”. That alone should put it as a game with an amazing music score, but no, they had to add other titles like “Chatter” and “Bruno”. As someone who loves Jazz, I digged this score. So often I would stop and just listen to the music, and could feel myself get pumped whenever “Legend” would play. Honestly, why hasn’t someone created a Nancy Drew Ambience record yet? The jazz music was a nice contrast to the shadowy layout which added to the “everything is slightly unhinged” element of the game. But man, when the danger music would play, I would get chills. Especially when you’re in Renee’s room or in Bruno’s secret room. Surprisingly those two rooms creeped me more then the graveyard!

I also loved the little noises like the sound of rain, or the way the rain hit the windows. Nancy’s heels as she walked through the graves. The skeletal hand for Charlie’s puzzle. The sound Henry’s chair makes when he moves. Etc. etc.

Characters:

Nancy was amazing as usual. It surprises me how she remains unfazed by everything, but I love that side of her. Bess felt a bit out of character with her resistance to participating in snooping. Usually she’s dying to know what’s up, or help Nancy out, but she wasn’t this time. Still, got to had it too her. Not many friends would sneak into a private meeting and demand her rights despite being surrounded by creepy skeletal men. Some of you might scoff, but y’all would be crapping your pants if you were in the same situation.

So since you technically didn’t know there would be a mystery, it made sense that there were only 3 suspects. I like how Nancy doesn’t start out with an investigation. She mostly wants to figure out who the skeletal man was and why he attacked her, and how that simple curiosity leads her to the crystal skull. It’s a nice progression of plot.

Henry: Henry Bolet is handsome. I know some people might not like the arm sleeve thing or painted nails, but it’s 2020, it’s called aesthetic! Her Interactive over here creating male characters who want to paint their nails way before popular culture accepted it/picked up on it. Haters be jealous. I’m kidding. But still, I loved how much depth they put into this character. How with so little, you understood his character. When he complains about how Bruno sent him away as a child, it revealed that Henry is someone who really needs family. He’s aware his emotional needs are higher than the average person, not because he lost his parents, but just who he is by nature. It also makes his attachment to Summer make more sense. We can easily surmise that Summer was probably the first person to give Henry the emotional security he needed, but that it was clearly done for her own selfish desires. Henry’s inability/or refusal to see it also makes more sense. That being said, the moment we learn about Summer, it takes Henry off the suspect list. Up till then, the game does a good job at making him seem suspicious do to his dealings with Lamont. It’s not a bad thing, but since we only have 3 suspects, his removal immediately makes the culprit an easy 50-50 guess. Not to mention the fact that after blackmailing him (which was kind of mean of Nancy to do to someone who is already being emotionally abused by his girlfriend) he gets sidelined for the rest of the game despite there being a good chunk left to play.

Renee: Classic sweet but deadly suspect. Love how the game kept her super suspicious from the way she acted to the way she would emphasize things. For example, I found it so odd that she remembered the exact percentage of who would receive what in the will, like she had been mulling over that. And the way she ends with mentioning that she was to receive 10% compared to the others getting 30%, so subtle a remark yet it catches the ear of any good detective. And of course, the room and her interest in the occult made the suspicion grow. Unfortunately, I found the whole part about authenticating the skull a bit lackluster and kind of gives the culprit away. I mean Renee said “I wanted to find the skull” when Nancy confronts her about hiding information. After such a confession, wouldn’t the obvious follow up question be “why?”. I can only guess they included this to hype up the “chase” for the skull since we know the Dr. Buford is also looking for it, but the game didn’t really deliver on the urgency so this felt like a lackluster confession. It also came close to the end of the game, so when Renee appeared at the end it wasn’t surprising. Nancy’s faith in Renee was odd, and the fact that she just tossed up the skull—face slap! Nancy, she literally confessed 10 min ago, did you forget!? The ending was nice. I liked how she “forgot” to tell Nancy about Bernie (so malicious!), but then actually forgot that Bernie was in the water.

Dr. Buford: He was interesting. Seems nice and charming, but the more we learn about Bruno’s death, the suspicious he becomes. Love how Bess worries about Buford coming back to take the skull. I still don’t understand what exactly the skeletal society does, other then being pirate fans, but I liked the costumes.

Puzzles:

I love a healthy balance between puzzles and dialogue and this game delivered on that. The dialogue was nicely spaced out throughout the game and added to the characters. Each character had their own way of talking and phrases that stayed true to their character. The one exception is Henry’s “I’ve been naughty but I’ll be nice now” line which threw me off so hard. HELLO?? WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THIS! It’s so random for a college/uni person to say this. Actually, who says this?? I’ll be honest, my mind went a bit dark and wondered just how bad was Summer abusing him for such a dialogue to come out of him……. poor Henry.

But back to the puzzles. I honestly loved most of the puzzles. I know the bowling ball machine (the one where you have to roll all eyes) annoys people, but I enjoyed it. I also know the graveyard scavenger hunt bored people, but I love puns, and l loved the layout of the house and graveyard so much that running back and forth was so much fun. Solving the clock puzzle and teeth puzzle was also fun, and they made me feel like a genius. The first part of the buzzard puzzle wasn’t bad, it was just annoying to have to turn back and see what affect each gargoyle bird did. The book mentioned that the sounds the gargoyle’s made was important, but I didn’t catch anything. I also liked how the final puzzle was a puzzle that built throughout the game. You didn’t know the eye puzzle would be the final big puzzle, but every little puzzle played a role in being a part of the final puzzle. I just thought that was cool, I like interconnected stuff.

There were three puzzles I did not like. The first was with Bess and the box she had to open. The clue was Hamlet and some numbers. I thought that you had to call Nancy and have her check the library for Hamlet and look up those reference numbers. What was the point of writing Hamlet? Nowhere in the letter did it mention that you have to associate the letter to the number and type out what it spells. Also, it did not mention that you had to restart the counting every time! I had to go online for help with this puzzle. The second puzzle was the second part of the buzzard puzzle. After getting the key, which you don’t get a good look at, you’re supposed to use them on the gargoyles. But I didn’t get that, plus the emblem on each gargoyle was just a feather with notches, so how do you know that the key goes there??? Finally, I hated the wasp puzzle. It was annoying and I don’t know why Nancy didn’t take a handful of loquats at once!

Graphics:

They really hold up despite being 13 years old. Sure, it’s a bit weird around the eyes and mouth, but the rest is stellar. Also, I love how they added in certain quirks that matched each character’s personality. Like Henry kicking his legs up to show he’s someone who doesn’t care about bending the rules, little rebellious. But then the fact that he sits proper when talking shows that he’s not so rebellious and is actually trying to be professional. Also shows the contesting sides of his emotional needs and the military training he would have received. Renee’s position over her pots show that she’s someone tricks you into thinking that she loves to work with her hands (lol, end game “this girl just handed me the skull”. I told you I love puns). It also shows that she prioritizes the small things, and the fact that she’s potting despite being recently laid off (she’s the only character still working despite Bruno’s death) makes her a bit unnerving. Dr. Buford at the French quarters show that he’s someone of charm. Etc. etc.

Plot:

Like I said, loved the slow buildup of plot—how one thing led to another. Don’t know why Ned sent Nancy to do his work, but okay…

The Summer plotline felt like it got accidentally dropped. Like the writers forgot to finish it. Even if it’s just Nancy telling Henry that what he has isn’t healthy/good, or something in the end credits where he finally broke up with her. For all we know, they could still be together.

The introduction of the magical qualities of the skull and Bruno’s death was weird. I like how Bruno’s death became questioned, but while his desire for the skull kind of made sense, it didn’t make sense why Buford or Renee wanted it. It still wasn’t clear at the endgame either. I guess there’s the financial prospect, but that subplot kind of pattered out in favour for the magical plot. It also didn’t make sense that Bruno wanted it for Henry, because let’s be real, he wasn’t a good guardian. It really did seem like Bruno didn’t care for Henry. I mean, why give your nephew a skull instead of what he really wanted/needed, a friend. You can take this a bit darker when you realize that Bruno was giving Henry monetary comfort over emotional comfort and that Henry by end game has come to associate monetary gift to be equivalent to emotional gifts, which just makes his relationship with Summer get even darker.

Overall, this was a great game. 10/10. One of my favourites and would play again and again. That’s why I bought it, lol!

~Dare to Snoop

#Nancy Drew #Legend of the Crystal Skull #CRY #Her Interactive #game review #long post

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dornishsphinx · 4 years

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Spoilers for all of AI: The Somnium Files

(Oop, I actually finished a few days ago, but here are my thoughts on the whole thing!)

Well that is the way to end a game. Been listening to that song and dance number for a while, aha, it’s fun~

So, it would appear I picked up on clues but didn’t link them properly to get to the right conclusion, with the medication and “Sejima” talking about Date being his son, but really being in “his” “son’s” body. I kinda like Saito as a villain. Just the hint of family issues regarding his father and dead mother, and how that impacted on someone without the capacity for elation outwith murder, how he does have a possessive streak which resulted in him killing his father’s “new woman”… so he does have emotions, just not positive ones. Revenge, anger, etc. I saw a comment about how he probably doesn’t realise what he’s feeling in the bodies of others while killing, is horror, and he has no idea why because he “knows” it should cause him happiness. There’s something interesting about that.

But also like, dude, why are you trying to take revenge on Hayato Yagyu when you’re the one who chose to go on the “journey” in the first place… it’s not as though he’s particularly stable though, so I’ll let it slide.

(Also, Manaka, I don’t wanna victim blame, but why the absolute hell did you choose to meet your corrupt politician lover in an abandoned warehouse district… your friends warned you, you’d just had a child, did you want to be murdered, like god… even if So was horrified and tried to stop it happening, she put herself in the position where it was very easy to be disposed of. And she would have been, if it weren’t for Renju and Hitomi. Jfc Manaka.) Though Hitomi’s Somnium was so lovely and atmospheric. Even if the darkness got annoying, it added to the tone, and it might be my favourite in the game.

I’m a little disappointed in Date going back to his original body. His voice is just so much… less charismatic than Greg Chun’s, and his face is a lot more generic hardboiled detective. And Saito’s body pretty much is Date’s now, it’s not like he really deserves it back or anything.

Also don’t be excited that Iris might kiss you, gross, you knew and helped raise her for a good few months…

Overall with the ending… I’m gonna say what a few people have said and say that I actually do prefer the Mizuki ending. It just was such a nice resolution, with her and Date, while the true ending involves going down a route of basically not being there for her at all as her adoptive dad and letting Hitomi cure her and kinda abandoning her? Sure, it’s not great for a lot of others, but the idea that we now know So is in Iris’ body, but nobody else does, is horrifying for everyone involved and it is fascinating to consider how that might work out. (He looks in a mirror and sees a face which mixes his own and Manaka’s, and learns he’s been labelled the murderer and his own body is dead… ahh, the scenes we’ll never see but I have the urge to make exist, like Pewter and Mama having their own feelings about Renju being pinned as the culprit, despite not being.)

(…I really need to figure out where Saito was for all the time. The first death in the game is then Renju’s in Shoko’s body, and then he goes on to Iris from Renju’s body, then to So from Iris’, then to Boss… I know he explained it all, but there are so many timelines where events are slightly skewed timewise lol.)

I just don’t care so much for Date’s past, forgotten relationship with the Sagans in the same way as I do about the one he has in the now with Mizuki. And it’s one he has to kinda abandon to save that relationship with those two… maybe it’s part of the same reason I don’t like him being in his old body either aha, since it feels like slotting him back into that old family he might have had (especially given Iris’ “just the three of us”. Not cool, c’mon, Mizuki looks up to you…) I’m glad they’re alive and well, don’t get me wrong! But, just… Mizuki and not having the sad loveliness that is her going through Date’s Somnium, that being a “non-golden end”… ;; Especially when it seems like her own father took more care of Manaka’s child than he did Mizuki, with Date doing the same… it’s just kinda sad.

(But at least she’d adopted now ;u;)

But! The ending is still great with the song and dance number! I’m just sad Greg Chun!Date isn’t dancing too, or didn’t get added to Dance Mode as an extra.

Overall, I loved the game so much! A few bits and pieces I was a little iffy on, but ahh… when it got the character beats right, it got them right. (Though uh… the loading times… maybe they couldn’t have put in quite so many pictures if they knew it was gonna take literally seven or eight seconds for them to load each time…)

#aitsf #catherine plays aitsf #catherine plays #aitsf spoilers

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fuse2dx · 4 years

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March '20

Outer Wilds

For all of its majesty and scope, space exploration and the science behind it is something that often gets dumbed down and glossed over in popular media, particularly when there’s a cool story about sexy aliens and all-powerful spaceships that wants to be told. Outer Wilds is... not that type of game. Within the first hour, the game’s entire universe opens wide up, and from there it’s a slow, lonely, and often gruelling journey of discovery, as you slowly piece together an understanding of said universe. Specifically; why you repeatedly experience the end of it in a 20 minute time-loop, and how it may relate to the fate of a revered yet now-extinct race.

While there’s a lot of very clever environmental storytelling and the odd character or two to come across, the most frequent source of knowledge comes from on-the-fly translation of ancient texts you discover as you bumble your way among various planets. It doesn’t sound particularly inspiring, but a world of dry scene-setting audio logs this is mercifully not. Information you take from these needs genuine consideration and retention (thankfully an in-game computer helps with the latter), and crucially, the comprehension to then put its learnings into practice. A friend kicked me off on my way with comparisons to Groundhog Day and Interstellar - which certainly make sense - but I also like The Martian here for its appreciation for the fundamental nuts and bolts of things out there in space. The passion for these astronomical pursuits ooze from every pore, and some of the most impactful scenes come from merely observing the incredible phenomena built into its range of diverse planets. One thing the game does very well is pairing these moments to its otherwise quite minimal score - one of my favourites being the soaring number that marks the end of each cycle, even despite it leading to a pavlovian response of panic as I would try to wrap things up before my inevitable death.

Tempering this somewhat, I will confess the above does present a somewhat romanticised version of the game. Laid bare, I was expecting a shorter, less obstructed run through it - that I wouldn’t be getting frustrated and dying repeatedly with awkward crash-landings, or that I wouldn’t be secretly pleading for stream viewers to offer a nudge in the direction that might break the mental deadlock on where I should be going next. Outer Wilds is a wonderful, thoughtful game, but one I appreciate far much more now that I have finished it, and that I don’t have to experience it through hours spent searching high and low to find the specific brick wall I was meant to have been bashing my head against. It definitely needs a little patience, but by golly is it memorable.

Murder By Numbers

I like to think that in most circumstances I’ve at least a reasonable frame of reference to present an informed opinion about games, but here’s one where I feel there is quite the gap. With hands very much up, let me confess; I had never played any Picross before this. While I found it easy enough to pick up, can I tell you where this sits among the grand pantheon of video game nonogram compilations? Can I heck. While I felt that the difficulty curve here was pretty steady for a newcomer, I certainly would’ve appreciated a simple UX option to wipe the board entirely and begin from scratch when you’ve made a mistake you’re not able to untangle. Not that I made mistakes and needed to do that, you understand.

The other core component of Murder By Numbers is far more familiar to me. Honor, your character, is first fired from job as an actress on a murder mystery show, only for the man responsible for the firing to turn up dead minutes later. Accompanied by newly-acquainted, amnesiac robo-buddy Scout, you begin to talk to those present, and seek out evidence (see: scan scenes and solve picross puzzles) to lead to the true culprit, which in turn leads to more mystery that plays out over another three chapters. On paper it could read as quite a morbid endeavour, but this is taking more from the Phoenix Wright playbook; it’s stuffed with charming, colourful characters that smile and laugh together and are generally very warm until the somewhat pantomime bad guys unveil themselves. Masakazu Sugimori lending his compositional talent helps further this comparison, and while their repetition can grate when you’re struggling to solve a puzzle, his tunes do carry the chipper vibe along nicely. It’s a well written, charming, and often funny game, and the combination with quite a laid back puzzle style like this leads to a generally enjoyable experience. Oh, and it’s here, right at the end, that I also remember that intro: if that doesn’t warm your heart, I don’t know what will.

#outer wilds #murder by numbers

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luxexhomines · 5 years

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8, 9, 10, 20, 31, 41, 45, 60! (Is that too much? I'll be honest, I want all the questions on that list answered ;-;)

Ahhh, that’s not too much at all!! I’m flattered that you’d like to hear what I have to say ♡ I would like to answer all of them for you, but for the sake of not clogging up everyone’s dash, I’ll answer just the ones you’ve listed & the ones from lovely anon under the cut! If I get more asks, I’ll answer those, too, but for now, I’ll just keep it to the numbers since a hundred might be too much to scroll through, aha!

Here we go for the Danganronpa ask meme, under the cut!! Sorry my answers are kind of long; I elaborated quite a bit. Maybe too much.Expect discourse & explicit DR1, SDR2, NDRV3 & DR3 Anime spoilers!

2. Favourite Protagonist?

Does Kaede count? Okay, I figured not... If not Kaede, then for sure Hajime Hinata. He has such spunk, and he’s such a relatable character for protagonist without being flat in the least. He also ends up representing so much more than just the force facing against the killing game and is more than the Ultimate Hope, too. He has real concerns and gets discouraged as a normal person would, which is what leads him to go for the Kamukura Project. He’s the most compelling, by far.

8. Least favourite character?

I’m not sure if I have an exact least favorite character. I’d probably go with Hifumi or Leon. I’m not as big of a fan of the characters from Danganronpa 1. I also don’t love Maki much, at least if we’re talking canonically. Otherwise, I feel more apathetic toward her, as I do with Hifumi & Leon.

9. Least favourite class trial?

This is hard... I’m actually pretty easily creeped out/am rather sensitive, so many of the pictures/illustrations in the trials make me feel uncomfortable. I might have to say Super Danganronpa 2, Trial 3, simply for that reason. The image of Mikan standing on that stepladder with a paper bag over her head always makes me feel so creeped out.

10. What would be your Ultimate Title?

I’m not good at anything enough to be an Ultimate, of course, but... Probably Ultimate Fan or something like that. That sounds pretty dumb, but I’m honestly a hugely supportive fan of all the content creators I follow: I send in asks often and always write in the tags, whether it’s art, fanfiction, edits–you name it. When I buy merch, I dm the artist to thank them and take pictures of the merch and post it on tumblr with my raves about how much I love it. Although I haven’t bought that much merch, as of now.I’m also just a generally incredibly supportive person whether online or in real life, so if you tell me about one of your endeavors, I’m sure to support you, ask you about it, and encourage you to update me on it. I thoroughly appreciate people fully and tend to overlook flaws and such. Otherwise, perhaps I’d be the Ultimate Chorister or something like that.

20. Who do you think is an overrated character?

Kaito Momota. Don’t get me wrong, I love him, but I also loathe some of his actions. When he refuses to believe that the identity of the killer could possibly have been Gonta in Trial 4, I was incensed. Of course, I didn’t think Gonta could really have done it either initially, but because this is a killing game, there will always be extraordinary circumstances, and there’s little you can rely on, as even you yourself are prone to acting in abnormal ways for some reason or other. That’s just an undeniable truth and logic. And the way he wouldn’t talk to Shuichi after that trial was so childish and immature. Shuichi was revealing the truth; Kaito was trying to help him get over the fear of revealing the truth, but then in trial 4 he refuses to believe Shuichi and then won’t even look him in the eye afterward. Like, man up, Kaito. This is not Shuichi’s fault. He’s just the person who delivers the news, not the person who made them. It’s probably his canon developments that make me feel that people think of them too highly.

31. Is there a character you think who shouldn’t have survived but did?

41. Person you’ve never expected to become a culprit but they became? (Doesn’t include Chiaki)

Kaede Akamatsu. I know, I’m big dumb, but it wasn’t just her protagonist status that warded me off–it was her tenacity and belief in protecting everyone that I thought would never allow her to kill someone, rather than that being the enabler of murder. And, yes, I know she didn’t actually kill Rantaro in the end. But she was named culprit and other than her, I’m not sure who I’d be surprised at.

45. Unpopular opinion?

I don’t really like KaiMaki that much. Maki’s entire development arc is based on her love for Kaito and him helping her out of being closed off to everyone. I understand needing some extra help, but I resent that she needed help from a man and that she had to fall in love with the said man. I don’t think her arc could even be representative of growth, as she ended up falling back on her assassin tactics to try and resolve the situation herself in trying to save Kaito, which only further escalated the situation. I prefer Harumatsu by far over KaiMaki. Kaede is someone I could see Maki in a healthy relationship with, and someone who can guide her to a better answer for situations or problems. She’s also just as (if not more!) supportive as Kaito and has similarly positive energy without having to be a big idiot or a big strong Manly Man™.

Also, to reiterate from earlier, Kaito is a man baby. I know he’s still a high schooler and, of course, human, which explains a lot of his actions, but I also just find that part of him so difficult to condone–how contradictory he is between supporting Shuichi telling the truth to going to not being able to accept the truth and actively resisting it, and then ignoring Shuichi like a big baby. I would’ve thought of him as someone who confronts the other party, not someone who just has a cold war with the other party like that. Again, perhaps it’s just that canon was written terribly. I quite like Oumota, even though I’m not a huge fan of Kaito himself.

60. Saddest moment?

When Kokichi said, “H-How could a game...that you’re forced to play...be fun....? I had to think this game was fun to survive... I had to lie to myself!” My heart shattered into a million little pieces right then and there, and I cried. I usually don’t cry from media–games, stories, movies, books–but I cried then. Another notable moment was in the Danganronpa 3 anime when Chiaki was trying to escape but died at the end. That was so painful to watch; I think I cried then, too.

69. Choose one character which you would take with you on a trip.

Kokichi Ouma! At least, that’s my instinct. I’m sure he’d be so much fun to go on a trip with–never a boring moment with him around. I’d probably get pretty tired, though, because he’d want to go out to a ton of places and drag me around, and he’d probably also make me buy him a lot of stuff. So if not Kokichi, then maybe Nagito. He’d appreciate the travels a lot, make for an interesting conversation partner, and be considerate about managing time, energy, and money.

70. Character you would have a sleepover with?

Kaede Akamatsu! Maybe Tenko Chabashira? You thought I was going to say Kokichi again, weren’t you? With him around, it wouldn’t even be a sleepover, so... But with Kaede or Tenko, we could probably do some fun and relaxing activities and have some compelling conversations before we go to sleep.

100. Opinion on all the Protagonists!

I already went over Hajime in the first question so... Of course, Naegi is a cute cinnamon roll, but apart from that, his character doesn’t hold much appeal for me. I did kind of like him as I was watching the anime, but I wasn’t super attached to him or anything. And, as I stated before, Shuichi feels like a pretty flat character to me. He’s just... a normal guy who helps out with his uncle’s little detective agency. All three of the protagonists are technically “normal,” even though Shuichi’s supposed to be the Ultimate Detective. The way he describes his uncle’s detective agency makes me think it’s just this rundown little office in some back alley that solves missing pet and adultery cases, so his detective thing is like a hobby. Apart from Hajime, who literally gets talent implanted in him, Makoto’s the only one with a talent–luck, which is very sporadic and works arbitrarily. So they’re all pretty much just your average, run-of-the-mill guys, who don’t even want to be the protagonist of the killing game and take their position rather reluctantly and passively. They have their protagonist statuses thrust upon them.

Now, as for Kaede... She not only actually has an ultimate talent as the Ultimate Pianist and makes references to it by naming piano pieces at times and describing them, but she also takes up the role of the protagonist actively by bringing together a group of high schoolers who are all strangers, attempting a dangerous road of death and despair in trying to escape and takes action toward trying to end this game. She’s basically the first and only protagonist to make a plan toward outing the mastermind before the last trial–in fact, she does so before even the first one has occurred! She makes effort to prevent any killings, not just investigate and deal with them after they’ve already happened. I have much love for her, as you might be able to tell.

#ask #lux answers #lux speaks #danganronpa ask meme #not imagines #not writing #ship discourse #discourse #spoilers #ndrv3 spoilers #sdr2 spoilers #danganronpa spoilers #dr1 spoilers #v3 spoilers #drv3 spoilers #dr3 spoilers #unpopular opinion #ask game #phoebeko

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ryouverua · 6 years

Text

Chapter 4 Investigation (Part 2)

Things are never boring with this lovable scamp as your partner!

Man that was a quick turnaround, Himiko! Though I have to say, your avatar is quite cute...

also seeing all the icons against each other makes me laugh because Shuichi and Himiko have the most defined lashes omfg and Miu... programmed/designed them all to be that way...

Yeah, I really do think someone snuck here to log Kaito out. Tsumugi was distracted or something? Maybe? Kokichi would have had access to it, being that he was right near by in the salon...

And then, about an unexpected yet surprisingly hilarious interlude involving maps -

NO SHIT, NOT-SHERLOCK

So the Kaito-centric dynamic of our little three-person group is that obvious, huh...

MORE OF GAMER SNOB TSUMUGI KTHNX

mystery solved she was filled with such potent angry nerd rage that she murdered Miu over the graphics you can’t tell me that isn’t plausible

I’m. Baffled????

also of course, more hilarious exchanges

Okay, uh, I.... was not expecting to find this? And I’ll be honest, I have no idea how it would fit in at all. Or why it’s over here. I’m just... gonna... put that on the back-burner for a bit.

I feel like me not knowing why it would be there is still better than K1-b0′s theory.

Oh right, Kaito was logged out before it came back. And now we’re talking about the direction of the river, and how the sign got washed over against the river flow, but I’m not too worried about that? Like I said, I feel like from a game design standpoint it would make sense for the river to loop right-to-left so items and/or people wouldn’t be accidentally lost if they fell in and went off-map.

DO IT! DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!

.... then the avatar stays ‘active’ in the VR world. I suppose it’s a somewhat poetic ending for Miu in that sense - her avatar’s presence will be an immortal legacy in here, or at least until the VR world itself ends.

Ooooh...??? We’re going to hear about this before the trial?

WHERE KAITO WAS....

I think some of the pieces are starting to come together a bit in my head.

Probably to give her a chance to sneak off and find a way to the other side - and I bet since she modified the world, she knew ways to do that. Maybe that board beside her?

OH WELL FUCK MY ORIGINALLY THEORY OF SOMEONE GOING BACK TO THE MANSION TO LOG KAITO OUT

goddamnit Miu just casually throwing a cellphone into the mix

HOW

DARE

YOU

MADAM

oh oops I guess I shouldn’t speak ill of the dead huh

OH and also she had a hammer which you know, should be a very pressing issue considering the implications of Miu having a weapon-like object on her when everyone else was defenceless but I AM STILL STEAMING ABOUT THE CELLPHONE

bOYFRIENDS god they’re so cute look at their blushing sprites i’m dying.....

Ah good, at least that part I got right.

.....

Um. Shuichi. Did you, uh, give him a heads up about what you were going to do when I blinked or....?

SHUICHI COMMUNICATION IS VERY IMPORTANT TO ASTRONAUTS AND FOR HAVING A GOOD RELATIONSHIP

AND ESPECIALLY FOR HAVING A GOOD RELATIONSHIP WITH AN ASTRONAUT

“It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission.” Somehow I think it’s still going to be hard...

Oh man imagine being thrown out of the game when you’re sick the way he is 8′D The vertigo, the sudden potential nausea/lung pain, etc...

A-Aaaaw! Poor Kaito - he keeps getting logged out, left behind and just generally tossed aside - for that matter, he’s been called an idiot for a decent amount of the game and spent half of chapter 3 stuck in his room, sick and terrified. Shuichi didn’t mean to leave you behind, Kaito! He’s just an awkward introvert who doesn’t know how to communicate, promise!

Oh man, is that salt I’m detecting in our Ultimate Astronaut?

Anyway, we already knew that the lattice was from the roof so when he talks about something being missing, it wasn’t hard to figure out what it was. Also, the lock can only be done from the outside, so you can’t get locked out of the roof, but you can get locked/stuck on the roof itself.

Aaaw Himiko 8′D You get attached to things quickly too, huh? I can relate a little too well. are your tabs and room a mess too

Alright, Maki’s here on Kaito’s behalf because Monotaro wanted to show us more info. It’s kinda weird having him on our side, even if it’s temporary, but hey, any help at this point is good!

Damn, Maki’s still here with those back-handed compliments. Still, that might be one of the nicest things she’s said to Shuichi so far. Baby steps! yeah you might not want to sound like Kaito but he’s definitely rubbing off on you

OMG HE’S STILL SALTY ABOUT THE LOGGING OUT THING

Man it’s really weird to see that icon with Maki. But hey, at least she’s trying to help them fix things rather than stew in jealousy like earlier/stay mad at Kaito about leaving her in the chapel. 8′D

Aaaaand back to the real world!

“For example, there’s me, your beloved!”

"SOMEONE GET ME A HELMET, I’M GOING BACK INTO THE VR WORLD.”

“Turn around so I can put a ‘Kick Me’ sign on your back! It’s what you deserve!”

“Wait, that doesn’t say ‘Kick Me’, that says Saiouma is endgame OTP -”

“Oops! I lied. Still putting it on you, though.”

Interesting pause and neutral face here...

..................

Oh. But.... it can only be locked.... from the outside. So there’s no way he was locked out unless he was physically blocked.

I think I 100% caught him in a lie here.

Schrodinger’s Kokichi Ouma....

“LIFE PARTNERS! EMBRACE ME, AIBOU -`”

“Ouma I swear to -”

Oh fml I’m starting to get an awful feeling - p-please stop referring to it as sleeping, it’s.... really feeding into my theory that I thought was wild but is starting to become less and less crazy-sounding in my head...

D-Don’t you trust in your sidekick, bro? D:

Omfg you just know Miu is the type to put a ton of aside comments in her code and it’s all vulgar...

Yup, true. Confirmed.

Either for defensive... or offensive purposes.

Apparently the cellphone was another object she choose not to delete as well. Man Miu, your post-humous impression on everyone is looking kinda bleak! Now that I think about it, I remember noting her panicking after that flashback light. I’m starting to think she might be the person I was looking for who would fit the ‘desperate to get out of here’ bill.

That’s an odd detail.

Yeah, I guess I did originally figure that was the case. So there was probably another point of entry on the ‘outside’ edge, like the looping river.

Wait what?! Doesn’t that mean she is unbreakable?! Did she think it would make her impossible to kill or something???

I mean... it’s gotta be the one acting as a barrier to ‘outside’ the map, right? I guess it makes sense that if the river can loop, maybe the whole map itself does. That explains why we could hear K1-b0. Was there a secret entrance along the wall that everyone ignored because they thought there was nothing beyond the wall on either side?

MIU LIED SWEETCHEEKS, THAT AIN’T JUST SOMETHING KOKICHI, YOU AND KAEDE CAN DO

OoooooOOOOH

OH..........

MIU...

Girl I think you played yourself

Whelp, that just solved a huge chunk of the questions I had!

Wait what??? Now that is pretty unexpected. It’s starting to raise some interesting possibilities though.

Yeah, that’s the face I would have if I found out I had been unwittingly sabotaged. 8′D Oh Miu, what in the world were you up to...

Oh?

.... No

no no no

no no no no no

NO EXPLAIN THE ERROR EXPLAIN IT RIGHT NOW

WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN ‘BING BONG’

EXPLAIN THE ERROR

DON’T LEAVE IT AS A MYSTERY

WE HAVEN’T MADE ANY REFERENCE TO THE WIRES CROSSING IN THE HELMETS

NO NO NO NO NO

FUCK YOU I THINK I KNOW WHERE THIS IS GOING AND I WON’T STAND FOR IT

BECAUSE THERE MIGHT NOT HAVE BEEN AN AVATAR ACTING STRANGELY IN THE GAME, BUT THERE IS SOMEONE USING VAGUE ENOUGH LANGUAGE AND REFERRING TO THE WORLD AS A ‘DREAM’ AND THE ACT OF LOGGING IN AS ‘SLEEPING’

AND CONVENIENTLY DID NOT LOG IN THE SECOND TIME

DON’T

YOU

FUCKING

DO IT

DANGANRONPA

NO FUCK YOU MONOKUMA LOOK AT ME WHEN I’M CURSING YOU OUT

First Miu’s schtick, now Himiko’s - is there any persona you won’t steal this chapter?

GONTA................ GONTA, NO I’M SUDDENLY DEATHLY AFRAID FOR YOU AGAIN.......

FML Kokichi has the right attitude that no one aside from Shuichi seems to have and

and

fuck

I.... if I’m right, this is not going to have the triumphant ending the last one had... not at all -

omg Himiko you sound like me

uHH

OMFG -

IT’S WAVING IN THE WIIIIIIIIIIND

BRB guys I need to temporarily find a way into the DRV3 game so I can give Himiko a huge high five.

Man I don’t know if Kokichi knows who the culprit is, but I think he is way too excited about the idea of harassing Kaito...

And Kaito knows it.

Ugh, there really is, huh? That’s why I find the vibe i so weird after the third trial. You just get used to feeling how they all interact with each other, there are all these different personalities and - poof. Gone. And suddenly you get a lot more from fewer people, and the world just seems so much larger and emptier.

I-I MEAN.... YOU’RE NOT WRONG, BUT....

Man, the way they’re all cheering him on should be heartwarming and encouraging but it’s kinda freaking me out a little bit? Is that weird?

give him a back massage. you know, between bros.

omg Kokichi are you Shuichi’s agent now or something?

“SORRY KAI-WHATEVER, MR. SAIHARA IS A VERY IMPORTANT MAN AND IS TOO BUSY TO BE BOTHERED BY THE LIKES OF YOU ~ “

Kokichi my boy, you really need to work on your flirting game.

“BRO!”

“BRO....!”

I’M SORRY I’M WEAK FOR ALL THIS ‘BRO’ TALK

That seriously sounds like a threat. 8′D Gosh though, you’re really not having it with Kaito today, huh? Now that I think about it, with Miu gone you and Kaito are going to be the strongest personalities in the trial. This is gonna get interesting...

a;sdlkfja there’s so few of them... oTL

Yeah, she really did. And man did she leave a big impact. Even if she wasn’t my favourite character of the bunch, she had a surprisingly interesting dynamic with a lot of the others and she definitely wasn’t forgettable. It’s going to be weird not to have her around. To think that I originally thought she would get knocked off within the first two chapters... 8′D

Alright so, notes - and as usual I’ll transcribe because my writing sucks. I did doodle some stuff too though ~

Left side of the map (mansion):

Shuichi/Tsumugi (together)

Kaito - roof/logged out 1 hour before

Kokichi

Gonta

Right side of the map (chapel)

Maki

Himiko

K1-b0

Miu * - dead, but also with the ability to cross sides

So I drew out the map both ways - once, the way it is in the game, and two, with the left/right side against each other and the loading screen as the ‘walls’ on the outside. I’m guessing that was the original map. I’m guessing the added wall was the barrier on the edge of the game map.

In the real world, they were seated like this with the computer at the top of the semi-circle:

Gonta Maki

Himiko Kaito

Tsumugi Shuichi

K1-b0 Kokichi (with poison in his seat)

Miu

So now that the stages are set:

First, the so-called obvious culprits and other red herrings:

Kaito

Man, someone was pushing to set Kaito up and I think that may have been Miu. It would be one thing if my original speculation about the lobby phone being used by the culprit to log Kaito out was one thing, but once the cellphone was found on Miu there really wasn’t any ambiguity left. He was definitely logged out remotely. It would have been interesting if she had logged him out via lobby phone and her wall-crossing abilities, but maybe the writers thought that could have been too hard to work out...

Kokichi

He’s been acting hella suspicious but once that paralysis feature got revealed, he was knocked out of the running.

Miu being on the chapel side - solved by her avatar being classified as an object. Did the culprit know that too? I guess if Tsumugi could spot her through the window, Miu wasn’t exactly being subtle about her presence on the other side.

Poison - another red herring. No bloodshot eyes

Before I go on, you’ll note I circled a name on the ‘alive’ list, then drew a VERY unhappy face, and just kinda went NOOOOOOO in caps because

FML I THINK IT WAS GONTA...

Is he the one that got the error code? He thinks it was all a dream - did he accidentally switch the wires? It did say the wires were for ‘memory’ and ‘consciousness’, and what better example of that is a fading dream...

Anyway, I’m going to get back to that ^ because I’m still like..... ugh. I have logical reasons that point to him, but emotionally I’m a bit of a wreck. So honestly, it sounds like Miu tried to kill Kokichi. You can see I underlined it in caps in the bottom right corner. 8′D I’m thinking Kokichi knew it was coming somehow? I’m not sure if it was just when they agreed to meet on the rooftop or before then, but I’m wondering if he set up Gonta as his bodyguard, knowing full well that Gonta has been slowly driving himself mad because of his inability to protect the people around him. I love Gonta, but he can get irrational when he gets emotional aka a certain insect-related incident...

As well as that, we have confirmed alibis: Tsumugi was with Shuichi, Kaito was out of range, Maki/K1-b0/Himiko were together, and Kokichi would have been paralyzed on contact. By process of elimination (which is so, so cold), Gonta is the only person who could have done it in the game - and we even saw him alone at the end, didn’t he?

So I’m wondering if it went like this...

Miu makes a move against Kokichi via their meeting

Gonta moves to protect Kokichi out of desperation and grabs her by the neck

She was definitely strangled, aka her expression/body position - Kokichi couldn’t do it because of the paralysis though, so it had to be someone else

Maybe Gonta didn’t realize his own strength, because he was rendered as weak as everyone else and he took the fact that he was nerfed to heart?

and/or maybe he just didn’t realize he killed Miu because he didn’t know he could in this world

pushed her off the roof via, uh, rolling up that lattice.. fencing... stuff sorry I don’t know I’m picturing her little avatar being wrapped up in fencing like a sushi roll and it’s making me laugh and sent her to the other side where she hits the chapel wall

can ~lie~ to us so well because he can’t remember his time in VR - he keeps referring to it as ‘sleep’ or ‘dream’

So that would explain why Kokichi seems to be dancing around us like he knows everything, but man... he’s also seriously ragging on Gonta despite Gonta saving his life??? And him basically using Gonta as disposable protection??? I’m a little scared about exactly what that means for Kokichi and his character, damn...

B-But even still, I can’t... quite... reconcile this in my head. Kokichi is literally the only person I can think of that has any sort of antagonism with Miu. Honestly, anyone else killing Miu is hard for me to imagine - which I guess is maybe the point? And the reason they ‘equalized’ everyone’s strength wasn’t to make Gonta easy to kill like I thought it was when we first went in there, but to make a physical murder like strangulation more difficult for him when he’s at the same strength as everyone else. So I mean, on a meta level/technical level, it does make sense! But - but - Gonta! How can it be Gonta! On a cold hard logic level I feel like it’s all sound, but emotionally.... oTL

I.... don’t......... want to...........

fuCK IT I’M GOING BACK IN TIME PRECIOUS BUG BOY I’M GOING TO FINISH KAITO’S FTE’S THEN I’M DOING YOURS

#Kokichi Ouma #Gonta Gokuhara #Shuichi Saihara #Kaito Momota #Miu Iruma #Himiko Yumeno #Kiibo #Maki Harukawa #Keebo #Tsumugi Shirogane #K1-b0 #Ryou plays drv3 #spoilers #drv3 spoilers #Monotaro #Saiouma #Saimota

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ijustwant2write · 6 years

Text

‘I like you either way’-Dimitri Mitropoulos x Reader

(GIF credit to @club-riot)

Masterlist

Summary: requested by @champagneholland : ‘Dimitri wants to go out with the reader, even if she is not interested at all. After insisting for days and days, she accepts. The reader does everything not to impress him (no makeup, casual clothes...) and this makes Dio fall for her even more’

Characters: Dimitri Mitropoulos x Reader

Meanings: (Y/N)= Your name

Warnings: Swearing, mentions of sex

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Feeling something hit the back of my head, I looked around, confused at the sensation. On the floor was a scrunched up piece of paper, which I assumed was the object that hit me. As I glanced around the library, I couldn’t find the culprit, seeing everyone staring at their computers, their noses deep in a book or drowning beneath plies and piles of paperwork. I opened the piece of paper, scoffing as I read the message inside.

You look like you could use a break.

Let me take you out for lunch?

Dimitri

Rolling my eyes, I placed it beside me, not bothering to reply. I knew Dimitri, like most boys he was only after one thing, and I was not going to fall into his traps. He was a typical fuckboy, Dimitri loved to play games and pick up then drop girls whenever he pleased. I continued with my work, thinking that after my rejection he would leave me alone, perhaps move on to another girl in the room. Before I could even type another word, another ball of paper was thrown at me. I stayed still, waiting to see if anything else would happen; when nothing did, I put my focus back on the computer, until another piece of paper flew at me. Angrily grabbing the paper, I read the two messages again.

Surely you’re not ignoring me?

Come on, let’s get out of here

Standing up, I grabbed all three pieces of paper, heading towards the bin. Making a statement, I threw them in there, coincidentally finding Dimitri as I turned back around. He was sat at a computer, watching me with a smirk and a raised eyebrow as I walked back to my seat. I couldn’t see any stationary or books around him, surely he hadn’t come all the way here to bother me? And by sending my messages on a piece of paper? How old were we, 12?

After forcing myself to work for a few more hours, I finally decided to stop, needing to have a break from uni life. Dimitri had disappeared, much to my luck, and I could walk back to my dorm in peace. My pace was sluggish, the weight of the laptop, books and files were pulling me down. I was practically leaning against my door as I unlocked it, only to be stopped by my neighbour.

“Hey, (Y/N), Dimitri dropped by earlier, he was asking for you.” She explained.

“Did you tell him where I was?”

“No cause I didn’t know. But he seemed very persistent.”

“If he ever comes back and asks you again, don’t tell him please.”

“Why don’t you give him a chance? It seems he has his eye on you.”

“He seems to have his eye on a lot of things, I am not something he can just buy with his shed load of cash.”

The next few days went on like this. He would try to catch me after my classes, or if we were ever in the same room he would try to sit next to me; notes were still being passed to me and some days he even got me small gifts! They were usually food or drinks that I had been craving whilst studying but the freaky thing was that he knew exactly what to get. It was starting to get a little suspicious, seeing that he was paying attention to every little detail. I knew his way with women, which is what I was scared of, but I had never heard of him doing this for anyone else.

“Dimitri,” I sighed as I saw him waiting outside my room,“you know this is borderline stalking, right?”

He ignored my statement, blocking me from the door.“Let me take you out. Please, even if it’s just a drink.”

“No thank you.”

“Why not? You’ve never even given me a reason!”

I shoved him out of the way, starting to unlock the door.“Because I’ve seen what you do to girls. You and your little club find it funny to mess around with us, treat us like we’re important until you get bored. I am not going to put myself through that.”

As I closed the door, Dimitri held his arm out to stop it. I saw his face soften as I kept the door open, though his arm stayed where it was in case I slammed it in her face again.

“Give me one chance. I promise that nothing will happen if you don’t want it to. And if you don’t feel any different after, then I’ll leave you alone.”

I huffed, now debating the decision in my head. Although I was still cautious of him, Dimitri wouldn’t have put all of this effort in if he was just going to dump me straight afterwards; however there was still something in my mind telling me to be careful, to tread lightly around him in case he had been put up to this or was looking for a casual fuck. Suddenly, an idea popped into my mind that would put him to the ultimate test.

“Alright, you can take me out.”

His eyes widened in shock.“Really?”

“Yes, but you’ve got to stick to your word.”

“Well then, I’ll be picking you up at eight tonight.” His cheeky tone came back as he winked at me, walking away merrily.

Time went by, though it didn’t bother me. I was in no rush to get ready. What I had planned would throw him off, he wouldn’t want to even be seen with me. It was five to eight, he would be here soon. Standing up, I checked my appearance in the mirror, satisfied with how I looked; though Dimitri wouldn’t be. There were knocks at the door, and I suddenly felt very excited. As I opened the door, I relished in Dimitri’s face as he saw my attire. All that I had on was a pair of my scruffiest jeans, an old graphic t-shirt, a worn out jacket and converse shoes. I hadn’t bothered with my hair, it was still in a messy bun from my nap and my makeup was just some chap stick. Bet he didn’t see that coming.

“Are we ready to go?” I asked, smirking. He would definitely not want to take me out looking like this.

“Well, I didn’t specify where we were going, my fault. Come on, we don’t want to be late.” He started to walk away, leaving me confused.

“Wait, what?” I stuck my head out of the door, watching as he kept on walking.

“We have reservations, it would be a shame if we missed it.”

I scurried after him, now wishing that I had actually made an effort. Surely he wouldn’t make me go out looking like this? Apparently he would, as he made no further comment. We walked side by side in silence, though I could have easily ranted on to him about letting me change. No, I couldn’t let him win, he’d change his mind by the end of the night.

In true Dimitri style, he drove us in his flashiest car, not abiding to the speed limits or any rules of the road. He had the music blasting, sometimes a cringy song would come on and he would lip sync to it, glancing over to me every now and then; I wanted to laugh, though I couldn’t let him know I was enjoying myself. He pulled up in front of a restaurant that was known to be five stars as well as play host to many celebrities and those with more money than they could count. Dimitri looked natural in a place like this, I probably would have too if I was dressed accordingly. Without a second glance, Dimitri handed his keys to the valet driver, holding out his hand to me. I grabbed onto it without thinking, hating the fact that I was cowering behind him.

We swiftly entered the restaurant and Dimitri waltzed up to the hostess, stating his name. As she scanned for the name, I didn’t miss the glance she threw my way, scrunching her nose up at my attire. I was starting to get fed up with the way she was looking at me and Dimitri could sense this.

“Sir, there is a dress code and your girlfriend does not reach our standards.” She pointed out, making a show of looking me up and down again.

Dimitri reached into his jacket, pulling out a wad of cash and throwing it down on the table in front of her.“Yes she does.”

“Right this way, sir.”

At first I thought that would be my ticket out of there. But after seeing him bribe her, I knew it wouldn’t work. Dimitri still had a hold of my hand, pulling me along after the hostess. I eyed him closely, waiting for him to slip up and glance at the hostess’ bum, something I could call him out on. To my surprise, none of that happened and we arrived at our table within seconds. Dimitri pulled out my chair for me, pushing it in as I sat down and looked around the room. Everyone had basically stared at me as I walked in, turning up their noses. I suddenly felt self conscience, though I wouldn’t let Dimitri see that.

“Don’t let them get to you. You look beautiful.” He commented. Perhaps I wasn’t the best actress.

I didn’t reply, instead picking up the menu and scanning what to eat. My eyes widened at the price list, never seeing anything so expensive in my life.

“Get whatever you want.” He spoke up again, noticing my uneasiness.

I kept looking over the menu, only to be startled slightly when a waiter started to pour wine even though we hadn’t ordered it.

Dimitri smiled.“I come here quite a lot, it’s my favourite place.”

“You bring the other girls here too?”

“No, only the pretty ones. So just you.”

I hid my blushing face behind the menu.“You shouldn’t be drinking, you’re driving remember?”

“I’ll get us a taxi, someone can pick up my car later.”

My shoulders slumped in defeat. He had an answer for everything, perhaps I wouldn’t win tonight. It was pointless, I had made a fool of myself, humiliating myself in front of a number of people. The waiter returned and took our orders, and I could no longer hide behind a menu.

“(Y/N), why are you trying so hard to not enjoy yourself?” he asked, leaning his elbows on the table.

“I’m not.” I defended.

“I understand why you didn’t want to come out with me.”

I didn’t say anything, wanting him to continue.

“I’m a player, I know that. But...fuck this is cheesy, but I didn’t want to be like that when I met you.”

“Why?”

“I just thought you stood out from everyone I had been with. You don’t care about my money, which is a first I must say. Plus you’re so more much interesting than the others.”

“You make it sound like you’ve been with a lot of girls, Dims.”

He sighed.“I won’t lie to you. You know the truth anyway.”

“Which is why I didn’t want to come.” I took a swig of my wine.

“Is this why you dressed like this? Why you’ve got this attitude tonight?”

I nodded.

“You could be wearing a potato sack as a dress and I still wouldn’t care.”

“What?”

“(Y/N), you don’t realise how much I like you. I couldn’t give a shit about how you dress. Though in all honesty, I wouldn’t mind treating you to a few things.”

I laughed, shaking my head as I did so.“I...I just don’t know Dimitri, we’re different people.”

“Opposite attract.”

I couldn’t help but smile again.“There’s no winning with you tonight, is there?”

My plan went straight out the window after that. After I let loose, it turned out that I had an incredible evening. Dimitri was charismatic and charming (though I already knew that) but it didn’t come off as snobbish. It attracted me to him more. I no longer cared about my clothes or how everyone was disapprovingly looking at us as we laughed out loud or messed around. Even when leaving in the taxi, we were still laughing, holding hands once again; however this time it wasn’t out of fear, it was because I wanted too.

Just like when we left, we were silent as Dimitri walked me to my dorm. We stopped outside my door, and then came the awkward encounter every person went through on their first dates.

“That wasn’t so bad now was it?” Dimitri teased, still holding one of my hands.

I smiled at the ground.“I’ll admit, I had a really good time. I’m just sorry for the way I acted earlier, it was very childish.”

“Don’t worry, it doesn’t matter anymore. I just wanted to show you that I could treat girls nicely, I’ve been a right twat in the past but I’ve changed. I wanted to change for you.”

“I’m sorry about the way I dressed too, I should have made an effort.”

“It doesn’t matter what you look like, I like you either way.”

“You know, I didn’t think I’ll be doing this.”

“Doing what-”

I cut him off by pulling his head down to reach mine, kissing him quickly. It seemed that he wasn’t satisfied with that, pushing me against my door as he kissed me again. When we finally parted, I smirked as I unlocked my door, closing it slowly.

“You’re not going to tease me like that are you?” he moaned.

“Dimitri, you said you were a changed man. That means no sex on the first date now.”

“What about the second one?”

I shrugged.“We’ll just have to wait and see, won’t we?”

#the riot club #the riot club imagine #the riot club fanfic #the riot club imagines #the riot club one shot #dimitri mitropoulos #dimitri mitropoulos imagine

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odanurr87 · 6 years

Text

My thoughts on... Altered Carbon

Apologies for not posting this review earlier but a few things happened during the week, one of which was the Farewell episode of Life is Strange: Before the Storm and I simply couldn’t not play it right away. Also, as you may have noticed by now, I hadn’t written up this review yet. I’ll try to keep this brief.

Overall, Altered Carbon is a series I enjoyed a great deal due to several factors, the first of which is its length. Much like British TV shows, Altered Carbon’s first season is short, comprised only of ten episodes, what’s good because it doesn’t dilute the narrative and keeps the momentum going. I’ve lost count of how many filler episodes there are in any given American TV show and I’ve often pondered how much better something like, say, The Flash would be if it were given half the number of episodes to tell a story. Not to mention there are only so many times I can be invested in Barry having to defeat yet another evil speedster. Altered Carbon is given 10 hours to make this work and I believe it succeeds.

The second factor that immediately appealed to me was the blend between sci-fi and crime thriller ala Blade Runner (probably leaning more towards 2049 than the original). The main protagonist, Takeshi Kovacs, is introduced to us as a mercenary on the run who is later hired as a private eye to look into a murder given his... colourful background. The investigation is certainly eventful and well-paced although it doesn’t do as good of a job as other murder mysteries, such as Poirot, or Miss Marple, in involving the audience and trying to get them to play detective themselves. By the time Kovacs decided to gather everyone in the traditional “room scene” I had few concrete reasons to suspect any of them for the murder but Takeshi managed to paint a colourful picture as was, indeed, the intention.

Perhaps this is compounded by the fact that, in Altered Carbon’s universe, the body is just a shell (wink wink), a sleeve, a skin that can be worn by anyone, what makes it difficult to guess who may be using a person’s sleeve at any given time, a fact that Altered Carbon takes advantage of throughout the series. This leads to a number of plot threads that introduce new characters and potential allies of Takeshi, such as Kristin Ortega (played by Martha Higareda), a police officer who’s aware of Takeshi’s colourful past and decides to keep tabs on him; and Vernon Elliot (played by Ato Essandoh), a former medic in the Tac Marines who initially becomes a prime suspect in Takeshi’s investigation. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Poe (played by Chris Conner), the Raven hotel’s Artificial Intelligence who takes on the appearance of, you guessed it, Edgar Allan Poe and sees himself as Takeshi’s partner in crime. If only. Poe’s introduction in episode 1 is probably the best in the series (certainly the funniest and a tad creepy as well) and I hope he returns in an eventual sequel.

Poe, one of the best supporting characters.

Since we’re talking cast I should mention a few other names that are tied to Takeshi’s past but for that I need to paint you a picture of the setting. As I mentioned earlier, in this alternate future, humanity has unlocked the means to live forever by storing their consciousness in a chip called a “stack.” In so doing however, humanity has paved the way for further differentiation of the classes, where the rich and powerful can practically live forever in the best and most alluring sleeves while the lower classes either die or often get placed in the cheapest bodies they can afford. At one point, a group of rebels called Envoys decided to rise against this system and tried to put an end to immortality. Needless to say, it did not go well for them and the series explores the events that led to their downfall alongside the murder mystery. In fact, Takeshi was the sole surviving member of their group and he was put on ice for a couple hundred of years. You can imagine he was none too thrilled about being brought back to solve the murder of an immortal, as he embodies everything Takeshi fought against.

Takeshi Kovacs, meet the new Takeshi Kovacs.

This segways nicely into an interesting discussion point as Altered Carbon’s main protagonist is played by two actors (three actually, as he’s briefly played by Byron Mann in the beginning as the above picture shows): Will Yun Lee, during his Envoy days; and Joel Kinnaman (whom you may recognize from Suicide Squad), during the murder investigation. Personally, I liked both their performances and I even felt, at times, that I could see Lee’s Takeshi in Kinnaman’s performance, what is no mean feat. Connecting the two is Quellcrist Falconer (played by Renée Elise Goldsberry), the smart and fearless leader of the Envoys and, incidentally, Takeshi’s love interest. I absolutely loved her interactions with Takeshi, be them past or present. Indeed, Altered Carbon successfully weaves and balances the Envoy storyline with the murder mystery in a way reminiscent of how Arrow used to balance Oliver’s past in the island and his day-to-day as a vigilante in Star City. Some, if not all, of the best moments in the series involve these two in some form or another. Quell is always present in Takeshi’s thoughts, even in death, and her wisdom helps him out of many a tight spot. It’s a rather beautiful, if tragic, love story and I’m a sucker for those. The ending of the series perfectly sets up the sequel playing to Quellcrist’s theme, undoubtedly the most emotional of the music tracks in the series and my personal favourite (sadly, it’s not a part of the OST). Since I mentioned music, I must admit Altered Carbon has some badass scenes that are perfectly enhanced by tracks like PJ Harvey’s “The Wicked Tongue.” Is the soundtrack worth listening to on its own? My first answer would be “no” but let me get back to you on that.

Quell is my favourite supporting character and I hope we see more of her in a sequel.

There are a few other positives and negatives I could mention about the show but I’ll do so in the spoilers section of this post. In general lines, the murder mystery is relegated to a second place after a certain point in the series as it switches to the heist genre once the criminal mastermind has been identified (perhaps somewhat sooner than I would’ve liked in retrospect). The reveal came as a bit of a surprise, even when it really shouldn’t have. Personally, I found the conclusion to the investigation more disappointing than the culprit’s identity as a few things line up rather too conveniently.

The series has also been, to an extent, criticized for its somewhat gratuitous depictions of gore and nudity but, to be fair, it’s nothing we haven’t seen in Game of Thrones before, a series that, if I remember correctly, was praised for that very same fact not too long ago (even though I always felt this was done for the shock value and to attract viewers). However, at least the nudity doesn’t seem too out of place in Altered Carbon when you consider most of the universe’s richer denizens see their bodies, their sleeves, as a sign of their power and would probably waste no opportunity to show off (indeed, one such scene transpires between Takeshi and Miriam Bancroft). Still, I believe the series would work just as well if there was less of it.

Overall, Altered Carbon is a series I would heartily recommend to any fan of science fiction and murder mysteries, not to mention it has a solid romance story between Takeshi and Quell (and maybe between Takeshi and the beautiful Kristin Ortega, you’ll just have to see!). I’m a bit puzzled by the critics’ tepid, if not outright dismissive, reception of this series, but for a while now I’ve had the feeling that critics have become increasingly out of touch with what people look for in entertainment. Their professionalism in analyzing or critiquing a film or a series has, sadly, become more and more influenced by their biases and agendas (be those political or otherwise), as recent releases like Ghostbusters or The Last Jedi would suggest (or the different reception to The Orville vs. Star Trek Discovery insofar TV shows are concerned). In fact, James Raney over at YouTube makes an interesting comparison between reviews for Netflix’s Bright and Disney’s The Last Jedi, highlighting the lack of consistency when reviewing one of the other (you can watch his video here). Erik Kain from Forbes also wrote an article about a month ago arguing some critics didn’t do their due diligence when reviewing Altered Carbon (you can read his article here). Is the takeaway here that I should start watching everything the critics review badly? I should hope not.

With that said, let’s dive into spoiler territory.

I didn’t like the character of Lizzie, Vernon’s daughter. I thought Poe’s therapy took way too long and was meant entirely to have her show up in the last episode to save her parents through Kovacs’ levels of badassery in an outfit that felt out of place, if not out of character. Not to mention she hints at being able to see the future, something that comes entirely out of the left field and certainly adds nothing to this series but perhaps it’s setup for the sequel. It’s also rather convenient that she has the single, most damning, piece of evidence for Takeshi to round up his investigation, something you will probably guess early on and that the show will do its utmost to make you forget (or you will have solved at least half of the puzzle).

Much criticism has also been directed at the character of Reileen Kawahara (played by Dichen Lachman; did I mention the women in this show are all absolutely gorgeous?), Takeshi’s sister. As you can undoubtedly guess, she’s the evil mastermind behind everything that’s going on to the point she even has her version of Oddjob (that’s from James Bond’s Goldfinger in case you didn’t know) to run interference and murder everyone that gets in her way. I personally liked how Lachman played the character as I felt she was very attached to her brother (maybe too much so), to the point I truly believed she was sincere about wanting him back at her side, the two of them against the world, even if it was also crystal clear everyone else was utterly expendable to her. In hindsight, perhaps the flashbacks don’t accurately convey this bond as Takeshi and Reileen have little time to reconnect, after being separated since childhood, before they’re recruited into the Envoys, but Reileen certainly comes across as (overly) protective of her big brother from that point onwards. Props to Joel Kinnaman also as Reileen’s and Takeshi’s last scene aboard the “Head in the Clouds,” is especially poignant as you can see how neither truly wants to harm the other and it tears Takeshi (and the viewer) apart when he finally pulls the trigger and end his sister’s life. As the resort plunges from the skies to its inevitable doom, Takeshi ignores Ortega’s pleas to escape with her and resolves to stay with his little sister to the very end.

Please find a way to reunite brother and sister in a sequel! It’s so sad we spent so little time with her before she was outed as the villain.

I think that about covers it. As you may have noticed, I’ve taken a liking to several of the supporting characters in the show. Sadly, all of these end up dead but I’ve learned not to take death for granted in a sci-fi show, especially one where there a technology exists that can backup a person’s consciousness. Let me add here that I also liked Ortega’s busybody character but I feel her arc was well-rounded at the end of the series so I don’t think it’s necessary for us to see her again in the sequel, but maybe Takeshi will run into Elias Ryker one day? That would be fun to watch.

What did you make of Altered Carbon? Who was your favourite character? Who would you bring back? Also, with the introduction of sleeves, this show could potentially go on for as long as it wants (or has enough material), similarly to Doctor Who. Will Yun Lee could certainly reprise his role as Takeshi Kovacs or perhaps he could be played by someone else. The ending takes every precaution not give away any hint as to his ethnicity, to the point his new sleeve is even wearing gloves. Who would you like to see play Takeshi Kovacs in a sequel?

#altered carbon #netflix #takeshi kovacs #reileen kawahara #quellcrist falconer #kristin ortega #joel kinnaman #will yun lee #dichen lachman #renée elise goldsberry #martha higareda #chris conner

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junkobears · 7 years

Note

1,16,22!

Bless your soul for giving me more ask meme questions to ramble over! I’ve already answered #1 in a previous ask, so just #16 and #22 here! Ho boy there be V3 spoilers here for sure.

16. If you could change anything in the show, what would you change?

Do I even gotta say it at this point anymore? V3′s Protagonist Switch would be reversed immediately, that is absolutely what I would pick no matter the scenario, if I was rewriting the series, if I could only make one change, etc. It’s just so garbage and basically sets up every other issue I have with V3 and its writing in general.

I know people will argue that it’s important to have the switch to represent the truth/lie theme of the game, but honestly? I think it could work even if we never switched POVs. You already have Akamatsu acting as an unreliable narrator with her death trap set-up being hidden from the player until the trial reveals, and if Saihara gets executed in her place (the evidence implicates him too much for Akamatsu to properly refute, he takes the fall, w/e) then you already have Monokuma’s false verdict in play right from the get-go. Then the central mystery of the game would be WHY Monokuma would go along with the lie, alongside Akamatsu as MC being defined more by her failures as a leader getting people killed instead of generic “YA GOTTA BELIEVE IN YOURSELF” shit. Etc it ties in with the overarching theme just fine nerds.

Although I think it could also work with Saihara as the initial POV too, but it’d be much more difficult to pull off the narrator trick obviously. But, like I’ve said before, he could’ve been used in the promo material as the perfect sequel protagonist, being the shy timid bland dude unsure of his skills + being a detective directly this time, which directly links him to the DR formula + truth/lie theme. Then surely having him killed off and replaced by Designated Love Interest Character as THE protagonist would be much more a shocking swerve??? God I fucking hate the actual canon twist the more I think about how it could’ve been really unique and subversive if done in any other possible way than the shit we actually got.

Current endless salty rambling aside, other major changes I’d make to this series: Yukizome as DR3 Future Arc’s mastermind, Junko would not get the DR2 kids to join her despair cult via a random brainwashing anime she stole from a nerd dude who’d never been mentioned before, Matsuda (and DR0 in general) would have never existed, the DR2 dead kids would stay comatose forever, AND Saionji would replace Souda as DR2 survivor.

22. Popular character you hate?

Haha, oh hun, ya sure I gotta answer this one?. The top three culprits are Saihara, Komaeda and Naegi, who all basically personify everything I hate about both the DR series and fandom culture in general. I guess those are the low-hanging fruit options though.

So how about I pick some characters from all the major installments that I don’t DISLIKE, but find very… average/boring and overrated compared to the fandom love for them instead? Much more interesting an answer IMO. They’d be Fujisaki, Imposter, Nagisa, Great Gozu/Bandai, and Gonta, respectively.

Fujisaki: Gender discourse has ruined him forever, from BOTH sides of the debate being awful in every way possible. Beyond that I find him to be kinda bland in general compared to the DR1 cast, I don’t think he actually has any real NEGATIVE flaws? I mean I guess he has issues with gender roles but other than that… there’s not much else to the character. I feel the game and fandom both portray him as too angelic and innocent in the overarching narrative, I guess?

Imposter: Okay I don’t dislike this character at all and in a story that actually used them for more than a cheap fake-out I might actually find their character dilemma interesting, but I REALLY, REALLY do not understand the fandom love for the Imposter. I mean, I found it super lame to bring back a survivor character from DR1, kill them off first and then just reveal it as some random dude who was impersonating him for no reason beyond “We had to shock the players without actually killing off a fan fave (at the time)!”. That’s such a shitty move, writing-wise, and I’d have found it LEAGUES more interesting if it had actually been Togami who died, who’d entered the program willingly as another Observer to guide the DR2 kids to rehabilitation.

Togami’s brand of ‘noblesse oblige’ leadership in DR2 was a pretty logical/fascinating progression from his character growth in DR1, IMO. I find the whole thing super disappointing as a whole, but the fandom apparently loves this character and I have seen numerous posts saying that the Imposter’s character is one of the objectively better written parts of DR2/DR3. What the fuck? If someone wants to explain this opinion to me, I’m all ears.

Nagisa: Like the above two, another character I don’t dislike and there are things about him that I appreciate/like, but he seems to be the majority’s favourite Warrior of Hope and I just don’t really get it personally? I found his form of child abuse to be the least realistic, if I’m honest. The whole “my parents treated me as a customizable RPG character who must be a perfect lab rat at all times” thing. I just find the other four kids’ backstories and characters much more interesting/realistic I guess. Also I can’t lie that brand of anime hair looks so ridiculous IMO… it’s way OTT haha.

Great Gozu/Bandai: They both were dead by the end of Episode 3, did jack shit and had no real character depths, but they seem to be ranked favourably by a lot of fans. Why? Is it really just the beloved Good™ People and Kind-hearted Bara tropes in effect? Was it because everyone else in Future Arc actually had flaws and some of them were pretty awful people (aka actually interesting as characters) so you gotta stan for the pure wholesome characters instead? I just will never get this fandom trend personally.

Gonta: He’s the one character in V3 who I find to just be… there… Even Shinguji kinda interests me more as a character, and Saihara at least makes me actually angry. Gonta just bores me. Frankly the level of gullibility just started to annoy me by the time he died. He really just seemed to exist to be used to further Ouma’s character IMO. Maybe it’s just me? I’m clearly not into the Beloved Bara dudes in this series that everyone else seems to adore, haha. Also the caveman speak in the English localization is SO ANNOYING… RIP Gonta I’ll never grow to care much for you.

#replies #ask memes #V3 spoilers #yabashiri #character hate #well more like character... disinterest TBH

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wanderingthroughwickford · 7 years

Photo

Thank you! My responses are super long (especially for M asdflkasdfjkasdf) so most of them will be under a cut.

A – How did you come up with the title to [insert fic]?

Since no fic was specified, I think I’ll just go back through some of the ones I’ve got up on FFN. Most of them are pretty self-explanatory, to be honest. ‘Eternity’ is so named because Myrtle is stuck at Hogwarts, in her teenage form and mindset, for, well, eternity. ‘And Then There Was One’ (a probably discontinued Hunger Games/Nancy Drew crossover) is also fairly obvious; it’s the Hunger Games so it’s inevitably going to come down to one person, and I also couldn’t resist shoehorning in a completely unnecessary reference to And Then There Were None since it’s also based off a mystery series. ‘Unstained’ refers to Wiress’ promise in the game to not ‘stain’ herself by committing murder in the games, and if I ever write its sequels they’ll follow the ‘Un’ formula – I’ve always intended the final fic in the prospective trilogy to be called ‘Unchained,’ but we’ll see if I ever get there.

I think the one that actually gave me the most trouble coming up with a title was ‘Goodbye,’ a Pirates of the Caribbean one-shot I wrote way back in 2009. I couldn’t seem to come up with a clever enough title for the fic, until I asked my mom for help and she suggested simply ‘Goodbye.’ I decided that in this case, less was more, and so the title stuck.

C – What character do you identify with most?

The ones that I’ve written for, I guess this means? I suppose I’ll have to go with Myrtle and Wiress. Although they definitely both have more tragic lives than I do, I still put a lot of myself into them – I outright headcanon Wiress as having Asperger’s Syndrome and being uninterested in romance, so I find her quite easy to write in that way, and a lot of her moralistic, somewhat self-righteous attitude at the beginning of Unstained (which she’ll eventually grow out of, fortunately) draws a lot from how I now see myself as having acted as a young teenager. Her somewhat morbid obsession with past Hunger Games and their victims has roots in my own (sometimes borderline depressing) fascination with shipwrecks such as the Titanic and Lusitania.

Myrtle I headcanon with some sort of unspecified mental illness, or at least deep insecurities and oversensitivity, and having trouble making and keeping friends. Her friendship with Murcia draws on some of the tentative friendships I had with girls in older grades, and – though this didn’t come through in the story for various reasons that would take a whole other ask to explain, and which I’m not entirely satisfied with but anyway – I definitely see Myrtle as having had a complicated crush on her, but never fully recognizing or accepting it for what it was because she wasn’t raised in a time or a society where girls loving other girls was normalized. Which, again, big part of my teenage years. Plus, the social awkwardness, introversion, and anxiety that both girls have is something I definitely relate to in general.

F – Care to share a favourite hurt/comfort fic?

Oh boy, that’s a tall order as there are so many, but the two that jump to mind immediately are Intersection by yadon/Copernicus Jones/Jake-Marshall and Pity the Child by Tanglepelt/Bookworm555. Intersection holds a very special place in my heart as it was written by my friend Leanne, featuring one of her favorite Ace Attorney characters, Jake Marshall, interacting with my OC Denise Swallow. Pity the Child was written by my friend Becca and involves two more of my faves – America and Latvia from Hetalia – having heartwarming interactions. Both are very good fics.

M – Got any premises on the back burner that you’d like to share?

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahahahahaha

Well

It’d be easier to list fics I’ve actually completed than fics that are in various stages of planning

But if you insist

(This is the super LONG part and gets a little emotional towards the end)

The fic that I’d most like to complete within the foreseeable future is ‘Unstained,’ my story about Wiress’ Hunger Games. I’d say it’s about half-finished now, and I haven’t updated it in almost 4 years. That might change in the future; I’d like to get at least a few more chapters done this summer, but I don’t think it’s humanly possible to get it finished before I leave for Ontario, and then I’ll be so busy for a solid year that I doubt I’ll be able to write anything. And that’s not even counting the two prospective sequels I’d like to write. But even finishing this fic would be a major life accomplishment for me, as it’s one of those that I’m proudest of.

Then I have at least three fics about my Ace Attorney OC, Denise Swallow, which I’d like to write, though they’ll probably all be one-shots. Two of them are partially written, one isn’t even started yet. One of them would be a brief overview of the few times she met Dahlia Hawthorne, the infamous culprit who ended up murdering her brother. Another one, the longest and weightiest of the three, would involve her meeting Phoenix Wright and Maya Fey, who channels the spirit of her brother so that she can properly say good-bye. The last one would involve her meeting up with Dahlia’s sister, Iris, and coming to some sort of closure there.

A lot of my fic-writing is taking a backseat to a much more personal fic-universe-of-sorts that I’m working on, involving practically all of my favorite fandoms thrown together into an incredibly complicated storyline. It’s completely self-indulgent and not something I’d really want to share a lot about here, but one of the major plotlines I’m constructing in it would involve a villain-to-anti-hero redemption arc for Lucy Bauer from Agents of Shield. I’ll admit that I have toyed, very briefly, with the idea of converting this into proper FanFiction if and when I ever complete it, but that’s honestly very unlikely because 1) I’d have to remove it from its crossover context, 2) I’d have to insert it into either AoS season 5 canon, which hasn’t even been filmed yet, or an alternate version of season 5, and 3) it seems completely implausible within the story’s canon. Plus, there’s the inevitable ‘no one would read it’ problem.

In the past couple months I’ve considered writing an And Then There Were None Hunger Games AU, as well as a brief oneshot about Soldier Island being haunted by the ghosts of the ATTWN victims, but I’m very unlikely to do anything with those. There’s still my Nancy Drew Hunger Games AU left unfinished, but if I get back to that, it’ll be entirely as a way to blow off steam, rather than to try and write anything especially good. Just today I was attacked by the idea of writing a Lord of the Rings fic about Aragorn returning Boromir’s arm braces to Faramir and telling him how his brother died, but again, just a passing fancy that I’m very unlikely to write.

And that’s just the tip of it. There are so many FanFiction ideas I’ve considered writing and abandoned. The 8 fics I have up on FFN are the few lucky ideas that actually came to fruition, even though a good deal of them are unfinished as well. I’m honestly amazed that I was even able to finish ‘Eternity,’ or get as far as I have on ‘Unstained.’ I have an X-Men Evolution fic up that was originally supposed to be a multichap of 10-15 chapters, and it hasn’t been updated since 2011. When I was in high school I planned out a whole series of Pirates of the Caribbean fics chronicling James Norrington’s life, from childhood until his death, but I only ever got the first chapter of one written and never posted it. (Partially because I sort of balked at the HUGE amount of research I’d planned to do on 18th-century naval life for that fic). I’d like to go back to this one idea I had for a Hetalia fic, a series of one-shots about times in which the characters have wished they were humans rather than nations, but again, research would be necessary and it’s so draining.

That’s the problem. I love thinking up ideas and planning stories and having them finished, but at the end of the day, the act of writing itself is such a chore for me. And I hate that. I wish I could write effortlessly, like I used to as a kid, but I haven’t been able to do so since I was 12 or so. Which, coincidentally, is the time my depression started to majorly set in. I don’t know if the two are connected, but I can’t help but wonder if mental illness robbed me of a pastime that I dearly loved, and of countless fics I could have written by now.

(I know this is long and cheesy and overemotional, but cut me some slack, it’s almost 1 am)

O – How do you begin a story – with the plot, or the characters?

You know, this is strange, because when I first saw this question I thought, of course I start with the plot, who would just say “I want to write a story about [character]” without even having any idea of what the plot would be yet? And then I realized that that’s exactly what I do – start with a character I want to write about and come up with a plot based off that. In fact, most of my stories aren’t even plot-driven much as just general looks into the lives of certain characters.

Y – A character you want to protect

Hah, it seems like the characters I want to protect and the characters I end up putting through torture are exactly the same. The two that jump to mind right away are – my sun and my stars and everything, the one and only APH Latvia, and my precious ghostly daughter, Myrtle Warren (Moaning Myrtle). And yet I endlessly read fics in which the former, and wrote a fic in which the latter, suffers. Whoops.

#FanFiction #FanFic #ask meme #writing ask

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