#and yeah it should absolutely at least autosave

[wolfsong-the-bloody-beast]

I enjoy Inquisition well enough, but that game does NOT respect your time. At all.

Nothing angers me more than the fact that I cannot save between battles in the deep roads. Like what do you mean I have five major problems one right after the other with only two supply caches and no saves allowed? I got through all the waves and just needed to beat the last emissary when all my people went down and now I gotta do that shit again????

[orinthered]

Dragon's Dogma having only one save file may be a design choice (I know of at least one major thing you're referring to), but in actual practice, it just means that some people are objectively going to lose progress or have very negative experiences with the game

To that point, I started a new DD1 file before DD2's release and I ran into an issue where I just kept freezing on random load screen, right as it was autosaving, so my save file kept getting corrupted. Lost like 5 hours of progress from the start of the game, had to do it all over again, then it happened again in a different spot. The only reason I was able to make any meaningful progress until I figured out the issue was by making manual backups

I'm honestly terrified of the same thing happening with Dragon's Dogma 2 and have actually been stopping my play sessions periodically just to make a manual backup, then loading back in. Not even including the in-game event(s) that can royally screw your playthrough, that is a completely unnecessary fear that the devs have chosen to create, which is particularly egregious considering the mountain of performance and crashing issues people have been experiencing due to poor optimization

People who want to save scum or simply want the security of backups are always going to find the means to do so regardless of what the devs intend. I mean, DD1 had a mod that automatically backed up your save file and it was already retooled for DD2 literally on release day. To inconvenience all players purely for the sake of encouraging a specific play style is, quite frankly, insulting to peoples' time. Plenty of games manage to create compelling exploration experiences and interesting points of consequence and tension without tying any of it to some random, severely limiting mechanic or design choice

I say all of this as someone who's currently 40 hours in and is loving the exploration (which evokes that first time experience of playing Breath of the Wild), but who absolutely abhors the notion of having to repeat a 20+ minute long trek because I got to a quest area to save an NPC from some monster and the NPC ends up falling in the water literally as soon as I arrive, causing the game to auto-save because the quest is now "complete" (failed). Or, suddenly all of my pawns have swan dived into a river due to pathfinding issues or climbing movement quirks, causing me to waste time, rift crystals, or ferrystones to recuperate. Or, being forced to automatically talk to a passing NPC/pawn during a fight, causing my escort NPC to draw aggro and die while I'm trying to mash out of the dialogue menu

Defend the vision of players needing to pay attention and sit with their consequences all you'd like, but small, dumb shit like that is honestly infuriating and it happens way more often than it should

i get that this is annoying but i also think that if the ability to savescum existed in the game, everyone would do it. would i necessarily complain about multiple saves in a game like dragon's dogma? probably *not*, but i would miss the experience of being forced to engage with the game in a way i would not if i had access to multiple saves. i found myself missing this in baldur's gate 3 — because i had the ability to savescum things like rolls, i never played with the consequences of failing rolls.

is that a failure of those game systems? yeah. larian wants you to engage with failed rolls, but how many players do you know actually do that? who don't just press f9 when they get a shit roll?

you can dislike these systems, that's fair. but dragon's dogma fills a lot of niches that other games do not. one of these niches is a one-save system that forces you to engage with the game by making you play the game with your consequences, or suffer some really annoying backtracking with the inn save system. i do not think that every game has to appeal completely to every person. if you think dragon's dogma is insulting to your time, that's fine. if you think the execution is bad (which i could argue for, even though i really like what dd2 does) that is also fine. not every aspect of the game is gonna be a hit, god knows there's a particular section of dd2 that i think was a real miss (those who've beaten the game know exactly what i'm talking about) but i mean... there are reasons for it, infuriating or not. that is also part of the experience.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Waiting Out Bugs

There was going to be more Horizon Forbidden West yesterday, but yesterday morphed into an unbelievably bad pain day. I managed to get through the work day - had to; Scruffman and Temp were both out so I had no one to report to and we were already shorthanded. But after that, even sitting in the desk chair was a no. However, I was reasonably okay first thing, so I did try for that stupid drone. I know computer processes are complicated, but yeesh.

Right. Attempt 1. Can I get to that wall without stepping in blight?

I can! Up I go, and ... Ah. In a game where there's a difference between being able to stand on something and Being Able To Stand On Something, those gun turrets are things I am Able To Stand On. Buuuuuuut the drone's still too speedy. Reload.

Attempt 2. Back up the wall, and ... now it's stopping in the wrong place. It's supposed to stop near the turrets, I'm pretty sure. I mean, that is why I am Able To Stand On them. But drone is stopping right above the doors I kerboomed the firegleam on awhile back. Can I climb up there?

Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiii cannot climb up there. Is the turret on the other side close enough to let me leap to the drone?

Nooooooooo it isn't. Fuck. Reload.

...Huh. I am ... at a different campfire - one nearer the gun turret I was balanced on when I tried and failed for the drone. There must have been an autosave.

Attempt 3 - third time's the charm?

THIRD TIME IS THE CHARM. It's stopping at gun turrets. UP I GO.

And yaaaaaaaay! Don't like having to land in blight with it, but at least I don't have to "Hold E To Grab Data" for very long.

Right. I have some time. Now what?

I wanted to check out some stuff around Plainsong. I can splash out on using one of my fast-travel packs. Man, I know we used to be able to craft fast-travel packs but I don't remember if or how we can on this game, so--

...And just as I think that, the game gives me a tool tip on how to do that. HUZZAH! Normally I just go to the nearest campfire and fast travel from there, but crafting my own fast-travel packs is probably good for when I'm doing morning gaming.

Right. There should be a codex entry in this area. Fields full of blight, satellite dish array ... should be around the base of this dish somewhere.

...Or up. It could be up.

Look, I know that's a grapple point; let me grapple without potentially stepping in blight, okay?

Right. I can scan it from here. No more jumping.

Well. Maybe let's just see what's through this gap.

Ah. I could have just walked over to it from here. Ah well. Lesson learned. I could go check for green shiny elsewhere but I probably don't really have time for that. So ... hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work I go.

Today is going to be a take-it-easy day. It's going to have to be; I'm feeling better but dear gods yesterday was awful. Lots of rest breaks, maybe a nap, not leaving the house if I don't absolutely have to.

Nice thing is that we're starting to have the kind of weather where I can have the windows open during the day without worrying that the heater's going to kick on. We're supposed to get to 20 Celcius today. Currently at 16-ish, and I can get some fresh air. I mean, yeah, it's apparently a high pollen day, but it's a high pollen day for me either way, 'cos my petunias.

On the subject of the garden, most of my stuff has sprouted and many have even started growing adult leaves. A few still haven't sprouted, but I'll give them some time before I panic. Chamomile in particular has a reputation for just taking its own sweet time. But the dill and particularly the coriander are growing incredibly fast and I'm probably going to have to repot them soon. Good thing I already bought my Big Bag of Soil for the year.

Yeah, this is me being Plant Parent - pondering the loss of baby leaves instead of baby teeth and thinking about how fast some of them outgrow their pots rather than their onesies. The reason why I own a t-shirt from TeeTurtle that reads "My Plants Are My Babies". It's a little twee, but I guess it's true enough anyway.

(...oh fuck I need to take out the garbage later...)

[aspiring-ginger]

Thunderstorms Ch.1 (Fellowship x Reader)

Summary: Reader is in for a pretty large and unexpected surprise when a massive thunderstorm hits. How did the Fellowship of the Ring end up in your backyard?

Warnings: Language

Word count: 3,151

Pairing(s): Platonic Fellowship of the ring x fem!reader, eventual romantic interest (Lord of the Rings)

Who do you want Reader to end up with? Vote here!

A/N: Okay, absolutely no one asked for this, but here we are. I’ve been kicking myself for not doing requests or FMN ch2 because of terrible writers block but I got a random stroke of inspiration and decided to write this. I figured it’d be better to write anything than nothing at all! Because this is in a modern setting, reader is from the US because I am, and any slang I use I want to be authentic and don’t want to offend anyone by trying to pass it off as somewhere else. I hope y’all enjoy this!

Comments and feedback are always appreciated! Let me know if you want more!

Taglist: @thunderdog8​ 

Masterlist I Next 

You stretched out your stiff muscles as you stood from your desk chair. You rubbed your hand down your face and paused your music, deciding that it was time to take a break and make some lunch. Groaning as you opened the refrigerator door you called out,

"Alexa, play some music" Not really caring what it picked as long as it was something.

You were home alone in your childhood house, and any noise was a much needed distraction from the eerie creaking and groaning of the building around you. Your parents were off in their summer home down south having to take care of some repairs or leasing or something, so they left you in charge. You didn't mind, it was a place to stay while you worked and took online classes to finish school. Plus, you had the whole place to yourself, so it didn't matter how messed up your sleep schedule was, or how much noise you made. 

You would have to go to the store soon, you thought to yourself, glancing around your mostly empty shelves to find something edible. You decided on a quick sandwich and some fruit, grabbing the necessary ingredients and humming along to the music as you worked. 

When you finished, you debated watching something as you ate or simply eating as you worked. You decided on the former- after all, you'd been on top of all your school work so there was no rush to get anything done. With that decision out of the way now you just had to decide what exactly to watch. You sat down on the couch with your drink and food in hand, looking around the living room for inspiration. 

It had been awhile since you watched any of your favorites again, you thought as your eyes landed on a Harry Potter DVD that had been collecting dust on top of your playstation from whenever you watched it last. But no, you weren't really in the mood for wizards. Pirates of the Caribbean? That was always a good one. Plus, it had Orlando Bloom in it so….yay. You snapped your fingers- that was it! Lord of the Rings! It still had Orlando Bloom, but it had that deep fantasy setting you've been craving. You popped in the first disc of Fellowship, extended edition of course, and began happily munching on your lunch.

---

Your heart swelled as the credits rolled, remembering just how much you loved those movies. The scenery, costumes, soundtrack, actors, everything about it was just so, so, ugh! You just loved it so much. You grew up on these movies and they always had a special place in your heart. 

They were still super long, though, and you needed to get back to work. You cleaned up the living room and headed back upstairs to finish your essay for class. Smiling, you decided to put on the soundtrack from fellowship instead of whatever you were listening to last. Maybe then you would get more inspiration? Or at least time would pass quicker. Whatever it was, you just needed more to satisfy your lotr craving. You were definitely watching the other two movies when you were done.

You got several hours of good work done, not even realizing when your music had switched to the two towers. You were snapped out of your work-zone when a clap of thunder sounded outside, and you realized just how dark it was. The only light in the room was your computer screen. You went to turn on the light and continue working when you saw lightning flash from outside your window. Frowning, you remembered when you checked the weather this morning and the chance of rain was very low. Of course meteorologists are never really 100% right all the time, but this seemed a little off. How could they miss a huge thunderstorm? 

You just shrugged and sat back down at your desk to finish- you were so close to being done! At least you'd sleep well later to the sound of rain. You saved your document just go be safe. Yeah your program autosaved your work but you couldn't be too careful if there was a storm. What if the power went out? Whatever, you just needed to focus to finish the last two paragraphs and then you'd be done. 

You glanced up to your window as you began to type when- a huge rumble of thunder shook your whole house and lightning flashed incredibly bright. You felt the weight of the thunder even rattle your insides as you were seemingly blinded by the lightning. Blinking, you looked around to see what the hell just happened. There was nothing but darkness around you, your monitor no longer showing the essay you'd been working on for so long. You were right- the power went out. And holy shit were you glad you saved.

If the thunder and lightning were so close together, that meant the storm was above you, right? You stood up to get a closer look out your window. Wind was howling, whipping the rain and trees all around in the torrential downpour. Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed again, slightly farther apart this time, and what you saw outside….well you definitely didn't expect.

The brief flash of light illuminated figures of people laying down in your backyard. What? You rubbed your eyes and looked harder out into the darkness, still seeing the motionless shapes. Your backyard was fenced in and locked, there was no way so many people could get in. And why were they just laying there? In the rain?? You were so utterly confused. There was just no way. You had to be going crazy. This was just you seeing things in the shadows because you were home alone. It was nothing. 

Your stomach churned as you paced around your office. Should you go outside? Or at least downstairs to get a closer look? What if they needed help and were stuck in the rain? There were some woods beyond your property so maybe they wandered in. But no. Were you crazy? That's how stupid people always die in horror films. Something incredibly weird and scary happens and they go check it out. And then they get brutally murdered or something. No. Out of the question. You tried to tell yourself that you were just seeing things, making shapes out of shadows for nothing. There was nothing there. But no, your stomach didn't agree. Your gut told you there really were people out there. You saw them in the flash of light. If they were just shadows, you wouldn't have seen anything from the lightning.

Okay, so, there really were people in your yard. What should you do? Call the police? And then what? Hi officer I think I see a bunch of men in my backyard. No they're just laying there. How dumb would that sound?? Ugh no, you couldn't do that. If they were just laying there….how long had they been there? You certainly didn't see anything from the kitchen during lunch. The knot in your stomach twisted further. If they ended up needing help or something and you just sat there doing nothing, you would end up kicking yourself about it later.

Ugh! Curse your stupid moral compass and your need to help others. If this was how you died by being the stupid person in a scary movie, then so be it. You used the flashlight from your phone to light the way through your house, throwing on some shoes and a raincoat as you headed downstairs. Since it was still light out when you were last down here, the blinds were all open and you had a good view outside of both the front and back. There were definitely people out there. Now that you were closer you could make out at least...8 bodies in the grass? You crept into the kitchen and shined your flashlight out the glass door. Your light reflected off of several of the figures. You thought they might be wearing reflective gear or something, but the light wasn't as bright as it should've been. No, that was metal that reflected the light. 

You squeezed your eyes shut and clenched your fists in hopes of gathering up some courage. You sighed and tried to calm your nerves. You reached out and unlocked the door, pausing to see if the bodies would react to the noise. They didn't flinch, so after a moment you pulled the door open, and slid the screen door to the side . They didn't react to that either, so you stepped out into the rain.

Without turning your back on them, you stepped around to the wood pile nearby, glancing back to grab a long stick. There was no way you were gonna touch these strangers. Stick in hand, you crept up to the nearest one. Upon closer inspection, you saw what was reflecting the light from the door. Laying in front of you was a man with dark medium length hair. His clothes were ragged, a green cloak hung around his shoulders.  It certainly looked nothing like anyone would wear currently. Strangest of all, however, was a sword strapped to his back along with what appeared to be a blanket. Tilting your phone around, it looked very real. A foam sword or prop wouldn't shine like that.

You looked over to another figure and saw a similar sight. A man with medium length hair and a green cloak but instead of a sword on his back, he had a large round shield with what you think was a sword strapped to his hip. What the fuck? You glanced to another, a man with long blond hair and a matching green cloak but this time with a bow, daggers, and a quiver full of arrows at his back. You knew these props. It looked so familiar. Your breathing picked up as you looked over another figure. This one was much smaller. He had shorter, currier hair and again the same matching green cloak. Where the other men had boots however, this man...child(?)'s feet were bare. And large. Much larger than you would think for someone of his size. 

The pit in your stomach sank much deeper. You knew who these men were, or, at least trying to be. You literally just watched the first freaking movie. You identified each member of the fellowship of the ring. Aragon was in front of you, followed by Boromir, then Legolas. You saw Frodo, Sam, and you couldn't tell which one was Merry or Pippin from this distance but there were definitely four Hobbits. The furthest figure must've been Gimli. Gandalf was not among them, but that would make sense given the rest of the fellowships matching green cloaks. You were definitely freaking out now. There were a bunch of freaking cosplayers passed out in your yard? What the hell were you gonna do now? Your thoughts were racing, but your stomach was faring much worse. Somehow, you thought, it was much worse than it seemed.

You thrust your stick forward, prodding at the 'Aragorn' that lay at your feet. He didn't stir, so you poked a little harder. You thought you saw his breathing quicken, but reached forward with your stick anyway, just for good measure. The man shot up and grabbed your stick away from you in one fluid motion, drawing his blade with his other hand.

You stood like a deer in headlights, unmoving with eyes wide. The man held his sword out at you, pointing it at your throat while he glanced at his surroundings. You blinked and quickly threw your hands up in surrender, dropping your phone in the grass. Thankfully, it landed face down so it still provided some light. Rain continued to pour.

'Aragorn' looked back at his companions all strewn about then turned back towards you, thrusting his sword in warning.

"Who are you and what have you done to them?" The man spoke and you just stared, mouth agape. 

"What is this place? Answer me!" He insisted and took a step forward bringing the blade closer to your throat. There was no way that thing was a prop. That thing looked sharp.

You tried to speak, your mouth suddenly dry and tongue getting caught in your throat. His yelling, it seemed, was loud enough to wake the others, as they began to stir. 

"Aragorn. What is this place, what is going on?" You heard another voice speak and a blade removed from its sheath. Boromir stepped up to Aragorn's side and held his blade out at you as well.

Your mind was racing at 100mph but you were just frozen in place, shock taking over your body. How were you supposed to respond to this? What were you supposed to do? Looking at each of them, that was, without a shadow of a doubt, Aragorn and Boromir. 

"I-I…" you began, trying to form the right words. Aragorn simply raised a brow, "I-uh.. my name is (y/n) and um, you're in my backyard? I have no idea how you got here."

"Your yard? This is your house?"

"Uh- yeah um...do you want to come inside?" Aragorn and Boromir exchanged glances.

"How are you so quick to invite us in? What do you want from us?"

"Nothing!" You answered a bit too quickly, your voice going up in pitch, "Uh I mean n-nothing. I don't want anything from you. I was just writing in my house when the thunder hit and I looked outside and you all were just laying here, so I came out to see what was going on. Look, I wasn't even armed!" You gestured to your stick that was still in Aragorn's hand. 

He glanced down at it and indeed, it wasn't even sharp. He dropped it to the ground, calling out something in elvish, you only picked up Legolas' name. He responded in kind, and Aragorn nodded. He called out another phrase and turned back to you.

"You seem to be telling the truth, and we have no memory of how we arrived. We are in no position to refuse such a generous offer, but know this-" he twirled the sword in his hand before sheathing it, "should you try anything, we are armed." Boromir did the same, and you nodded in agreement. Legolas was helping the others up. 

"Please, um, follow me." You weren't sure if you should let them go first or show them in, so you decided to enter before them to show that you really didn't have any traps or anything malicious. 

You held your back door open for them as they entered one by one, all looking around at their strange new surroundings. Aragorn was last to enter, and you awkwardly shut the door behind them and locked it. They all looked to you expectantly, dripping water all over your kitchen. 

Aragorn cleared his throat and took a small step forward. "I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn. This here is Boromir of Gondor, Legolas of the Woodland Realm, and Gimli, son of Gloin. The halflings are Meriadoc Brandybuck, Peregrin Took, Samwise Gamgee and, Frodo Baggins." Each bowed their heads as they were introduced. "And your name once more, my lady?"

"(Y/n) (l/n)....of Earth..?" You winced as you added the 'earth' bit. Here you were with your childhood heroes all standing in your kitchen, and you were just making a complete fool of yourself. 

"You have our gratitude, my lady. " Aragorn put a hand at his heart. "Would you, perhaps, direct us back on course so we may be on our way? We would hate to impose." He glanced around your kitchen as he spoke, looking curiously at your appliances.

"Um..about that." You began to sweat. How the fuck are you supposed to tell them that they're in a completely different world with little to no chance of getting home?! "Uh, please um take a seat if you want. This um.. is going to be hard to explain." The men gave you strange looks while the hobbits pulled out your four kitchen chairs and sat down.

"You're not in Middle-Earth any more, but that's pretty obvious I guess. Uh, here it's called Earth. Just Earth, no middle. We don't really have any kingdoms here, each country has their own elected officials or dictators. We're in the United States of America, or the US for short. You um… you're in a different world than yours. And time, I guess. We're also a lot more advanced with our technology than you. Oh shit- um.. I realize now that it's weird  that I know you're from Middle-Earth but let me explain ummm" you were definitely panicking now "Middle-Earth exists here? But.. to us, it's just a work of fiction, a story from a book. A really popular book. Like, the whole world has probably at least heard of it. So you're all um, characters in the book. Well, books actually. It's a series. Um, the author is J. R. R. Tolkien and the series is called The Lord of the Rings. And movies too. Really famous movies…" you trailed off.

They all stared at you in shock. 

"I can prove it! Here….you must still be in the first book, The Fellowship of the Ring. I mean no offense, but I'm guessing that you just went through Moria and then Lothlorien, and were making your way down the river Anduin and planning to approach Mordor from the north...right?"

Their eyes went wide and they all exchanged looks. 

"How do you know that?" Gimli asked.

"Well uh, I can tell because of your cloaks. You got them from Lorien, they have the leaves. And they look new, they're not that dirty yet. And Gandalf isn't with you.." you finished sheepishly. You almost said because Boromir was still there. And they were all still together. Thank god you kept that information to yourself.

"So," Boromir began, "Your entire world knows of the ring? And our mission?"

"Of course!" Their shoulders sagged so you quickly added, "Well the books and movies are super popular! A ton of people know your story, but that's a good thing! Everyone knows your story because they love it and they're rooting for you. They want your mission to succeed and to see the ring destroyed, too." They looked visibly relieved. " I swear on my life that I want nothing to do with the ring and I want you to succeed at all costs. I've grown up loving the books and the movies, so it really means a lot to me." You swallowed as you realized how awkward that sounded.

"Thats nice but, what's a movie?" Pippin asked.

Oh god, this was going to be a very long night.

Taglist is open!

[ket-fisto]

Thoughts on Andromeda so far:

I don’t know, maybe it’s because I’m the type of person who manages to enjoy even games that many others don’t bother with if they find something in their initial impression that they don’t like. But so far the game is....fine??? I don’t know why there is such passionate hate for it, at least for certain things it gets so much heat for. 

The facial animations started out goofy but they completely settle down after the opening. I don’t know what happened there, maybe they were trying new stuff with the animations at the beginning, decided to tone it down and just left the originals in. Either way, haven’t seen a weird expression since completing the first big main mission. 

There is chore work, yeah, but nothing worse than Inquisition’s, and it’s far from required to even get 100% on the planets you want to inhabit, and you need to do the bare minimum of quests to be able to put a settlement if you don’t care about getting 100% (and I think if you care even less you don’t even have to do that and can just sprint through the priority missions). At least there aren’t twenty fucking shards to collect on each map like in Inquisition. There are also WAAAAAAAAAY more cutscenes than Inquisition, with a lot of side quests having cutscenes for conversations which surprise surprise makes the quests feel more ENGAGING. I definitely prefer MEA’s quests’ design over DAI’s. Plus unlike with DAI, travelling around large, scarcely populated maps actually makes narrative sense for once.

Travelling with the Nomad starts out absolutely horrible. But once you get some upgrades it becomes a lot better. Don’t be like me and don’t notice that you can upgrade until after you finish the first map with the horrible starting Nomad setup. First thing you upgrade should be the Nomad. Unlike with the horses in Inquisition, you have your squad bantering and commenting on quests as you drive so you’ll be driving around with it everywhere instead of walking. 

Small technical talk: Clearly the game is badly optimized, unfortunately (I detest Bioware apparently being forced to work with an engine that’s clearly not optimized for RPGs yet). I imagine it’s because I have the bare minimum of ram and don’t really want to turn down the texture settings (I’ve turned everything else down though), but the game struggling so much with a GTX 1070 shouldn’t be a thing just because the RAM is 8 GB. It’s hard not to think about the Witcher 3 when thinking about this aspect (yes the game is older, but look how well it’s optimized and how it looks, plus how its own version of open world maps are (densely populated, lots of fauna which are one of the heavier things for a game)). Forget multitasking if you don’t have more ram. Despite that the game looks pretty great and manages to run fine in the end with some settings even on Ultra. It feels buggy at times and there are some cases where you might need to save and reload (game autosaves constantly and load times are short) but nothing broken so far. The UI is messy too but nothing you can’t get over. 

TLDR; Game is clearly not as horrible as so many people are making it out to be. In my opinion it seems that many just got on the hate train and decided to hate it on principle, or were too influenced by what they heard others say and couldn’t enjoy the game. I don’t know if the sale is still going on, but if you don’t have your expectations super high and are looking for an RPG with guns to sink a few dozen hours into I don’t think it’s a bad choice to buy at a sale (plus unfortunately there won’t be DLC so you know you won’t have to pay for more later). Don’t expect a masterpiece but don’t assume the worst.

[naruthings]

Tenten Appreciation Week — Chuunin Exam

I am so terribly late D’:

The first time Hyuuga Neji sees Uchiha Sasuke, it is in the Shinobi Record of Konoha.

Tenten points at the picture. "He's cute."

Neji thinks that Uchiha Sasuke is not cute. Actually, he thinks quite the opposite.

"He is not," he says.

Tenten rolls her eyes.

The Uchiha's style is so much different from the Hyuga. Though two prestigious clans, Neji still thinks that the Hyuga are superior to the Uchiha in every way. Their hairs are much longer, after all.

But the curse mark, Neji thinks quietly to himself.

Hyuuga Neji also thinks that he is way cuter than Uchiha Sasuke. Uchiha Sasuke's hair is weird. His hair — wack. His clothes — wack. His shoes...

Wack.

And he never even met him in person.

Neji is so looking forward to the Chuunin Exams this year. Mainly because he wants to see the Uchiha's face in pain when he jyuukens him in the gut.

Oh, what a sight.

Neji is the child prodigy, after all. Yes, he's heard about the justu of the Uchiha. He's heard of the great susanoo, the towering spirit of chakra that is almost unbreakable. He's heard many stories of the legendary amaterasu — black flames that can consume almost everything. The Uchiha jutsu is actually quite impressive.

Still, he thinks that the Hyuga jutsu is superior to the Uchiha in every way. They're only what — two remaining in the clan now? The Hyuga would definitely wipe out any Uchiha left from the face of the earth.

Also, he could beat Sasuke.

Sasuke is not cute.

Neji, smirking a little to himself, doesn't notice when Tenten looks coyly from beside him.

"I bet you could beat him" she says.

Neji blinks.

"Hm?"

"Yeah. Like, if you two battle or something, I bet you could beat him," Tenten explains. She's sincere — her eyes are directly focused at him.

What is this?

"I would beat the Uchiha," Neji replies afterwards, his voice laced with a tinge of pride. It's always better to have Tenten on his side.

They are... friends, after all.

And when the Chuunin Exams come, he's gonna show her.

Beside him Tenten mutters something incoherent. "... beautiful anyway."

Neji zaps out of his thoughts. "What?"

"Nothing," Tenten mutters instead, and continues to sharpen her kunai.

The second time Hyuuga Neji sees Uchiha Sasuke, it is in the Chuunin Exams.

"Hey you, over there, what's your name?" he asks.

This is finally it, he thinks.

The Uchiha looks way more pathetic in person.

"It's common courtesy to give your own name before asking for someone else's."

What? That was his answer?

This was just another argument as to why the Hyuga are better than the Uchiha.

At least for his clan, they value manners. No, Uchiha Sasuke. You are the one without any courtesy. You should be answering questions when asked.

Seriously, what did Tenten see in him?

"Hey, you're a rookie, aren't you?"

A pause.

"How old are you, anyway?"

Neji already knows. The Uchiha is a year younger than him. He's just testing him.

"I'm not obliged to answer."

What a kid. Even he isn't as rude as that.

"What was that?" he asks. It's frustrating, Neji thinks, though he has to admit this was the kind of reply he expected from Uchiha Sasuke.

But what ticks off Neji the most is that Tenten starts giggling beside him.

"...cute."

"What?" Tenten is caught off guard. Neji watches as the Uchiha leaves just in time.

Good, he thinks. Now that's out of the way.

Neji is suddenly so relieved that Sasuke is gone. Though he doesn't know why.

"I said he looks even better in person, Neji," Tenten says beside him.

"He does not," Neji says. Tenten rolls her eyes from beside him.

"Whatever, Neji," she replies. They watch as Rock Lee and the blond kid pout against the wall.

Later that day, when they are in the chuunin exams, Lee is missing.

They decide to rest atop a tree overlooking their whole base. Of course, Neji promised to keep watch in case any intruder would come.

Tenten rests her arms beside him. "Don't worry, Neji," she says as he turns off his byakugan.

He looks at her. "What?"

She doesn't answer for a while, until he feels her shift behind him in a way that she doesn't face him. Just before he closes his eyes, he hears her speak.

"You're more beautiful, anyway."

Days have gone by, and Team Guy continues to grow, grow, grow.

So much time have passed until Sasuke Uchiha decides to leave the village, leaving the rookie nine and Team Guy in absolute shock.

So when Neji lies alone in the hospital bed, sickly and broken but victorious, Tenten can't resist the urge to visit him.

"You left me," is the first thing she says when she visits him that day. "You could've died, Neji! That can't happen!"

Neji's expression remains indifferent, watching Tenten from blurry eyes. She visited yesterday, he knows. He felt her by his side for the past few days, and he can't say he didn't like it.

She hugged him yesterday.

"I did it for you..." he croaks, and Tenten focuses on him despite her wailing. "What?"

"I did it for you, Tenten," he says, remembering the way he left the village with Naruto and the gang. "I did it for you since you mentioned the Uchiha was cute. I reckoned you wouldn't want to see him leave."

Tenten starts to tear up a little in front of him. "You could've died..." she only says. "You could've died and he would still live. I can't let that happen, Neji!"

Neji smiles when she wipes her palm against her left eye. "I wasn't crying."

He believes her.

Finally, the sun's rays illuminate the room until the inside gives a soft orange glow. Neji is almost rested, and when she thinks he isn't awake, she whispers.

"But no matter how cute or handsome Uchiha Sasuke is, I would always prefer you."

END

A/N: I know, I know it's short, but I have a really long one coming up after maybe a few more fics. Also, I'm several days late :P

I actually finished this a while back but half of the story got deleted (blame fanfiction's nonexistent autosave) so I had to rewrite this a little.

Until Then!

[sleepymarmot]

Andromeda liveblog: day one

Spoilers!

Eos/Tempest:

The Vault is beautiful! Even though the moving bridges, just like the floating rocks on Habitat 7, are blatantly copy-pasted from Trespasser.

Drack said the fight was fun. Of course it was -- that was the first time I used Annihilation/Charge/Nova!

Military or science -- how is that even a question? :D

Even back in the trial, I instantly became fond of the Tempest crew, in a way different from the Normandy. Not bound by the blood they spilled together -- but a team of nerds and people taking care of those nerds, pretty much. Feels more like the Enterprise!

What helps is that there's already a net of relationships between everyone -- I was thinking about it when Drack was revealed to be Kesh's father and talked about their problems with Tann and their relationship with Vetra. The Nexus backstory really gives depth to this game.

I didn't expect this, but I actually do like Peebee! Since her first trailer appearance, I've been annoyed with her -- obligatory asari LI, shitty design with a sexualized outfit and eyebrows, manic pixie dream girl-ish image -- but her personality won me over. She's a bit similar to my Ryder, and they clicked instantly -- two young, energetic explorers. And she doesn't seem too quirky so far, just a very extroverted nerd. And she has something nice to say about everyone on the ship!

You know, I've been wishing for a romance with a nerdy but genuinely nice person (unlike a certain elf...) and looks like I have not one but two -- and female! -- options here! :D 

The first flirt option with Peebee is good, the second is not.

Ah yes, a readheaded religious wlw written by the same person as Leliana... Look, Leliana is special to me, but this is just annoying. Maybe because Leliana is special.

Another convo with Vetra: "Someone had to know" "Did your father?" "I'm not sure" LOOK THE CONFIRMATIONS JUST KEEP ROLLING IN

Oh, here comes the flirt option I've seen on Youtube! I feel a bit awkward hitting on both of them repeatedly... Will I, on my seventh Bioware game, finally encounter a jealousy conversation?

Peebee has attractive personality, but Vetra's fashion style is obviously superior.

*looks at Liam's handsome face, sighs and stops herself from hitting the heart because that'd be a bit too much*

Nexus/Hyperion:

I love that Tann is the only real politician around, and everybody won't stop complaining about him, even though he's completely benign :D

It's a great feeling that doing sidequests is completely justified this time. In this game, it's literally my job to fly around and ensure random strangers' wellbeing! Oh look, someone on Reddit made a post appreciating this too.

"Your father is my problem. He's everyone's problem. We're all paying for Alec Ryder's ego. He preyed on Jien Garson's trusting nature and bulldozed us to this godforsaken place" !!! More evidence!! (Random angry woman on the Hyperion)

This is a great way to introduce flashbacks! And to reveal information gradually.

SAM is basically the third Ryder child, huh.

The camera angle and lighting in SAM's room is one of the most flattering in the game.

I'm glad we're actually giving spotlight to the transhumanism theme, unlike with Shepard...

Or maybe SAM is Ellen's reincarnation somehow? It's clear Alec somehow intended to save her with it, but how? I'm genuinely enjoying this mystery. Alec sure has a lot of character and presence, especially for a character with so little actual screentime... You can see his shadow over the entire story.

There's some nice animation at Scott's bedside!

"Is dad okay?" Shit. Shit. Now that's a choice...

(I mean, what she's saying will turn out to be true, hopefully...)

I didn't lie about Habitat 7, though. That's not as important.

Holy crap, that was an emotional scene.

I like Garson's Super Ethical VI Interview.

Professor Gerik in the lab on Nexus has a letter about us being invasive species and preserving local biodiversity! That's nice. (But on the other hand, we'd endanger it just as much if the Scourge hadn't done it first.)

Female Salarians look like male Salarians and sound like female humans. I should just learn to live with the fact that there'll be no real Salarian voices in this galaxy... Ugh.

Ahh Drack is visiting Kesh!!

Have I mentioned how fond I am of our new council/advisors? Kandros is a bit bland, but the other three are great.

30 minutes after I said that SAM is like another sibling to Ryder, he got infected with a virus. Give this family a break!

Of course the hackers were wrong etc, but the things hacked!Avina says are still absolutely correct...

BTW I chose to unfreeze merchants first -- to get the bigger inventory. Ugh, the lack of inventory was one of my favourite things about ME2 and ME3...

I had to read a walkthrough for "Station Sabotage"...

I like the design of Zara's face.

The Nexus sidequests are all about intrigue and investigation! Just like the main one about Alec, and the characters' backstories related to the uprising. Nice. I feel like a detective. It really gives the game a unique feel.

The saboteur has a good face too. And another sympathetic voice re: the uprising.

Tempest

Cora the gardener!

Damn, that speech about acceptance sure sounds like she's not talking about biotics... Why is she straight, Bioware?

Poor Cora. I can only continue to admire her ability to not hold grudges -- something that impressed me about her when Ryder became the Pathfinder.

It's so cute that the crew members have a group chat, have I mentioned? Really makes the ship look alive.

Vetra, Peebee, Gil and Liam are chatting like old friends! And the fact that they're playing poker reminds me of the Enterprise even more.

Eos

A timed mission to save colonists... with driving... I was so nervous!

FUCK I can't figure out this Fiend fight

I died like four times already what the fuck

Why can't I charge?! What do you mean "wrong target"?!

Also autosave glitches me through the floor every goddamn time!

Died about 8 times, I'm going to replace Peebee with Drack and turn down the difficulty

Oh thank fuck, this time it worked.

*can't find the evidence in the cave* *fast travel back to the start three or four times, get stuck on rocks*

Oh, here it is. Yeah, I enjoy playing detective, but I'd like less bugs!

I died and the game got stuck on reload

Alright, some sidequests are in the level 3 radiation zone which I don't know how to clear, and I can't find the bodies of the dead colonists. It got boring anyway. Back to the ship!

Tempest

Gil sends me an e-mail mentioning Jaal, whom I haven't even met...

Kallo's still arguing with Gil -- I'm pretty sure there's something going on he's not noticing... Nobody else has anything new to say. Let's advance the plot, then.

New solar system/Tempest/Nexus

Whoa, I didn't expect things to get so intense immediately!

Sooo, are you going to explain how the angara got the translators working within several minutes?

Are you trying to tell me the kett and the angara aren't related, despite having exactly the same faces?

Jaal's cape flapping is mesmerizing.

I don't understand, why is everyone being so weird and unprofessional?? Instead of opening normal diplomatic talks, they stand in a circle and say shit about Jaal in his presence. Why the hell are they being so entitled? If the angara help us, of course we need to offer something in return.

Liam, what movie night?! We're kind of busy!

Well, at least Jaal isn't going to let me exhaust all conversation topics in one go! :D

"I LIVE IN AN ESCAPE POD" :D

Stop! Prompting! Me! To! Flirt! With! Gil! Two different times in the same conversation -- what??

Okay, by this point I'm pretty sure that the poker mentions are not just a coincidence but a deliberate reference to TNG. 

When will I have enough materials for an asari sword? Maybe a quick trip to the Nexus will help. *immediately gets buried under sidequests*

What, you don't have laws for attempted murder? That has never happened in the entire history of Milky Way? Bioware sure likes to create a complex situation then make you decide between two extremes. I let the turian stay, but I'm not impressed.

What, and they didn't even tell the public what really happened? Ugh.

Pacified the protesters successfully.

Was prepared to go and realized I forgot one sidequest on the Nexus, went back... I need to stop doing this! It's ruining all momentum.

Havarl (not sure about the spelling)

Main plot again, here we go!

Oops, clicked on the wrong button and now my team still has Vetra instead of Peebee.

Nice scenery.

Okay, it's stupid to leave the planet just to swap squadmates, but it's even stupider to explore this planet without Peebee.

Oh right, there is a spot here for a forward station. (Don't the angara mind?)

There's an entire alien jungle, and nothing is scannable? Really?

@myself stop fucking dying... how am I supposed to fight enemies I don't see without any reasonable cover...

Oh, right, this is normal water, not the Deadly Electric Water. That's a relief, at least.

Oh look, normal cover, I can use my ranged powers like an adept/sentinel I intended to be instead of novaguarding.

Spent like half an hour trying to find a way towards the forward station mark on the east, gave up. This Pathfinder isn't very good at finding paths...

Let's find the gay turian Pathfinder!

What am I going to do with all this nickel? These aren't the materials I'm looking for, Bioware

And finally, after exploring everything else -- the Monolith!

This happened again: the profiles refuse to switch mid-fight. WTF???

"Follow the Remnant river?" You mean, what I've done an hour before? I sure hope the Remnant didn't respawn...

So the Remnant are Order and the Scourge is Chaos? I see we've arrived to witness an existential struggle of cosmic forces...

Why are my companions so useless during exploration? They don't give advice, they don't even have banter like in DA.

Oh GREAT, a jumping puzzle, and in the dark too.

I must say, the design is really beautiful, they nailed the intersection of "Alien", "Ancient" and "Powerful" here. Though I'm salty because it's just a sci-fi variation of the ancient elven design from DAI, which means DA4 won't be able to use it probably.

Nice view! @people with powerful PCs, please photograph these things for the rest of us!

Novaguarding+shotgun (only a Katana!) is so powerful I don't feel the need to do anything else...

We're nearly at the top and there's a health pack. I better save...

The plot thickens!

Oh. Is THIS the forward station I've been looking for? No wonder I didn't find it lmao. They should have just covered it in fog...

Why are shields so much harder to take down than armor? Ugh, that boss. At least on the second try I managed to kite him...

Yes, I climbed the column. Whatever. I got some Vanadium! Finally, I need it for my asari sword.

Oh, okay, THIS is the forward station from above. OK.

One of the enemies I had to defeat in a camp got stuck somewhere and I had to run around for 10 minutes before I found him, except I didn't even see him and he apparently died when I approached, but idk how it happened.

I met the reincarnated dude. And that's enough for today.