#which to me does beg the question of whether your player character has any memories to speak of... so little is known about their background

[echeveriia]

ok i understand why i saw myself in one of the other tunnels in deepnest now. what an amazingly cool concept, and nosk was also a really fun boss fight!

[animefreak1145]

The Brilliance of Break On Through

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Mission Break on Through—An Analysis

I have replayed the campaign of COD:BOCW numerous times—too many times truly. Did a whole playthrough where it was Hardened and soon I’m sure I shall do Veteran(something I have never done for any COD game. Not even Hardened.).

All missions have their own unique qualities—parts where the player gets a little rush of adrenaline depending on the kind of mission and how they choose to play it (Nowhere Left to Run just a plain shooting match while Brick in the Wall you can choose to remain stealthy like the good spy you are or go crazy like an eager homicidal maniac).

Even within the safehouse, there are plenty of little details to discover if you take the time to look around and observe everyone. Or, everything. (The radio if turned to a Russian station/correspondence, Adler changes it back immediately before Da Nang mission. Watching Park’s body language, as you talk to Adler and she periodically looks over to you two. Adler suspicious when you go to the Red Room or the locked room with the arcade. The T.V. being turned on in the Red Room)

But the amount of details, details, in the mission Break on Through is outstanding. I have played this mission more than any other due to me wishing to look at all the details. There’s so many, I think I may miss some. And I can’t show them off all to you cause I suck at creating gifs and don’t know how to transfer that from Xbox to my phone.

To lighten it up a bit, I won’t focus on the four different scenarios you go through—at least not each one. That would take too long and I do not have gifs/pics to show it off since Tumblr limits it to ten anyways.

I will, however, try to guide to what parts of the game you all can explore if you choose to do so. As well just how detailed they did this mission.

I am going to start with the different statements Adler says to you throughout all the Scenarios(17, 6, 11, 1). We only go through four in the actual game—but the fact it goes up to 17 or possibly more shows just how far they went in and messed with Bell’s mind.

Now, Adler seems to be a bit bipolar on how he talks to you whether or not you listen to him and all his directions. Either totally blasé and cold to giving you and pumping you up with more MK or meds, or actually a tad concerned and patient as he guides you through.

If You/Bell Stands Still/Does Nothing:

Example 1

“So you did nothing? What were you, in shock?”

He throws the words callously, mocking. As if Bell isn’t confused and lost at what is going on. He even sounds irritated that you might actually be in shock due to these memories that are just fake—not even real. Not like what he has.

Example 2

“What’s wrong with Bell?” -Adler

“I’m not sure. . .” -Park

“I guess we’ll just wait on you to proceed, Bell.”

The contrast is dizzying. He sounds concerned when he asks Park on what could be wrong with you. If he pushed you too far and now you’re just frozen. And, instead of rushing you due to how the fate of half of Europe is at stake, he decides to give you space. Just wait for you and you’ll come out of it soon enough.

He does these sort of reactions numerous times. Jumping from intimidating to the Adler we knew as the player, as Bell—kind and always in your corner that believes in you. He switches tactics based on what he believes will work really—or he just felt really on edge at times and threw the farce that you two were friends out the window.

Other examples include:

Scenario 11–Napalm Strike-in the lab in the room where you were brainwashed

“Christ, what’s happening with them?”-Adler

“A mild seizure. Sims, past me a benzodiazepine.” -Park

Again, concerned. Worried. Almost…at unease?

In the lab—tripped up on drugs. If you run through the tight shrinking hallway back and forth like so(I suck at making gifs, I’m sorry):

“Why is Bell repeating themselves?”

Or

“Bell, stop speaking in circles.”

Now, as others may have suspected, Bell is talking to everyone as they’re stuck in this horrible loop of mental torture. Most likely muttering, hands clenching and arms pulling against the straps of the gurney, moving their head back and forth depending on what they’re seeing. I always saw Bell as muttering quickly in Russian as they go through all of this—their mother tongue where it may comfort them as they’re panicking and speaking to Adler.

It’s just a nice detail showcasing how exactly Adler knows that Bell is on script—Bell saying what they’re seeing and doing and what’s going on. It shows also just how hard they put Bell through the ringer(badum tss. I’ll leave now).

All the details too when the game shows how the drugs they put in Bell affects you. Like so. The hallways appearing long. The lights looking yellow. You feel so fast—look how quick you can run. Run towards the Red Door that Adler so desperately wants and maybe this can stop. Ah, why is it running away from you? What’s going on?

I don’t know about you, but I was so lost and confused at what was going on my first playthrough. For the majority of this mission, the possibility of me being brainwashed didn’t reach the BACK of my mind till probably I actually saw the flashes of scenes about Vietnam and calling Bell a subject. So like right here.

I personally thought that I had a repressed memory or something due to me going through the Vietnam War. That whatever I saw with Perseus, I—or rather Bell—repressed it from our mind due to how violent or horrible what we saw or experienced was. And that Adler suspected and just really wanted to know about it.

I didn’t expect for the man to actually brainwash my character—us—Bell! The game made Adler your mentor, who always defended you from Hudson and believed in your skills very highly. How he and Bell were basically perfect partners when the two of you were together.

It’s amazing—cause I think that’s what the developers were going for. The absolute trust. The loyalty. The denial that ‘maybe Adler is being a little harsh but hey, this is to help Perseus so it’s okay?’ It’s perfect. Because I’m sure that is what Bell actually felt in real time.

Yet, if you go through the total rebellious choice of not listening to Adler, some thing’s make sense. The Rebellious Side shows you way more than if you just listen to Adler like a Dutiful Soldier.

You go through this room if you choose the rebellious route, the T.V.’s automatically turning on the closer you get. Of Vietnam. And now, all those T.V.‘s that turned on by themselves(the Red Room, Lubyanka, Cuba) make sense. You were actually being brainwashed. Poor Bell probably can’t ever have a turned off/broken T.V. again. The trauma.

Said trauma being shown multiple times too. Not just the T.V.‘s. But the absolute terror that Bell felt, before they became Bell, with Adler.

Like do you see this? This terrified me when I saw it at the end of the hallway. I just saw a red shadow in the distance and I legit thought I was about to be chased. Call of Duty became a horror game(I also went through the door to the ground too my first playthrough, so before this I went through zombies and I think my heart was going to jump out my chest) I thought. I didn’t want to get closer. I had to, with each step I see that it’s not a shadow but a body. And than I see the familiar jacket, the sound of whirring in my ears and see it’s Adler’s head being twisted back and forth, side to side, up and down, in a speed that in inhumanely possible.

Makes one wonder if Bell themselves sees Adler as inhumane. Not human. Adler seeming to just be a god in their head. All the Adler shaped rocks/boulders you go through and see. Even one point the V.C. becoming Adler and you killing him over and over and dead bodies of Adler being everywhere.

The man has entered Bell’s head and won’t leave. Just like Adler won’t leave Bell alone.

Heck, there’s one point in my playthroughs of this mission I was by the bridge yet there were parts of the lab by it. I jumped towards it, noticing down below there were different floors of the lab that eventually reach the ground. I jumped to reach the next floor and missed and I died.

And Adler mocked Bell committing suicide.

That was the kicker really that Adler truly is indifferent towards Bell. Like complete disregard. I know it’s fake. We know it’s fake. Adler knows it’s fake—but to Bell, it felt real. That’s the crazy part. All of this—this whole sequence feels real to Bell so each time they die they actually feel it. It’s insane. It’s cruel.

But we all know that Adler isn’t known for his kindness. Still like his character though, he’s layered.

I don’t have the exact quote he said, didn’t wrote it down like the others. I was shook he said it at all.

Moving on to the final details I’m going to talk about.

When you go through the room, I believe this comes out for both rebellious and dutiful, really depends. You see it filled with post it notes, articles, plans, and newspapers. And you see once more just how Bell has been scarred.

I don’t know Russian or German, but I imagine the notes are similar to what the English one’s say. If I’m wrong, please point it out.

There’s also post it notes which I believe is in code as well due to all the numbers—I’m not sure what those could mean since I am no decoding expert.

Poor poor Bell. And with all these pictures and plans—of Adler included—it begs the question that Bell may have been warned about the famous America’s Monster beforehand. Had to have—since Adler is basically Perseus’s adversary due to how stubborn the American man could be. It just adds more to the story, despite Cold War having quite a short campaign, they made it up somewhat with all these details everywhere.

When you finally and actually reach the room.

As you grow closer to the table, to your chair in the conference room while everyone else seems to have their own spots, there’s something I noticed.

There’s glasses. As well as a hat. And it’s Bell’s. Or at least, it used to be. Why else is it on their side of the table? By their chair? I believe it might be reading glasses due to all the decryptions Bell does, whether on paper or through a computer, it’s hard on the eyes. (I’m sure I’m not the only one who noticed this. For look at @second-vtoroy ‘s Bell)

I believe through the brainwashing, Bell might not need glasses anymore. After all, apparently they were a smoker like Adler before too but they took that out of you. What else they changed of Bell? It makes one wonder how far they truly went into molding a person.

Which just adds onto how mind boggling this mission is—this game is. This is my favorite COD game, despite how short it is. The details and choices and interactions with everyone and able to create your own character(albeit it’s very standard and not specific but it’s good enough for me) is AMAZING. I’ve always been a sucker for RPG’s and able to get that even a little in a COD game? Truly wonderful.

I couldn’t touch on everything because it would’ve gotten long, but the fun of the Break on Through mission never gets old. It’s genius multiple ways you can do it. All the details. The feelings you feel as a player as you go through it.

They truly did a unique job with this and I hope they continue with this type of game storytelling. Hopefully longer as well.

Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed this rant basically!

Gifs made by me and used the video down below to help.

https://youtu.be/t6QkmkGGHSQ

[ninakaina]

for once i WILL make a long analysis post no one asked for. p2 bad grief and his friendship with artemy below + p2 and classic changeling spoilers. let’s try to be serious about him for just a minute and forget about his giant pores and ugg boots i have no agenda i prommy

i know i’m not alone in thinking that bad grief’s relationship with his friends is one of the most interesting and telling aspects of his character in p2. for a liar, he’s extremely loyal. a lot of people have talked about how he comes through to protect rubin despite their differences, so it’s obvious how much he cares. lara also includes him in her confession, meaning she has reason to believe that he would try to give himself up to help her just as much as artemy and rubin, who it’s a lot easier to imagine doing something like that. he’s also a person constantly looking for acceptance, not by society, but by the people around him-- we learn this from his reflection, who also tells us how much artemy’s perception of him in particular matters to him. 

unlike stakh and lara, he isn’t angry with artemy at any point in the story, even if artemy kills piecework, and doesn’t lash out at him even in the cathedral. he doesn’t seem particularly angry with stakh or lara either; what bothers him most is that they haven’t accepted him (“gravel-hearted lara won’t even look at me”). i think an important difference is that he’s watched stakh and lara grow up and grow away from him. the core of what distinguishes his relationship with artemy from his relationship with stakh and lara is very simply the difference between reuniting with a friend you haven’t seen in years due to them moving away or going to a different school or whatever vs a friend you’ve spent years growing apart from-- there’s no inherently saying that you’re more compatible with the separated friend (although yeah, there’s a lot to be said about artemy being the glue that held their group together), but you see them still as the person they were when they left, and there’s an instinct to jump right back in to the relationship as it was. since that’s the last you remember of them, that past is current in your memory, as opposed to being clouded by everything that came after the sort of halcyon days of youth. grief seems a lot more sentimentally attached to the gang’s past than stakh and lara. in part i think this is because he’s a childish person, but i think it’s also tied to that desire for acceptance. 

when artemy shows up in grief’s nest, the first thing grief does is compare him to how he used to be-- specifically in a way that encourages denial. whether it’s an intentional choice or not, saying “you’re different now; you’ve gone soft” begs the answer “i haven’t gone soft”, with the implied “i’m not different”. similarly, through saying something along the lines of “could that be my old friend? no, you’ve changed,” grief ties artemy’s past identity to their friendship, such that engaging in their friendship is a return to youth. and there is a return to something; as much as artemy and grief trade half-insults, right from the beginning their conversations lack nearly all the tension and resentment in artemy’s early conversations with lara and stakh, and they have a good give-and-take in the way they talk to each other. there’s also a strong contrast here with artemy’s first conversation with lara, in which the first thing lara does is bring up how long he’s been gone, and stakh’s first words to him-- “why did you come? finally thought of some good excuses?” grief puts less emphasis on artemy’s absence than on hoping he’s come back, and less on how things have changed in the town than how things have changed with artemy. i’m talking a lot about it because it’s such a weird exchange, on the line between joking and heartfelt (”you’re no fun. aren’t you happy to see an old friend?” “oddly enough, i am”)

the other important thing that happens before-aglaya is their little railroad field trip. this is a weird moment. the plot itself doesn’t make a lot of logical sense as far as grief’s actions. artemy comes to grief asking to blow up the railroad tracks. grief doesn’t want to blow up the railroad tracks. grief agrees to blow up the railroad tracks, shows up to the railroad tracks, and tells artemy he’s not going to blow up the railroad tracks. and nothing really happens. the player can choose to just sit with him. if it’s a joke, it’s not very funny, and grief doesn’t seem like he’s in a joking mood. you’d kind of imagine he would just say no, or if he wants to send artemy on a wild goose chase he just wouldn’t show up. it’s not like there’s another dynamite supplier artemy would go to. for me, the explanation comes in what artemy says when he asks for the dynamite. the dialogue option that unlocks the event is “why not? let’s do it together. just like the good old days.”

aglaya is a force of maturation, a catalyst of coming-of-age. some of my friends were just talking about how in classic, she says she thinks the powers that be hated her because she wanted them to grow up. i don’t actually think this is a change with the force she represents in p2; she’s tied to a transformative stage of psychological development that deals with questioning authority and the established order of things. in p2 her power is most tangibly illustrated in her effect on bad grief. 

when artemy asks, just like the good old days (and one of the ways he can ask for the dynamite is through reminiscing about their old games and saying he’s feeling sentimental), everything about grief draws him to help. he wants to help his friend, he wants to protect himself, he wants things to be like they used to. but in the shadow of inquisition, he’s starting to mature, and to realize that things can’t stay the same. he’s starting to embrace the future, and i think he wants to face that future head-on with artemy, who has basically re-accepted him, which is why he makes the plans and shows up. he can’t resist going, but he knows better than to bring the dynamite.

their relationship gets more complicated as grief moves into the cathedral. in the conversation that begins with “we need to escape, cub. escape.”, he tries to outline his new philosophy. unlike immortell, grief isn’t concerned with mortality, but with humanity, and he’s become convinced that the only way to become human is to leave-- but he doesn’t leave, because artemy doesn’t leave. he doesn’t say he needs to escape, he says they need to escape. there are two explanations i can think of for this, and i think the truth might be a combination of the two. it’s possible that on some level, he recognizes, like aglaya, that artemy is the only character with some kind of agency. the only way grief would be able to leave the town is through artemy’s agency, although in practice artemy’s agency is limited to make that impossible (no option to agree). still, artemy has what grief calls an “inner freedom”, which he both envies and admires. it’s all pretty similar to aglaya’s fascination with artemy, except more familiar. grief has always known this of artemy, he’s just starting to put it into perspective. it also seems possible to me that grief just doesn’t want to leave without artemy. he exists best in the context of others, as he deals in the web of connections between people; he isn’t one to strike out on his own. the only time we see him alone is at the signal fire by the railroad, waiting for artemy.

artemy has, gives, or represents everything grief wants and doesn’t get: acceptance, a return to youth, and freedom. in the nocturnal ending, grief outlines (if you get lucky i guess) one other thing artemy has that he doesn’t: “a good, honest face”. in the diurnal ending, artemy still struggles to understand what the fuck grief is talking about, but their relationship leaves off on a hopeful note that one day he will. idk i don’t know how to end this there’s just literally so much to think about here

[iatheia]

EDA reviews Part 5 - books 38-46

Previous part 1, 2, 3 & 4

38) Casualties of War - a lovely story. In form and in function it is pretty much identical to the previous story, and even reveals pretty much the same info verbatim. The plot is similarly nothing outstanding, from ~5 minutes in you can tell pretty much exactly how it is going to turn out. That said, it has a much better atmosphere than the Burning, and Doctor’s characterization is also much stronger. Nice and relaxing, if a bit gory at times, and veering off towards supernatural by the end. 8/10

39) The Turing Test - Wow, these stories keep getting better and better! It is overwhelming and exuberant. Only a handful of books have even attempted to get anywhere near close into the Doctor’s psyche as this one has. Moreover, it has multiple narrators, and all three have a very different relationship with the Doctor, you get into the different facets of his persona, multiplicity of his character. You have a dashing and breathless romantic whose mere presence sweeps you off your feet, a reckless hero, an enigma, at the same time, there is a rather selfish and cruel streak as well. He is a manipulator, someone who knows more than he should and willing to use this knowledge to achieve his aims, willing to play people against each other and show a side of himself that they would be most accepting to see. It is never to the degree of Seven, this behavior is all Eight through and through, the core of his characters never sways, it’s just viewed through a different lens. The previous novels have established these facets, but more on accident, due to lack of consistency between different writers, picking one and going with it. But this is the first one I feel they were actually explored in full, though, certainly, there will be other stories to tackle this in the future as well (Caerdroia in particular comes to mind). An outstanding story through and through. 10/10

40) Endgame - Hot off the heels of the previous one, another fun story - or, at the very least, something that would have been a gem if it had managed to sustain the energy it had at the beginning. Doctor’s claustrophobia and depression were very poignant, and, as much as I loved Stranded already, it does make me look at that story in a new light with a newer appreciation. And, on top of that - this book is funny, the Doctor evading spy agents with ease is the comedy of errors. That said, in the second half there is too much runamock it’s a bit repetitive, not very well organized, they needlessly cross the ocean so many times, the situation at a given location is resolved the second the Doctor shows up on a scene, and it all ends in deus ex machina. The authors note says that the original draft was submitted unfinished, and boy does it show. Still, I had fun with it. 8/10

41) Father Time - It is hard not to notice though that some of the novels come in pairs (or trios). The Burning and the Casualties of War had a lot of overlap. Turning Test and Endgame were both based on political intrigue. And now, Endgame and Father Time, both feature some mysterious entity that know the Doctor from before, with him not knowing who they are. They are even called similarly, “The Players” and “The Hunters”. When these overlaps are so close to one another, it does rather stick out. This ark is not the first time this happened, obviously, there have been a number of stories before that makes you pause and go “wait, you’ve just done this in the previous book, too”. It’s probably more to do with how quickly the books are released one after another, so as the writers discuss some ideas, they end up being in several places....

That said, the first third of the book had me singing its praises. After going through the five stages of grief, and battling against the depression of the previous novel, the Doctor is finally reaching acceptance of his situation, and possibly nurturing hope for the future. It’s exactly the type of a fluffy story I have a weakness for. But then... you have a time skip, which gets all the pacing torn into shreds. Not only the conclusion of the first part is too abrupt, everything falling into pieces as if by accident, but also, none of the things that happened in the first part (or most of the characters that were introduced) matter for part two. It turns into a chess match play by numbers, moving characters across the board almost without any transition in service of “plot”, without much of consideration for their head space, keeping everyone rather ooc. The change in visuals is very abrupt - it’s hard to accept the Doctor as a millionaire business consultant living in a grand mansion, new family situation or not. It’s not just at odds with his bohemian persona, it also begs a question, if he is so famous, what do the UNIT and Torchwood are doing about it? And also, *sigh*. You have a sixteen year old girl, who, in the previous chapter, just been ten. And you decide to spend the next two chapters on little else than musing how “she hasn’t been interested in sex, even though she is SO HOT”, only to decide that she is interested now, actually. It comes across more than a little fetishistic, and the story continues to follow her around with the male gaze. I’m not here to follow sexual exploits of minors - not in a Doctor Who novel. It is utterly unnecessary, doesn’t add anything of value to the plot, not character driven, and made me lose pretty much all of the good will I had from the first part of the story (and I had a lot of it, because the start of it was basically perfect). In the third part, it just turns into a discount Taken story, somehow managing to lose any cohesiveness and suspension of disbelief, and fizzles out in the end. 4/10

Amnesia watch: #7. It’s a bait and switch - the Doctor was just pretending, but I’m counting it anyway.

42) Escape Velocity - I wonder, how much sponsorship did various fast food places paid for this novel.... 

And we are back with Fitz. I didn’t really say it before, but it was really rather a dick move leaving the Doctor all alone for over a century. I mean, it worked, narratively speaking (more on that later), but, still, in an option between traveling through space & time BUT leaving them alone for that long, without any idea who they are, without any network of support, letting them slowly go mad, only being there for the fun bits, versus staying with them to help them through it all, you are kind of a bad friend. Sure, Compassion was in the driver’s seat, but Fitz didn’t exactly protest all that much, did he? And why 20th century earth? If the conditions for Doctor’s maroonment was that he had to stay somewhere for over 100 years while the TARDIS repaired itself, then any other technologically advanced era that didn’t have two world wars would have sufficed? And, psst, Doctor, your adopted kid has a space armada. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind giving you one ship that would allow you at least space travel, you didn’t have to spend last 11 years on Earth - you could have went traveling, TARIS in tow on that ship, and only checked in at the deadline.

Also, I get it, memory loss is a traumatic experience, and the Doctor isn’t human, and there is a sense of wrongness. But, he has lived on Earth for over 100 years. In that time he had more memories and experiences than any human alive. After a while, this entire thing of “I don’t know who I am” should start wearing a bit thin, don’t you think?

This rant aside, the book is a bit play by numbers. A lot of unnecessary runaround, traveling from London to Brussels and back several times for no particular reason. A rather boring “aliens invading earth” plot that left me checked out for a vast majority of it. Nothing bad about it, but nothing stands out about the plot either. But, it did have several heartfelt emotional scenes - the long awaited reunion, seeing TARDIS interior again, the finale. They were fairly brief, and it’s a bit of a pity they weren’t savored for a bit longer, instead letting the plot get in the way, but the little that was there was nice. 7/10

43) EarthWorld - I was hoping to enjoy this book a bit more than I ended up, I usually am quite fond of Rayner’s works, but I guess it is one of her first books. It’s a bit monotone, landing on the side of quirky, whether it was suited for a scene or not. Also dwelling on the past quite a bit, invoking the imagery of Unearthly Child, War Games, Greatest Show in the Galaxy in a rapid succession, for no specific reason, and then dwelling for quite a long time on several previous novels in a not entirely organic way. Instead of using this as an opportunity so start afresh now that we’re finally back in the TARDIS, it feels like it is focused more than ever on recapping how they got here, especially as the previous novel offered a way out by letting Fitz forget most of the previous “ark”. There were a lot of lovely character moments - but some of it did feel overly gratuitous. Still, it’s a decent book, even if it doesn’t quite reach full marks 8/10.

44) Vanishing Point - Easily the best Steve Cole novel of the ones I’ve ever read and/or listened to. This is the fresh start to the team adventures that I was hoping for. The alien world is interesting, with great worldbuilding (which is actually kind of rare in the novels). A lot of exciting imagery. The characters are a joy to behold. Not just the trio, but the secondary characters too. The first half of the book is basically perfect. It... kind of fizzles out in the second half, never really delivering on its set up in an entirely satisfying way.

A big part of the difficulty of suspending disbelief, though, was Fitz’s leg. I twisted my ankle once. I could barely walk for several days afterwards (so it having happen at a beginning of a trip was Awful), it took months for it to fully heal, and even now it feels more wobbly than the other one. And a colleague of mine ended up getting a special boot, because she keeps twisting her ankle (always the same one). Fitz had twisted his ankle, and then he was shot in the leg. And he is running about mountains and waterfalls almost immediately. 8/10

45) Eater of Wasps - You have to give it to Baxendale, he has a very particular style. Everything described so masterfully you couldn’t help but imagining every single detail, like painting a picture before you. Even though a significant portion of it is body horror that is described exactly as lovingly as the British countryside. Never before has the title been this appropriate. Very careful in setting up the conflict and tension between the protagonists. 10/10

46) The Year of Intelligent Tigers - This story is just nice. Another one with incredible visuals and incredible feelings behind it, exuberant and overwhelming, like a hurricane. The ending is particularly strong. This is peak Eight - a force of nature, alien and unknowable, and yet, you can’t help but being swept off your feet. Stories like this one is exactly why he is the platonic ideal of who the Doctor should be.

Overall impressions so far: This was like a breath of fresh air. The “stuck on Earth all on his own” ark was not only beautifully executed, but it was also badly needed. The last time I was complaining that few novels actually did anything with Eight - he would react to the plot, but never really be affected by anything. And at the heart of it was the issue that the writers, through trial and error, did come to a consensus about who he should be, but rarely took time to actually get into his head - they started out somewhat flat-footedly, and then got swept up in other things. Here, though, they were forced to slow down and focus his undivided attention just on him, what makes him tick if you break him down to the barest essentials - so even after reuniting with the TARDIS and the companions, his portrayal is all the stronger as a result. Rather than merely reacting to the world at large, he is now an active participant.

The companions are great. There is nothing particularly special being given to Fitz to chew upon, but his presence is always welcome, especially with him being as mellow as he has been back in Autumn Mist. What is it about the Doctor that attracts so many companions with an acute case of praise kink, I wonder? Anji is also interesting, and I love seeing what’s being done with her. She slots in perfectly, delivering so sorely missed snark Compassion had in her pre-Shadow of Avalon outings, all the while having a rather unique relationship with the Doctor - acknowledging his eldritch horror moments, being one of the few who does stand up to him. Especially after the last couple of books, I’m curious to see where this goes and how it continues to build.

The books themselves are a significant step up to what was there before, which got pretty joyless for a short while, alternating between mediocre to awful. In this batch, tough? Sure, there are some weaker offerings, but even there there is at least one stand-out scene that makes the book. Even if the plot isn’t exactly the most revolutionary thing in the world, it is being made up with solid character work. Honestly, for any new readers I would recommend just starting with #37 Burning and going from there - at least so far.

[irandrura]

More detailed, spoiler-full thoughts on Xenoblade Chronicles 2:

One of the things that always fascinates me, when I compare JRPGs and WRPGs, is the sorts of conflicts they’re interested in, or the sorts of questions they ask. XC2 is yet another example of a JRPG that asks a question that simply never seems to arise in Western games. That question is: is there an ethical basis for the world’s existence? Is there a justification for the world continuing to be? Is existence, being, even a good thing at all?

XC2 is fascinated by this question, and even by the more narrow questions of “is it a good thing for humans to exist?” or “is it a good thing for people in general to exist?” It takes these questions very seriously, to the extent that characters who firmly conclude “no” are treated as sympathetic antagonists, rather than madmen.

Western games only rarely raise similar questions. Every now and then you get a madman in Fallout who thinks humanity is a scourge and should be replaced by some other race, or the likes of Archaon in Warhammer, who seeks to destroy the world because the gods demand it – but these characters are generally not treated sympathetically, and very little time is spent refuting them. Of course you stop the guy who wants to destroy the human race. What, you need a reason? Here’s one: you’re human, so are people you care about, end of story. There’s not much to engage with there. In the likes of Skyrim, when Arngeir suggests that maybe the right thing to do is to allow the world to be destroyed, the player’s response is incredibly perfunctory. “I like the world. All my stuff is here.” What more could you possibly need?

But justifying existence seems like a more central question to JRPGs. Not only XC2, but if I think back to, say, Final Fantasy X, or Final Fantasy VII, or Final Fantasy VI, or, well, half the games in that entire series, a frankly bizarre amount of time is spent arguing with nihilists who believe that the world and/or the human race should be destroyed, because... um, suffering exists, or the world is meaningless, or people are awful, take your pick.

My usual approach is to just attribute these differences to religion. The West is deeply influenced by the Abrahamic tradition, in which God creates the world and pronounces it good. There can be no real question of whether existence is good or not. To even ask the question is blasphemy. This instinct now seems so deeply-rooted that even atheists, who outwardly reject all religion, just take it as read that existence is a good thing. By contrast, Japan still has a historical Buddhist influence, and Buddhism is much more skeptical of the value of being. If you could destroy samsara... would you? Is the goal of the spiritual life to escape, to obtain release from the shackles of the world? The Buddhist tradition contains significantly greater ambivalence towards the world.

In XC2’s case, I think it’s a little more complicated, because XC2, like XC1, is heavily influenced by Gnosticism. I am far from the first person to suggest a similarity between Christian Gnosticism and Buddhism, of course, but here I think the Christian imagery comes to the fore. Klaus is a demiourgos, the Architect of this world, standing in the place of God despite not being truly divine himself. This flawed creator goes on to let loose his own trinity – Ontos, Logos, and Pneuma; Being, Word, and Spirit – but nonetheless is full of regret, unsure as to the value of the world he has tried to build. God himself is not visible; only this broken man trying to fill in for God. Even he is not convinced of the world’s goodness!

(And while we’re on the topic of Christian imagery, yes, I know, Pyra and Mythra’s core crystal is cross-shaped, and Pyra is symbolically crucified like four times in the plot, it’s not subtle.)

But to step away from religion for a moment and look back at specific characters...

  What drives most of the central characters of XC2 is, initially at least, the desire to cease. Amalthus believes that the world is nothing but a vale of tears, and regards the world with little but hate and disgust. Malos is corrupted by Amalthus’ hate and believes that justice requires the world be destroyed. Jin is driven mad by the cruelty of the world, comes to hate the Architect and seek to destroy him. Even Pyra, our ostensible heroine, wants to reach Elysium in order to beg the Architect for permission to commit suicide and cease to be.

As such, the heart of the story of XC2 is responding to all this with, “No! Life is worth living!”

It seems like such a banal message. If anything, it’s doubly so because the game’s protagonist, Rex, is the most relentlessly optimistic and upbeat person in the world. Rex is the sort of person who’ll respond to all the above with an innocent, “Well, that’s how life is, you know? You’ve gotta take the good with the bad.” He has no darkness in him at all. Even Shulk, who was a total sweetie-pie, was willing to go on a quest to flat-out kill someone for revenge. Rex is truly a beautiful cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure. Heck, one of his lines in battle is a completely unironic “We’ll beat them with the power of friendship!”

That’s one of the odd things, for me. Rex himself does not struggle with inner darkness, or with anything I’d recognise as suicidal tendencies or depression. He searches for an answer to justify the world to Malos, but ultimately doesn’t come up with anything more coherent than, “There are wonderful, valuable things in this world, and I believe people can change, and I know that you once believed that too!” This isn’t a story where Rex finds a substantive answer to the question, or one that would satisfy a philosopher. Rather, he ‘solves’ the puzzle through sheer force of will. He ends up convincing the Architect that the world has merit not through anything he says, but through what he does – through his selfless optimism and belief in other people.

Just as Amalthus and Jin concluded the world needs to die not because of philosophy, but because of traumatic personal experience, Rex concludes the world needs to live because of positive, uplifting personal experience. The answer to the dark impulse that would destroy the world is to point to positive relationships within it, even in the lives of the people trying to destroy it: Mikhail and Patroka, or even Jin and Malos, have genuine friendships. (The moment where Malos stops to hug Jin, even as he heads off to destroy the world, is surprisingly touching.)

On one level this really works. It fits surprisingly well with the overall Christian themes: the answer to “why should the world exist?” is “loving relationships”. Pyra’s answer, in fact, is “I love this world because you’re in it.”

On another level, it feels a touch disappointing, if only because it means the climax of the game is just a reiteration of what the player’s been hearing for the past fifty hours: yes, love and friendship and bonds are good things!

Where Xenoblade 2 works, I think for me, is where the specifics of the relationships feel powerful enough to make those clichés feel fresh. The game’s world sets up a number of reasons to despair (the world is slowly dying, the titans are dying, people are warring over the declining and limited resources, etc.) and then sets up a lot of obstacles to relationship (the Blades, immortal, but having their memories wiped every time their closest friends die, feel quite tragic), and then shows love and friendship perpetually overcoming them. The game’s strongest moments are those where, at a point of despair, somehow love saves the day again. Chapter seven stands out here: both the moment where Nia reveals her true identity, and where Rex practically raises Pyra from the dead by standing over her body and talking about how much he believes in her. Naturally, then, the game ends on the emotional high of the entire playable cast flying off into the sunset, looking fond of each other, Pyra and Mythra’s miraculous return, and the closing line: And thus, boy met girl. Like any good love story, it works only if you buy into the characters’ emotions.

 Xenoblade Chronicles 2, summarised: “Should you commit suicide? No, because love.”

Now that said, two other random observations:

In the first Xenoblade, I really disliked the Klaus twist at the end. It felt like it came out of nowhere, required a large exposition dump, and didn’t add much to the plot. For me, the first Xenoblade felt pretty much entirely downhill after the defeat of Metal Face. Xenoblade 2 still has more-or-less the same backstory with Klaus, but here I thought it was contextualised much better and was more effective. The revelation that the Architect is the torn remains of an ancient scientist, trying to rebuild the world from scraps but now half-given up on the whole project as a waste, feels like it fits much better with the world that we explored.

Xenoblade 2’s world always felt somewhat artificial, and from the very start of the game it was evident that there was a previous world before this one. There’s something beneath the Cloud Sea, and whatever it might be, it was evidently once technologically advanced. Making Rex a salvager was a good move to emphasise that, and the way that so much of the world’s economy depends on salvaging the ruins beneath the sea reinforces the sense of the world as being in decay. The Architect is mentioned at the start of the game, so you know that the world was made or at least modified by someone for an unclear purpose, and the World Tree is mysterious enough. So when later in the game you do go below the Cloud Sea and discover the remains of ancient cities, and then find that within the World Tree is an advanced scientific installation, it doesn’t feel like it came out of nowhere. Indeed, the final revelation – that ages ago a scientist accidentally destroyed the world in an experiment, and this is his imperfect attempt to fix it – feels both like a genuine discovery, but also something that, well, makes sense. Of course it was that. Of course! That explains so much about why Alrest is the way it is.

  The second observation is... okay, so, XC1 and XC2 are in continuity, that’s all good. How does XCX fit in, if it does at all? I was a bit disappointed when Klaus’ flashback mentioned ‘Saviorites’ attacking the experimental station. Who are they? I wanted to assume that Klaus’ experiment was some sort of cutting-edge secret research immediately before the Ganglion attacked at the start of XCX. That way the aliens attack and start to destroy the Earth, in a panic Klaus tries to accelerate his experiment, hoping he can use the power of the Conduit to save the world, he screws up and ends up splitting the Earth off into two parallel dimensions, creating the worlds of XC1 and XC2, and meanwhile the survivors of Earth in the home dimension escape on their Ark Ships and go and do XCX. That would fit all three games together pretty elegantly, and Conduit-related weirdness might also help explain what the heck is up with Mira in XCX.

But there doesn’t seem to have been any room left for that, so I guess XCX is a completely different continuity? That just... also contains Nopon, who for some reason have heard of Shulk and the Monado? Who knows?

[alternislatronemhq]

Congrats, Nicky, you have been accepted to AL for the role of Lucius Malfoy (FC: Cody Ferm). NICKYYYY! Wow, this makes the third group that we’re in together, and as usual, you’ve blown me away by the way you’re able to get into the head of your character. You just have a gift with the Malfoys, and Lucius is such a fascinating character in your hands. I’m so eager to see how his character develops in this new verse, and your plot ideas are just fantastic! Pumped to have you here. Please send in your blog (no sideblogs for first characters, please) in the next 24 hours and be sure to take a look at our new player checklist.Welcome home, we’re so excited to have you join the family!

OOC

name — Nicky age — 30+ pronouns — she/her timezone — EST activity level — medium: I play in and help admin another game, but I should still have plenty of time for a decent amount of Lucius-ing over here! Probably not every day, but certainly multiple times per week! any questions? — nope, everything looks super great!

IC Overview

name — Lucius Abraxas Malfoy age — 31 gender — gender-fluid…not that Lucius has the words for that, but he knows how he feels and he’s never bothered to fuss about it. Lucius has always been supremely confident in himself (and herself – although again, he lacks the awareness of gender that would let him understand that his feelings about “his” gender sometimes fit other pronouns better than the ones he was assigned at birth, so he only ever uses him – even when he doesn’t feel like a him) and the only downside to that is that his confidence arrogance honestly blinds him a little bit to the nuances of his own identity – because he’s Lucius Malfoy. There’s no room for figuring out any other details of identity next to that. The upside to his confidence, of course, is that he doesn’t hesitate to express himself in whatever way feels most comfortable, no matter how other people might react – so if some days he’d rather wear robes more suited to a witch, or deck himself out in his late mother’s finest jewelry, or paint his face with the finest make-up…he’ll just do it. Why not? He is who he is, and Lucius has never apologized for that…well, not and meant it anyway! sexuality — pansexual…which again, he lacks the terminology for. Yes, the word itself was coined in 1917, but it was coined by Muggles; even if it’s made its way into the Wizarding World by now, it wouldn’t have made its way to Lucius…not that he needs it. Lucius isn’t the sort who requires a label to know himself, and he simply never cared about gender. His orientation might be better described as “pretty-sexual” because he’s shallow as anything; it’s just not gender that affects his interests. In fact, he thinks the way some people let something as silly and pointless as gender dictate their attraction is just absurd – and he won’t hesitate to share that fact. patronus — peacock (because of course, right?) although usually noncorporeal…not that Lucius doesn’t have happy memories, because he certainly does; conjuring the patronus isn’t a difficulty. Keeping the patronus conjured when in the face of something nasty is where he falters – because Lucius has always been a little bit spineless. He’s better at the Dark Arts than the Light, because it’s easier to force negative emotions than positive ones; he’s happy when he feels happy, but he’s adept at using anger and hate even when he’s not feeling them. He can compartmentalize extremely well (hence his positively artful mastery of the Imperius Curse) but he’s never learned to fake happy. Lucius either wears a completely opaque mask or wears his feelings right out on his sleeve – no in between. And a patronus requires a bit of that in between, remembering happy even when you’re scared or angry and not just in an “oh I wish” sense, but in an yes I was happy then, I can be happy right not thinking about it again and that’s not something he does well. So his patronus is weak…but then again, with the spells he knows, what does he need a patronus for anyway? boggart — dog…a great slavering, drooling, barking, tooth-bared beast, filthy and matted with blood on its lips and frenzy in its eyes. It’s anyone’s guess whether he’s more afraid of the teeth or the threat of muck from the filthy in its fur – Lucius certainly isn’t telling. He’s good at compartmentalizing fear, anyway, so boggarts don’t cause him much trouble. One quick Riddikulus and the beast’s legs drop off and its teeth fall out, and it falls helpless and yelping to the ground, frenzy replaced by confusion and fear. Maybe that wouldn’t be a funny enough sight for most people – they’d probably turn it into a toy dog, squeaking and colorful, or maybe tie it up in bright ribbon or something cutesy like that – but Lucius’s sense of humor, while sharp, is also a bit dark. He thinks it’s hilarious. He won’t be laughing so hard later, probably – because the war is coming back, and this time Lucius has more to lose than he did when he first donned that silver mask. The first time he sees his son’s broken body before him, he’ll understand how normal people feel when they face a boggart: shaken, terrified, hollow. And not even his clever wits will be able to quickly conjure a way to make that funny. But that’s later; for now, it’s still the ugly dog and the cruel laughter engendered by its plight.

IC In Depth

personality traits — at least two positive and two negative, explain

Loyal – there are people who call Lucius a snivelling, spineless coward who would betray anybody to save his own skin, and they’re not wrong…except the part about him betraying anybody. Lucius is extremely loyal, but only to those whom he deems most important to him: his family. The Malfoys have always put family first – to the lengths of being willing to sacrifice their own ambitions (and even lives) for the sake of the greater name and lineage. Like many of the old, insular pure-blood families, their members have a tendency to be sorted into the same Hogwarts House as those who came before – but it’s not as universal a thing as it is with some and if a Malfoy isn’t going to be in Slytherin, it’s a pretty safe bet to put your money on them being in Hufflepuff. Indeed, it took the Sorting Hat a good two minutes to decide where to put young Lucius (and it was his innate laziness that ultimately kept him out of the cellars; while he certainly has drive and it more than willing to work hard to achieve his goals, if there’s an easy way out Lucius won’t hesitate to take that instead). He would do anything, sacrifice anything, for those who are most precious to him; his loyalty to them is boundless. Too bad for the rest of the world that that means he won’t hesitate to sacrifice them for the sake of those he loves, too – and that the number of people who truly matter above all else is so small: one wife, one son. Even his own father goes on the list of “potential sacrifice” if need be to keep Draco and Narcissa safe. Good thing Abraxas is a Malfoy, too; the old man might be a terror, but he understands that sort of family loyalty too.

Arrogant – Lucius went most of his life not just thinking but knowing that there was no one in the world who could compare to him. These days, he knows there are two people who are better: his son and his wife. And no one else even holds a candle to the three of them. It’s more than just confidence; it’s an absolute, unshakable belief in his own superiority. (Daddy’s lectures about Malfoys being better than everyone else took hold a little too well.) Time ought to have at least tempered if not punctured this bubble, but alas, Lucius is talented enough that he managed to escape the cold dose of reality that often undercuts the insufferable. He did learn how to ingratiate himself (a talent acquired mostly through the simple expedient of being so much younger than the majority of the people he was trying to impress) to the point of obsequiousness, at times – but just because Lucius is kneeling and begging and sniveling for his life doesn’t mean he doesn’t still think he’s better than you. He has a knack for compartmentalizing that makes him extremely gifted at mental magicks like Legilimency and Occlumency, but that same knack has a detrimental impact on his character as well: because he’s so good at it, he can even compartmentalize reality when it conflicts with his convictions. When Lucius is shown-up at something, instead of questioning whether he really is as good as he thinks he is, he finds ways to dismiss it – there were extenuating circumstances, maybe, or it’s a skill that isn’t all that important anyway, etc. So even when he’s been badly humbled, his confidence shattered, his arrogance remains. Even in defeat, Lucius knows he’s still better than the people who beat him. That’s just who he is.

Clever – Call him shrewd, observant, manipulative, even machiavellian – Lucius is all those things. He is a talented, quick-witted wizard with few (if any) scruples. He can talk his way out of trouble almost as fast as he can think his way out of said trouble, lightning-quick and eloquent. He’s already ready with a barb or a drawling retort, as quick with a jibe as he is with a jinx. In part, it’s a natural talent – and in part it’s because Lucius views the whole world as a sort of game, one that he’s been practicing all his life. Even now, having lived through the horrors of a war, he still looks at the world as a game – and games can be won. (He’s the sort of player who cheats, too, and doesn’t see anything wrong with that; everybody is cheating, after all. It’s just a matter of who does it better, and who’s clumsy enough to get caught…and dumb enough to let getting caught be a problem instead of the next step in the game.) Perhaps that’s why he so rarely wakes up screaming, when by all rights he ought to suffer from daily nightmares after the things he’s seen – the things he’s done. But Lucius doesn’t have a guilty conscience. (There are some who say he doesn’t have a conscience at all.) Anyone he hurt has themselves to blame as much as him, after all; if they’d been better at the game, they’d have been able to protect themselves, like he did. He was clever enough to talk his way into Voldemort’s inner circle; clever enough to talk his way out of Azkaban; clever enough see which way the wind was blowing after the war and pivot to a new role that would carry him further than his old reputation – not that he doesn’t still make sure of some of that; having people half-convinced that you could Curse them as easily as you charm them with your honeyed words comes in handy…and Lucius could. He’s an exceptionally adept wizard, especially in certain useful areas of magic; he could get his way through force a lot more often than he does…but it’s more fun to charm and cajole instead.

Callous – You can’t even call it selfishness, although Lucius is selfish – albeit generous with friends, allies, and those he’s trying to sucker…but giving away gold and gifts and grandiose praise doesn’t cost him anything; petty selfishness is a different thing entirely. No, Lucius is callous not because he’s greedy (he has enough that he can afford not to act greedy and still satiate his greed) but because he doesn’t care about other people. Oh, he can put on an appearance of sympathy with the best of them, and on some level he can even feel great sorrow and pity for other people…but he doesn’t really care. Not about anybody outside his small circle of family and a few close friends – and even then, he’d not blink to see half the latter in distress if the circumstance were right. Lucius is the sort of man who would let the world burn not because he delights in chaos, but because he doesn’t care enough about the people screaming around him to put it out. He only cares about “the world” as a concept at all because it’s the world that he – and his son – have to life in; the future matters for Draco, not because there’s anything of value in the abstract concept of “the future.” Which is not to say that he is without all feelings of human sympathy; should someone he does care about find themselves in pain or distress of any sort, Lucius will be distraught (possibly furious, depending on the circumstance) and genuinely sympathetic – but only to the people he cares about. Everyone else can burn for all he cares. Lucius Malfoy is not adept at the Cruciatus Curse because he revels in causing other people pain; he’s adept at the Cruciatus Curse because he doesn’t see anything wrong with someone else screaming. He’s not the sort to go out of his way to find a toy to play with the way some (such as his sister-in-law) of his old allies were known to do…but he will smirk and sneer and mock a victim without so much as a flicker of remorse. And why not? Why should he care about other people who don’t care about him?

character biography — doesn’t have to be overly long, just give us the important moments in the character’s life

Lucius is an only child, born late in his father’s life to Abraxas’s fourth wife. Rumors about about the terrible mischances that took the first three – a mysterious illness, a tragic accident, and the scandal of running off to the Côte d'Ivoire with a Mudblood – and about the many miscarriages and cot-deaths that carried-off the family’s previous attempts at an heir. (No one can prove that there are squib babies buried in the estate’s gardens…but no one can prove that there aren’t, either.) When Lucius came along, it was a relief to old Abraxas and he raised his son with both indulgent luxury and demanding expectations. Lucius’s childhood wasn’t easy, with his father always breathing down his neck, but the trade-off was that as long as he excelled at everything, he got anything he could ever want. That seemed like a pretty good deal – and it’s not like it was hard for a clever, talented, ambitious boy to succeed at Hogwarts. Slug Club in his first year, Slytherin Chaser in his third, prefect in his fifth, Quidditch captain in his sixth…and not even Abraxas could blame him for the fact that he did not make Head Boy, not with that Muggle-lover Albus Dumbledore as headmaster. Besides, by then Lucius’s eyes were already on his next ambition…

It wasn’t hard for him to curry favor with the Dark Lord, and Lucius earned his Dark Mark within a year of leaving Hogwarts. He was young, but he was valuable too – not just for his name and social position, but for his charm. Lucius was good in a duel (and grew better fast with so many vicious allies with whom to train and trade knowledge) but Voldemort had many Death Eaters who could fight; Lucius’s value lay in the minds he could sway (through words or spells) whether by recruiting other allies, or merely spreading support for the Dark Lord’s ideals. Abaxas was less than thrilled that his only son would agree to serve anyone, even Voldemort, but he had no qualms with the Dark Lord’s ideals, so their arguments over it never went too far (but Abraxas lost no time in spouting I-told-you-so’s after Voldemort’s fall). War was hard, and often dangerous, but the dark years were brightened by something that overshadowed all of that: love and marriage to the most wonderful witch in the world. (Even Abraxas could find no flaws with his daughter-in-law, although he did make several snide comments about the disgrace of Narcissa’s former sister – until she hexed him into silence, after which he promptly declared her a perfect match for his only son.) It took longer than they might have liked to have a child, but once they did – once they had an heir – it seemed like everything might well be perfect.

There were losses and close-calls during the war, and they had several friends to mourn, but the only direct tragedy in Lucius’s life was the death of his mother when she mistook a deadly herbicide for a harmless sleeping draught – a suspicious tragedy, perhaps, on the heels of two other unexpected deaths, but once again no one (not even Lucius) could prove that his father had been in any way involved. The war, at least, offered a distraction from grief at her death – until the war ended, suddenly and with little ceremony, and the Malfoys found themselves abruptly left on the losing side. They might have been able to weather that storm with little harm (they were far too respected, and too connected, to not be able to squirm free of repercussions) but then Narcissa’s sister had to go off and torture bloody James Potter like that, and…well, on top of everything else it seemed like just “escaping Azkaban” wasn’t enough. The family needed to do something to “prove” to the public that they shouldn’t be painted with the same brush as vicious Bellatrix Lestrange – a grand gesture. And what could be grander than turning their backs on one sister and reconciling with another?

Narcissa wasn’t keen on the idea, but Lucius convinced her – no easy feat, with Cissy being one of the tojurs pur noble House of Black, whose purity-mania had been second only to the unlamented Gaunts, but Lucius had always had a knack for being convincing…and besides, their was their child’s future to think of. So Narcissa agreed, and Lucius led the push of glad-handing and grinning at half-blood and blood-traitors and even the occasional Mudblood, enshrining the Malfoy family in the eyes of the wizarding world as good people. Not blood-traitors themselves, oh no, they never went that far – but a little more easy-going about things than they’d once been; a little more tolerant. They stopped (mostly) using the word Mudblood in public; stopped pushing for pro-pureblood laws with their gold and their influence. They still toed the line of being respectable wix of course, polite and traditional…but less strict about who (and what) they were willing to let into their own inner circle. They even allowed Andromeda’s Mudblood husband and their mongrel brat in their home! Yes, the Malfoys had clearly changed, and all the world could see it.

Lucius recently engaged in another grand gesture, although this one with more sincerity and enthusiasm: the “little girl” that he and his wife had thought they were raising declared himself to be a wizard, not a witch, and while it took the Malfoys a little while to come on board with the idea (not so much because they had trouble with the concept as because the child’s ability to explain himself was stymied somewhat by Lucius’s own rather flippant disregard for gender norms – so saying he was just like daddy didn’t mean as much as it would have in another house) once they did, they didn’t hold back. Narcissa pulled down the book of constellations to help her son find a new name (it didn’t take him long – I can be a dragon? I wanna be a dragon!) while Lucius took-out a full-page ad in the Daily Prophet to print an amended birth announcement so the whole world would know about their precious Draco. Lucius would have been happy to spend the rest of his life preening over his clever, brilliant, perfect son, and litlte else – but it seems the world has other plans in mind.

As rumors of darkness returning swirl, the Malfoys find themselves in a difficult position: they turned their backs on the more hardcore of their old allies to court new, muddier friends; they didn’t so much renounce the old ways as quietly shuffle away from them…and now the old ways are calling in what they owe. If the Dark Lord is indeed coming back – or even if he isn’t, and it’s merely other old supporters rallying the cause again – the Malfoys will be in trouble. They’ll be punished for their disloyalty, and not even Lucius’s silver tongue will be enough to talk their way out of that – not after they made such a public show of reconciling with Narcissa’s blood-traitor relatives, not after everything Lucius has said to the public and the press, all the work they’ve done to build a new reputation…work that may now doom them. The only way to keep themselves safe from the Dark Lord’s retribution is to lean in and really commit to the newer, more “tolerant” ideals to which they’ve spent the last five years paying lip service. If their old allies are their enemies now, that means they need to make their old enemies into allies – ingratiate themselves so well that those they once fought will be willing to protect them against their old friends. It’s not going to be pleasant…but there’s nothing Lucius won’t do to keep his family safe. Nothing.

plot ideas — either for the broader group plot or for your specific character

THE DIARY of course! Since Lucius was entrusted with that by Voldemort shortly before the Dark Lord’s death when he was still a devoted follower…which he isn’t, anymore. So now what? How/when/if will he figure out what this thing is, or that it’s something that matters now? Will he dare to defy Voldemort enough to actually help destroy that? Will he want to keep it for some sort of insurance for himself? Will learning what it is (what sort of dangerous thing the Dark Lord put in the same house as his son!) give him and Sirius a reason to work together, and how awkward will that be for both of them? Will his knowledge of the Dark Arts prove invaluable to Sirius’s mission to destroy the horcruxes, both giving him a chance to do “good” using his “bad” skills and also forcing Sirius to grapple with the conflicting issue of “ends justifying the means” and what it means to use the Dark Arts for “the greater good”? Will he keep possession of the diary a secret (maybe purposefully, maybe without understanding that it matters) too long and endanger his family by having it there when the Dark Lord comes back for it? Will he get rid of it and face Voldemort’s wrath for that later, instead – and then have no diary he can offer-up to temper said wrath? There are a lot of ways that this can go, and I’m on board for ALL of them!

DOBBY – we know he hates the Malfoys, hates working for them. Probably doesn’t buy into their “we’re good now, mkay?” vibe at all…so does that set him up to be this story’s Kreacher? Will he find a way to betray them, and if he does what will that do – will it be a betrayal that hurts the Order and Dumbledore as well? One that opens a weakness for the Dark Lord or his old Death Eaters to take advantage of? Dobby was a savior in canon because it was Harry Potter he wanted to help, but now that the Malfoys are “good guys” (technically speaking) will that make Dobby easy for the bad guys to manipulate or take advantage of? Or might Dobby simply take action on his own without being aware of the wider consequences, and inadvertently bring disaster? Again, lots of directions that this one could go depending on what the greater game plot demands – but I think the idea of having Dobby serve as a sort of cat’s paw or monkey wrench at some point would be really interesting, so file that one away on your back burner! ;)

ROSIERS – they’re related pretty closely through Narcissa’s mother (and tbh all the pure-bloods are related somehow the inbreeding is strong here lol) which also ties them to the Longbottoms through Alice and Evan being cousins; given the rather disparate sides on which those families stand, that puts some nice tension into the room…so how does that translate? Maybe a birthday party for dear little Draco (and if it’s his first birthday party as a boy, you know the Malfoys are going to go even bigger and more absurd with the extravaganza than their usual already over-the-top nonsense) that ends up getting a little out of hand – direct conflict that breaks-out into dueling? Party-crashing that gets ugly? Sabotage? Attempted poisoning? An attack? Lots of possibilities, again, dependent on what stage of things the plot has reached at the time – but given the Malfoys’ nature as gregarious social butterflies, it would be easy enough to have them throw a party for any reason any time one was needed for a plot event, whether it involves the Rosiers/Longbottoms or not!

LONGBOTTOMS – speaking of the Longbottoms…what is their relationship with the Malfoys? (Do they have one?) How close (or not at all) was Alice to Narcissa before their respective marriages, did they know each other well? Were they so distant they barely considered themselves family at all? Somewhere in between? That’s obviously something to be plotted/discussed between any Narcissa and Alice players, of course – I just think it could be very interesting to deal with any sort of connection between the Longbottoms, who were responsible for the death of Voldemort, and the Malfoys, whose world was up-ended by said death. Plus, they literally fought on opposite sides of a war…do the Longbottoms suspect that Lucius was under one of those silver masks? Do Lucius and Narcissa know that the Longbottoms were in the Order? They’re Aurors too, which probably puts some strife into things given the Malfoys’ predilection for the Dark Arts (and to circumventing the law in general) even if they’ve never been caught red-handed enough to face more than a few wink-and-a-nod fines. They’ve also got sons the same age; with the Malfoys being technically “good guys” this time, does that mean that Draco and Neville might end up having a play-date or two? Again, this all depends on plotting and backstories of other players, but I’m definitely in for seeing something happen with these two families!

POTTERS – His sister-in-law tortured Lily’s husband into a coma. He’s close friends with Severus, one of Lily’s oldest friends. And her current parenting-partner is his wife’s cousin (who’s currently working on destroying Voldemort’s horcruxes, one of which is stashed in Lucius’s house). Can anyone say awkward? Because I sure as hell can! There are a lot of things to tie these people unwillingly together even before their sons end up rivals at school together, and I’m eager to explore all of them.

DEATH EATERS – Lucius wasn’t just allies with these people; he was, in many cases, friends. Always an outgoing, charming, vivacious wizard, Lucius was popular all his life – good at making friends, and also good at assessing people and knowing how to get them on his side, whether by ingratiating himself to them or making them want to ingratiate themselves to him, etc. So even among the cut-throat, backstabbing, power-hungry Death Eaters, he was well-liked by more than most…but how far does friendship really go? He’s maintained a cordial, sometimes even friendly relationship with many of his old comrades-in-marks despite his public persona of someone barely better than a blood-traitor in their eyes…but does that mean any of them would hesitate to Avada Kedavra him on their old master’s orders? Can he expect any mercy, any help, any quarter – if not for himself, maybe at least for his wife and son? Maybe he should work to cozy-up to them even more…or maybe he should cut ties and put as much distance between them as possible, for the sake of safety. He might well do all of the above with different characters, so please – if you write a Death Eater, let’s plot out some drama!

SEVERUS SNAPE – Lucius was the first person to truly welcome Severus to the wizarding world, and while Lucius didn’t see anything special about the scrawny boy at first glance – he was just doing his duty as a newly-minted prefect to Slytherin’s new crop of first years – it didn’t take him long to realize that Severs was special…and vulnerable. One of, if not the, cleverest snakes in his year, it was obvious to anyone with eyes (translation: almost no one) that the boy was gifted. He was lonely too, and having someone like Lucius Malfoy demonstrate acceptance and praise of him was probably intoxicating to Severus. No wonder he ended up making friends with the sort of wannabe-Death Eaters that Lucius had hung around with in school; they probably followed Lucius’s lead, looked at scrawny Severus, and assumed that if Lucius thought he was valuable it must be true. Perhaps Lucius was even the one who made the overture to welcome Snape into the Death Eaters, the one who assured the Dark Lord that this greasy-haired half-blood was more than he seemed…I don’t know, but I’d love to plot-out a relationship with a Severus player! I think Lucius was probably a condescending bastard to Snape because he’s that way with everyone, but I also think he genuinely likes Snape too. I think Lucius considers him a close friend – and after the war ended with the both of them not on the side they’d seemed to be, one of the closest – and the fact that he sometimes tries to manipulate Snape doesn’t impact that at all; that’s what friends do, right? So I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a healthy, fair relationship…but it’s also genuine on Lucius’s part. He’d be shocked to be told that he’s ever not treated Severus well, honestly – he thinks he has. And given Snape’s rather troubled, traumatic childhood, it’s even possible that Snape agrees idk! I’d love to talk ideas through with whoever ends up playing Severus – especially what comes next. Does Lucius figure out that Snape is in the Order? He certainly knows that Snape is close to Dumbledore – which means that his fifteen-year-old instincts were right: Snape is valuable. Perhaps the mos valuable person Lucius knows, the one who might well save his skin in the days to come…if he can trust Snape to have his back, now that the both of them have turned their backs on the man who Marked them.

extra — honestly this app is already a million years long, so no, I am not going to force anyone to look at anything else I’M SORRY IT’S SO DAMN LONG XD

[bethesdaglitch]

1-70 do em all! 😁💙

I’m seriously so sorry this took so long, but it was so much fun!! thank you!!! Also it’s super long so I’m gonna put it under a readmore!

1. First game you played obsessively?

Jak & Daxter! 2. A game that has influenced you creatively? Writing, drawing, etc.Lmao I’m not exactly a creative person, but when I was little I tried coming up with and drawing my own pokemon. They were… bad3. Who did you play with as a kid?My brother! At first I stole his Gameboy Color whenever he wasn’t using it, but then he saved up and bought a PS2 so we could play games together4. Who do you play with now?No one really lol. I kinda prefer to play single-player games now? But I’ll play with various friends when we hang out.5. Ever use cheat codes?When I was little, yeah! Especially in the Sly Raccoon games 6. Ever buy strategy guides?Before the age of unlimited free online strategy guides I did, now I just use said online ones7. Any games you have multiple copies of?Yep, I’ve “lost” games only to find them again after replacing them like… four times? It happened with Oblivion, Fable 3, DA: Origins, and, weirdly enough, that one obscure (but fun imo!) wii game, Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon8. Rarest/Most expensive game in your collection?This one was hard! After a teeny bit of research, I narrowed it down to either Rule of Rose, LoZ Collector’s Edition on Gamecube, and pokemon red and yellow9. Most regrettable purchase?Hhhhhhhh I bought the video game for the 2006 Dreamworks movie Over the Hedge. I was only 12, but I still should’ve known better :(10. Ever go to a midnight game release or stand in line for hours?I’ve gone to a few midnight releases, but none that have lasted for hours, luckily. I only started going to them in the last few years, so the only ones I’ve been to so far are Fallout 4, DA:I and uh… ME:A (I KNOW)11. Have you ever made new friends from playing video games?Nah not really, I don’t play online games, so. I have friends who play video games, but I’ve never met someone BECAUSE of video games12. Ever get picked on for liking games?Lol no?13. A game you’ve never played that everyone else has?Overwatch14. Favorite game music?NIER, hands down. 15. If it was a requirement to get a game related tattoo, what would you pick?Probably something cute and harmless like the leaf from Animal Crossing lol16. Favorite game to play with your friends IRL?Lately we’ve been really into Towerfall: Ascension and Screencheat17. Ever lose a friend over a game?Wh—no????18. Would you date someone that hates gaming?So long as they didn’t try to “forbid” me from playing and so long as we had other interests to bond over, then sure. It’d be kind of a bummer though lol19. Favorite handheld console?Idk that I have one! Maybe the Switch, since that’s the most recent and popular?20. Game that you know like the back of your hand?Silent Hill 3 and DA:I21. Game that you didn’t like or understand as a kid but love now?The Civilization games22. Do you wear game related clothing/accessories?Sometimes, yeah. Nothing too embarrassing, though. 23. The game that you’ve logged the most hours into?What, like… ever?? Geez, I dunno… probably Oblivion?24. First Pokemon game?Yellow!25. Were you ever an arcade game player?I actually wasn’t really :/26. Ever form any gaming rivalries?Oh yeah, with my brother. He’s 6 years older than me, which pretty much guaranteed I got my ass kicked in every game we played when I was younger27. Game that makes you rage?Bloodborne and Dark Souls!!!!!! I swear I try to go back and play them at least once a year, and I can never get past the first hour :(28. Ever play in a tournament?Not like an official one, but ones with friends, yep29. What is your gaming set up?Imma be real with you chief I don’t know nearly enough about computers to answer this question with anything other than “a computer”30. How many consoles do you own?Ohohoho far too many31. Does the 3DS and/or Virtual Boy hurt your eyes or give you headaches?I’ve never had the 3D slider up long enough to tell, but that probably means yes lol32. Did you ever play a game based on your favorite show/cartoon/movie/comic?BOY when I was in first grade I played Spongebob: Supersponge on Gameboy advance so much I STILL remember the password that lets you skip to the final stage (it’s WMBT) 33. Did you ever have any bootleg games or plug-n-play games?nah 34. Do either of your parents play video games?PFFF GOD NO. Although my mom does love Animal Crossing. Not playing it, but just like it’s whole deal. 35. Ever work in a game store? Or do you have a favorite game shop?No and no, tbh36. Have you ever shed actual blood, sweat or tears over a game?I… don’t think so? Maybe I’ve cried over a game, but blood?? Put the controller down, y’all37. Have you played E.T. for the Atari 2600? Do you think that’s the worst game ever, or do you have another nomination?NO NO NO OVER THE HEDGE (2006) FOR THE PS2 IS THE SINGLE WORST GAME EVER MADE FIGHT ME ON THIS38. A game you’re ashamed to admit that you like?Oh lord… idk if anyone’s ever played any of Ambition’s dating sims (Dream Girlfriend, Dream Boyfriend, Animal Boyfriend, and Moe Can Change) but I’ve literally been playing them for about… 5-ish years now? They’re seriously the worst, I fucking love them 39. A sequel that you would die for them to make?Hmm… Maybe a new Kingdoms of Amalur game would be cool? 40. What to you think of virtual reality headsets or motion controls?I love VR but the last time I tried it at a friend’s place I fucking faceplanted after leaning on a counter I forgot was also virtual and the first thing my friend asked was whether the headset was ok, so that stung. As for motion controls, they’re fun but they can be a real pain41. A genre that you just can’t get into?Sports games 42. Maybe it wasn’t your first game, but what was the game that started you on your path to nerdiness?The path to what43. Ever play games when you really should have been concentrating on something else?Oh yeah, who hasn’t?44. Arcade machine that has consumed the most of your quarters?Idk if this counts but I am a MASTER at the claw machine and that stacker game. My closet is full of useless shit I’ve won from those things45. How are you at Mario Kart?OH SO FUCKING GOOD YOU HAVE NO IDEA46. Do you like relaxing games like Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon?yesssss I love them47. Do you like competitive games?I mean like I said, I mostly prefer single-player games, but I do enjoy the occasional co-op game48. How long does it take your to customize your player character?about an hour49. In games where you can pick your class, do you always tend to go for the same type of character?I actually don’t! If it’s a game I’m not confident I’ll be good at, I pick whichever class is recommended for beginners, and that changes from game to game. Alternatively, I just go through phases where I prefer a specific class above others 50. If you were a game designer, what masterpiece would you create?Christ I have no idea. Maybe a first-person escape game? idk51. Have you ever played a game for so long that you forgot to eat or sleep?NO?? DAMN ARE Y’ALL OK????52. A game that you begged your parents for as a kid?Literally any M game; my parents were strictly “No M games until you’re old enough!” I just got my brother to buy them most of the time though lol53. What’s your opinion on DLC these days?Most DLC is fine, it’s microtransactions in “pay-to-win” games that I fucking hate. 54. Do you give in to Steam sales?HAHAHAHAHA yeah absolutely 55. Did you ever make someone you hated in the Sims and did mean stuff to them?N-No??? 56. Did you ever play Roller Coaster Tycoon and kill off your guests?Ok yeah I did do that 57. Did you ever play a game to 100% or get all of the achievements?Ew no58. If you can only play 3 games for the rest of your life, which ones do you pick?Ooooh… ok, Oblivion, My Time in Portia, and Divinity 259. Do you play any cell phone games?I do! I play a lot of escape games, and uh… the Ambition games mentioned previously60. Do you know the Konami Code?Is that the up-up-down-down-left-right-left-right-B-A? Huh, I never knew it had a name!61. Do you trade in your games or keep them forever?I used to trade them in occasionally, but mostly I keep them 62. Ever buy a console specifically to play one game?Yeah the Switch for BotW. Not proud of it, but it was worth it63. Ever go to a gaming convention or tournament? nah64. Ever make a TV or monitor purchase based on what would be best for gaming?Yep! 65. Ever have a Game Genie, Game Shark or Action Replay? Did it ever mess up your game’s save file?OHHHH MY GOD YEAH, I’M STILL FUCKING PISSED ABOUT IT. I had GameShark for Gameboy and PS2, but that one was fine, it didn’t cause any problems. It was ACTION FUCKING REPLAY that fucked me over. I used it for KH2 and it worked the whole time until literally THE VERY LAST XEMNAS FIGHT, when my HP bar suddenly dropped to 1??? Not my HP, mind you, the HP BAR. Meaning 1 HP was the most I could have. Literally fuck action replay >:( 66. Did you ever have have an old Nokia with Snake on it?nope67. Do you have a happy gaming-related childhood memory you want to share?I do! The very first thing I ever saved up money for to buy myself was Pokemon Crystal version. Until then I’d just been borrowing (re:stealing) my brother’s, but when I was 5 and Crystal was about to come out, my parents made me a deal that if I saved up $15, they’d pay the other $15 and I could get it! It was the first time I was working towards a fun goal, so it was all pretty exciting for 5-year-old me lol. It’s dumb, I know, but it’s something I look back on fondly68. Ever save up a ton of tickets in an arcade to get something cool?Lol nah, I think the best thing I ever got with tickets was a cheap snowglobe 69. In your opinion, best game ever made? UHHHH GOD. That’s… super tough. I’m genuinely not sure I have an answer tbh. I’m really into Divinity 2 right now but best game ever made?? Idk! that’s a hard one!!!! 70. Very first game you ever beat? I won’t lie, it was Spongebob: Supersponge on GBA

[aion-rsa]

Cyberpunk 2077’s Epilepsy Concerns Represent a Bigger Problem

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

A recent Game Informer article reveals that Cyberpunk 2077 features several notable sequences that may cause epileptic seizures and other health risks.

The report comes from Game Informer editor Liana Ruppert who describes herself in the article as “someone that does have seizures myself due to an injury from my time when I was active duty.” She goes on to explain that her condition prohibits her from being able to play certain games and that she “suffered one major seizure” while playing Cyberpunk 2077.

Sadly, Ruppert also revealed later on Twitter that some people have started sending her videos designed to induce epileptic reactions in response to her reporting on this subject.

Warning: I’ve been sent hundreds of videos disguised as support that are deliberate flashing to induce photosensitive triggers. If you’re sharing this saying you’re epileptic and receive a video, don’t press play. I’m back to being on my ass. Be better, please.

— Liana Ruppert (@DirtyEffinHippy) December 8, 2020

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Why would anyone do that? That’s a question that we should all be asking, and the unfortunate answers to that question lie in the heads of those who would resort to such actions. We’ve seen fans who have gone out of their way to defend Cyberpunk 2077 and developer CD Projekt Red against anything they perceive to be an attack against the game, but the idea that there are people out there who are so blindly loyal to a game and company that they would attempt to seriously harm someone over a health PSA is unfathomable.

What’s especially odd is that Ruppert’s report is largely designed to be informative rather than any kind of “attack piece” against the game. She’s even asked people to focus more on the game’s triggers and what can be done about them and less on those who are actually attacking her:

Please stop sharing the part about people sending me videos. That sucks, it’s criminal, but now the entire conversation is about that and not on the whole reason I wrote the piece to help make gaming safer. Please keep the focus where it belongs: on accessibility, I’m begging 🙏🏻

— Liana Ruppert (@DirtyEffinHippy) December 8, 2020

That being the case, let’s focus on Cyberpunk 2077‘s epilepsy triggers as they’re not only potentially dangerous but raise questions that need to be answered regarding what can be done about them.

As the article notes, Cyberpunk 2077 features various moments of flashing lights and other intense visual sequences that could trigger negative reactions among some players. For instance, she references sequences involving Johnny Silverhand as likely triggers for some players who struggle with epileptic seizures and other harmful reactions to flashing lights.

However, the bulk of the article focuses on a specific trigger that occurs when players participate in one of the game’s numerous braindance sequences. Those sequences require players to wear a headset that puts flashing blue lights in front of your character’s eyes. Based on a previous gameplay preview of Cyberpunk‘s braindance sequences, this seems to be the headset in question:

As Ruppert points out, that headset not only puts flashing lights directly in front of the player’s eyes, but the design of the headset itself resembles a device used by neurologists to study epileptic seizures and similar attacks. That could just be a coincidence, but it does feel strange that the thematic idea of a braindance does seemingly involve the idea of triggering an intense reaction in the user’s brain. The player’s character even comments on the intensity of the sequence, and it sounds like many of the braindance story segments feature additional moments of flashing lights that are designed to convey transitions into deeper parts of the memory.

At this point, you may be wondering whether or not Cyberpunk 2077 features an epilepsy warning. To be honest, we can’t answer that question with absolute certainty at this time. While some of those who have watched leaked footage of Cyberpunk 2077‘s first few hours noted that they did not see an epilepsy warning, the official information is still somewhat vague. CD Projekt Red has stated in their response to this matter that their EULA features a warning, but the implication is that warning isn’t specifically conveyed in-game:

Thank you for bringing this up. We’re working on adding a separate warning in the game, aside from the one that exists in the EULA (https://t.co/eXpPn73VSK). Regarding a more permanent solution, Dev team is currently exploring that and will be implementing it as soon as possible. https://t.co/lXFypnSit2

— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) December 8, 2020

For the moment, let’s assume that there is going to be an epilepsy warning in the game even if there isn’t one already. That still doesn’t address the bigger problem that people are already pointing out: accessibility and fundamental design accommodations.

Unless Cyberpunk 2077 (and other games) intend to present warnings before every event which could possibly trigger an epileptic reaction, there’s simply no way for anyone whose health is at risk to know when one might occur. As this excellent video on this subject even points out, it’s difficult (if not impossible) for developers to develop a universal “safe mode,” as triggers can vary so much from person to person that there’s no great way for a developer to guarantee the safety of every individual user:

The point is that any possible solutions to this problem involve a mix of clear communication, direct avoidance of the most common visual triggers, a fundamental rethinking of basic design concepts, and any optional accommodations that can be offered which may reduce the potential impact of these sequences when they do occur. It also means that when people point out that there is a potential problem in a game, the move is to learn from them rather than attack or dismiss them.

Too often, though, we see incidents in the gaming community of people being attacked for pointing out ways that developers can better accommodate not just the personal preferences of players but their needs. While companies like Microsoft have made tremendous strides in creating hardware and software designed to accommodate as many needs as possible and developers like Naughty Dog have implemented previously unprecedented accessibility options, this isn’t the kind of subject which can be brushed aside whenever we see an example of how things have gotten better. The important thing to realize is that when people point out the ways that a game falls short of account for their needs, they’re not “complaining” or trying to hinder your enjoyment of a game. More often than not, they’re simply just trying to also be able to also enjoy that game as well and maybe help others prevent problems before they happen.

The fact of the matter is that what we know right now strongly suggests that Cyberpunk 2077 does not do enough to mitigate its visual risks. While its shortcomings in that respect can be attributed to a variety of factors that are not necessarily indicative of any intentional wrongdoing, it is now up to CD Projekt Red, other developers, and everyone in the gaming world to do everything they can to show the proper reaction to these revelations is to find a way to do better.

The post Cyberpunk 2077’s Epilepsy Concerns Represent a Bigger Problem appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/33XSde2

[mythicamagic]

DL Character meme!

I got tagged by @barbiebrival, thank you!

Rules: List your top 10 favorite DL characters (it doesn’t just have to be the dateable guys, any characters are fair game) in order. And the answer the questions. Blank questions at the end.

1. Subaru 2. Ruki 3. Shuu 4. Yuma 5. Azusa 6. Laito 7. Reiji (from here they're all pretty much at the same level. I don't hate the guys, they're just not my favs) 8. Kou 9. Ayato 10. Kanato

1. Number 5 (Azusa) has decided they want to completely change up their wardrobe and they take you shopping with them so you can give your opinions on what new outfits they should buy. What sort of clothes are you going to recommend?

I would try to get Azusa to buy more of his comfy sweaters. His sweaters are so soft and warm looking, and they suit him. 

2. You walk into your room one day to find number 2 (Ruki) standing on your bed, dancing to your favourite song while wearing nothing but your favourite underwear. How do you react?

"....Ruki, did you eat something strange from Yuma's garden?"

3. Number 7 (Reiji) has to go to the dentist but they’re adamantly refusing. How would you persuade them to go?

Use logic. I can see Reiji wanting to solve a problem like that by himself by reading up on dentistry. I'd try to convince him to see a dentist from the Demon World, since they'd not have a heart attack after seeing his fangs like a human dentist would.

4. You lose a bet with number 6 (Laito) and now have to be their personal maid for a day. Do you go through with it or do you try to get out of it?

Oh Gawd, I'd try to get out of it but that would probably make things worse. 

5. Number 4 (Yuma) takes you to see a horror movie however they end up getting absolutely terrified halfway through and bury their head into your shoulder. How do you react?

Pfft omg. I'd be surprised but ultimately not comment on it to save his pride. I would be lying if I said I wouldn't absolutely try to touch his hair though.

6. Number 9 (Ayato) surprises you with a cake they’ve baked especially for you. Are you going to eat it?

No! That prankster would put something weird in it, like bugs.

7. Number 8 (Kou) accidentally manages to completely trash their room, to the point where it’s uninhabitable. They don’t have anywhere to stay while it’s being repaired and so they ask if they can room with you for the next couple of weeks. How do you respond?

I'd let Kou have the room and stay on the sofa or something. No way would I share with him, he would probably try to pull some sort of exchange.

8. Number 1 (Subaru) has decided to learn how to play the trumpet. The downside to this is that, for some reason, they’ve taken to practicing right outside your room around the time you normally go to sleep. What are you going to do?

Aww as much as I'd want to be mad, I don't think I'd have the heart to discourage him. Subaru very rarely expresses himself, I would want to encourage it. If it got super bad though, I would offer to help him practice at a reasonable hour lol

9. Number 10 (Kanato) recently purchased a cat onesie and they’ve insisted on wearing it everywhere over the past few days. They’ve now purchased a matching onesie for you and they’re being very insistent that you wear it and go out in public together. What do you do?

Omg Kanato would look adorable wearing it. I would wear it around the mansion but try to get out of wearing it in public.

10. Number 4 (Yuma) is still scared after watching that horror film with you. It’s now late at night and they’re demanding that you let them sleep in your bed with you. What do you do?

Oh well I GUESS I'll let Yuma stay with me. Urgh you're REALLY inconveniencing me though. *cough cough* I would try to seduce him using my sexy knowledge of floriography. 

11. Number 3 (Shuu) confesses to you that they want to be an Olympic gymnast but struggle to even touch their toes. What sort of advice do you give to them?

Well...I'd be shocked, but hey, hidden depths and all that. I'd suggest trying Yoga. I image it would go as follows: Me: Shuu...you can't just lie in the sleeping dog postion, you gotta..you know..,move? Shuu: Zzzz...

12. Number 7 (Reiji) decides they want to paint a picture of you. They make you sit still for hours while they work on it, only when they finally reveal it to you, the image bears absolutely no resemblance to you. They ask you for your opinion, what do you say?

Reiji wouldn't take ANY criticism for me anyway, but I'd at least try to point out a few things he could possibly change. I'd be sure to compliment his shading or use of colour however, to balance out the criticism.

13. Number 5 (Azusa) buys a large pet python and they try to talk you into keeping it in your room. How do you respond?

Uh..I'd very politely decline. I don't mind snakes but I get the feeling giving Azusa one is a very BAD idea. 

Azusa: *watching as the python chokes someone around their neck*  Aww...he's hugging them. The pain looks wonderful...

14. You go on a Ferris wheel with number 6 (Laito) but when you reach the top, it stops moving and stays still for a long time. There seems to be some kind of fault, which means you’re trapped with number 6 till someone can get it working again. What do you do?

Rip me. Laito would absolutely use this time to try and get frisky. 

15. Number 2 (Ruki) proposes you play a game of twister. Regardless of whether you want to or not, you get dragged into it. As you’re playing, you notice number 2 seems to be touching you a lot more than necessary. Do you call them out on it, or take some other course of action?

Again I'd inwardly question if Ruki had eaten more strange things from the garden, but I'd be very flustered yet nervous. I would probably be too nervous to try and reciprocate.

16. You’re getting changed in your room when you suddenly hear a noise from your wardrobe. You open the wardrobe to find number 3 (Shuu) standing in it. How do you react?

"Shuu did you fall asleep in here again?"

17. Number 1 (Subaru) manages to accidentally handcuff themselves to you. They don’t have a key and for some reason, no matter what either of you do, you can’t seem to get them off. What are you going to do?

Ohh noo how TERRIBLE. No but seriously, Subaru would probably get frustrated by this, so I'd try to calm him down. If he got violent while I was that close to him, I'd probably die. Not saying I wouldn't enjoy it once he did get calm though.

18. Number 10 (Kanato) presents you with a bouquet of roses and declares that they have feelings for you. How do you react?

Welp I'm dead now. Unless I had a thing going with one of the other guys (which is unlikely) who could protect me from turning Kanato down, I'd have to accept the flowers and his feelings. I mean...would YOU risk turning Kanato down? He'd probably kill you.

19. You go swimming with number 8 (Kou). You’re having a great time until they pull you aside and tell you that they’ve somehow lost their swimwear. Are you going to help them and if so how?

I would go and buy him some new swimwear.

20. Number 5 (Azusa) wrote a love letter to you and slipped it into what they believed to be your locker, however the locker actually belongs to number 8 (Kou) and they didn’t bother writing your name on the letter. How does number 8 react when they find it?

Kou is pretty sharp, he'd figure out what was going on and use this to his advantage. He'd have a little fun with probably causing some sort of drama, but not too much that it would irrevocably hurt Azusa’s feelings. 

21. Number 7 (Reiji) gets very very drunk and tries to give number 3 (Shuu) a strip tease. What happens?

Pffft Shuu's soul would leave his body. I would be torn between finding Ayato and getting him to record it for blackmail purposes, or trying to dissuade Reiji from doing it.

22. Number 6 (Laito) and number 2 (Ruki) get into a rap battle and they want you to be the judge. Who do you think is going to win and why?

Laito, because he has more confidence in singing. Also RUKI STOP EATING STRANGE THINGS FROM THE GARDEN.

23. Number 1 (Subaru) accidentally ruins number 9’s (Ayato) most prized possession and begs for your help in covering it up. What do you do?

Oh Gawd that would probably be Ayato's Iron Maiden? Subaru wouldn't be able to cover that up, he's the only one who wrecks things like that in the house. I'd still try to help him though.

24. You wake up in between number 4 (Yuma) and number 10 (Kanato) with absolutely no memory of how you got there. Do you have any idea about what might have occurred and what are you going to do now?

Um..most likely when Yuma went to my room after the horror movie, he fell asleep next to me. Then Kanato wandered in? I'd die.

25. You go on a camping trip with number 9 (Ayato), number 6 (Laito) and number 3 (Shuu). What sort of stuff do the four of you do together?

Aw I think that would be kind of fun if they didn't try anything strange. I'd spend time with Shuu though when it came time to tell stories around the camp-fire. He'd retreat to get away from it, so I'd follow him rather than spending time with Ayato and Laito.

26. Number 9 (Ayato) and number 4 (Yuma) have somehow swapped bodies. How do they react and are you going to try to help them get back to normal?

Pfft omg Ayato: YES. I AM NOW THE GREATEST BASKETBALL PLAYER EVER. *loves the height change* Yuma: Urgh.. I'd find Reiji to try and get a cure.

27. You’re playing a game of Monopoly with number 5 (Azusa), number 7 (Reiji), and number 10 (Kanato). Who wins and who goes bankrupt and storms off in a rage?

Reiji wins, Azusa, Kanato and I go bankrupt. Kanato flips the game board and storms off in a rage with Teddy.

28. You go on a hike with number 8 (Kou) and number 2 (Ruki). Number 8 is in charge of the map and they manage to get you completely lost in the middle of nowhere. What are you going to do?

I can actually see this happening. Well, if we had camping stuff, we could just set up camp and figure out where to go from there. If not, Ruki would probably order us to help make shelter if we were exhausted, while he worked out where we were.

29. Number 1 (Subaru) has given up on learning the trumpet and has taken up the banjo instead. They write a song and play it for you but it sounds beyond terrible. How do you react?

I'd still try to support him and maybe look up youtube tutorials on how to help him improve.

30. Number 1 (Subaru) and number 2 (Ruki) get in a fight over you. Number 2 manages to win and asks you for your hand in marriage. How do you respond?

Oh you just HAD to ask that question, didn't you? I'd be damn stuck is what I would be. It would depend on the depth of feeling between me, Ruki and Subaru. If Subaru was in love with me, then I'd hesitate, but if he was only fighting because I was his prey and a blood bag, I'd accept Ruki's proposal because there'd be nothing holding me back. It would be such a difficult situation though, I mean Ruki wouldn't propose unless he was really in love so I'd be very flattered ethier way.

I tag: @yoooooooooooooooooooooooh, @mtkthedreamer, @missconnita, @laveenderee, @dialoversotaka and anyone else who wants to do this x

Blank questions:

1. Number 5 () has decided they want to completely change up their wardrobe and they take you shopping with them so you can give your opinions on what new outfits they should buy. What sort of clothes are you going to recommend?

2. You walk into your room one day to find number 2 () standing on your bed, dancing to your favourite song while wearing nothing but your favourite underwear. How do you react?

3. Number 7 () has to go to the dentist but they’re adamantly refusing. How would you persuade them to go?

4. You lose a bet with number 6 () and now have to be their personal maid for a day. Do you go through with it or do you try to get out of it?

5. Number 4 () takes you to see a horror movie however they end up getting absolutely terrified halfway through and bury their head into your shoulder. How do you react?

6. Number 9 () surprises you with a cake they’ve baked especially for you. Are you going to eat it?

7. Number 8 () accidentally manages to completely trash their room, to the point where it’s uninhabitable. They don’t have anywhere to stay while it’s being repaired and so they ask if they can room with you for the next couple of weeks. How do you respond?

8. Number 1 () has decided to learn how to play the trumpet. The downside to this is that, for some reason, they’ve taken to practicing right outside your room around the time you normally go to sleep. What are you going to do?

9. Number 10 () recently purchased a cat onesie and they’ve insisted on wearing it everywhere over the past few days. They’ve now purchased a matching onesie for you and they’re being very insistent that you wear it and go out in public together. What do you do?

10. Number 4 () is still scared after watching that horror film with you. It’s now late at night and they’re demanding that you let them sleep in your bed with you. What do you do?

11. Number 3 () confesses to you that they want to be an Olympic gymnast but struggle to even touch their toes. What sort of advice do you give to them?

12. Number 7 () decides they want to paint a picture of you. They make you sit still for hours while they work on it, only when they finally reveal it to you, the image bears absolutely no resemblance to you. They ask you for your opinion, what do you say?

13. Number 5 () buys a large pet python and they try to talk you into keeping it in your room. How do you respond?

14. You go on a Ferris wheel with number 6 () but when you reach the top, it stops moving and stays still for a long time. There seems to be some kind of fault, which means you’re trapped with number 6 till someone can get it working again. What do you do?

15. Number 2 () proposes you play a game of twister. Regardless of whether you want to or not, you get dragged into it. As you’re playing, you notice number 2 seems to be touching you a lot more than necessary. Do you call them out on it, or take some other course of action?

16. You’re getting changed in your room when you suddenly hear a noise from your wardrobe. You open the wardrobe to find number 3 () standing in it. How do you react?

17. Number 1 () manages to accidentally handcuff themselves to you. They don’t have a key and for some reason, no matter what either of you do, you can’t seem to get them off. What are you going to do?

18. Number 10 () presents you with a bouquet of roses and declares that they have feelings for you. How do you react?

19. You go swimming with number 8 (). You’re having a great time until they pull you aside and tell you that they’ve somehow lost their swimwear. Are you going to help them and if so how?

20. Number 5 () wrote a love letter to you and slipped it into what they believed to be your locker, however the locker actually belongs to number 8 () and they didn’t bother writing your name on the letter. How does number 8 react when they find it?

21. Number 7 () gets very very drunk and tries to give number 3 () a strip tease. What happens?

22. Number 6 () and number 2 () get into a rap battle and they want you to be the judge. Who do you think is going to win and why?

23. Number 1 () accidentally ruins number 9’s () most prized possession and begs for your help in covering it up. What do you do?

24. You wake up in between number 4 () and number 10 () with absolutely no memory of how you got there. Do you have any idea about what might have occurred and what are you going to do now?

25. You go on a camping trip with number 9 (), number 6 () and number 3 (). What sort of stuff do the four of you do together?

26. Number 9 () and number 4 () have somehow swapped bodies. How do they react and are you going to try to help them get back to normal?

27. You’re playing a game of Monopoly with number 5 (), number 7 (), and number 10 (). Who wins and who goes bankrupt and storms off in a rage?

28. You go on a hike with number 8 () and number 2 (). Number 8 is in charge of the map and they manage to get you completely lost in the middle of nowhere. What are you going to do?

29. Number 1 () has given up on learning the trumpet and has taken up the banjo instead. They write a song and play it for you but it sounds beyond terrible. How do you react?

30. Number 1 () and number 2 () get in a fight over you. Number 2 manages to win and asks you for your hand in marriage. How do you respond?

[subasekabang]

Title: Anything To Make you Stay, Chapter 7 Rating: T Word Count: Total: 15,761, chapter: 2,647 Characters: Joshua, Neku, Shiki, Eri, Beat, Rhyme, Hanekoma, Kariya, Uzuki. Pairings: Josh/Neku. Warnings: Suicide, Major Character Death, Depression, semi-detailed depiction of dead bodies, mentions of ableism, one minor allusion to transphobia Summary: Joshua and Neku have been best friends since they were 11, but their friendship starts to fall apart after Joshua goes missing for a week, soon after his 14th birthday. Lies corrode the bond, and Neku’s vivid nightmares of finding someone’s dead body does not help. A year and a half later, they hit the boiling point. Always look before crossing the road, kiddos. Author’s Note: Autistic Josh and Neku! Afab demiboy Josh! Agender Rhyme! Usage of sign language! This was a fun fic to write please enjoy it.

Chapter 7:

The heavy air, weighted with the shouts from earlier, explodes with a scream that tears from his throat. Tires screech as the driver tries to break, and the smell of burned rubber permeates the air. There’s going to be skidmarks there, both on the road and on his heart.

Joshua makes a dash into the road, fueled by the crimson staining the asphalt and the body lying where the truck slammed into it, purple headphones crushed to bits, like the shattered bones in Neku’s body.

He knows this is fatal, there’s no way to sew the body back together, to heal the wounds inflicted. Not by any normal means, and this is no place for a miracle. Even so, he kneels down, shaking Neku, begging him to stay alive.

The driver has pulled over, mouth agape and horror splayed on his face. Some grotesque corner of Josh’s mind says serves him right, he should see this nightmare he has created by hitting Neku, but he knows it wasn’t the man’s fault, not really.

A sob bubbles up from his chest, and tears streak down his face, hot and wet. What a sight he must be, covered in blood and guts and crying over a body that resembles roadkill more than it does his friend.

A thought freezes his despair. The Game. If Neku wins, then he can come back to life, no miracle needed. Some law-breaking required, if he wants to ensure that Neku has the best shot of winning he can.

After all, it’s hard to lose when the Composer is your Partner, and doing all he can to get you a win.

With rigid motions, he conjures up a Player Pin, placing it on Neku’s chest. Joshua takes a step back from the scene of the murder and his emotions, letting them fall away into blank space. He can deal with the distraught panic later. For now, face blank, he walks away, vanishing into the UG as he rounds a corner.

He has a Game to prepare for.

Joshua oversees Neku’s entry into the Game himself. He can’t afford to leave this up to anyone else. He makes sure Neku has the standard knowledge of the Game that all Players should have, before it’s time to take the Fee.

He pauses, sighs, and knows exactly what he’s going to take. Threads of Music wind away from Neku’s body, laid out in the Room of Reckoning. He bundles up the memories into an orb, sealing it away. Maybe a Neku who doesn’t remember him will be easier to deal with in the Game, given their last encounter.

He repairs Neku’s headphones, placing those around his neck. It’d be rude leave Neku without part of his signature look.

The first Day is a blur of activity, as always. He’s quick on his feet once Neku wakes up, offering up a Pact, and then they’re fighting the Noise together. It’s only frogs, for now, but Joshua can feel that pulse beneath the surface as they do battle, Music thrumming in the air, as he and Neku take down the enemies. As the battle ends, Josh lets out a laugh, he hasn’t felt this alive in ages.

Neku takes off, heading for 104 immediately, of course, and no, that won’t do. Players don’t last long if they don’t bond with their Partner, and while Josh knows everything about Neku, feels their old bond on top of the Pact, Neku doesn’t have any of that.

So he drops hints. Between this isn’t my first Game, I’m here by choice, and the mention of his original Fee (he didn’t take one from himself, this time around), he hopes Neku has more than enough material to ask him about in the future. Mentioning languages helps too, nothing like multiple shared languages to bring people together. It might be needed, if either of them go nonverbal, anyway.

Like on Day 2, when he wakes up with acid clawing at his throat, bile building up in his stomach. Neku is dead because of him, None of this should be happening. Neku was never supposed to learn about the Game, he was never supposed to die. Joshua should never have killed himself, should never have jeopardized their friendship in any way, because look where that’s gotten them.

When Neku wakes up, 10 minutes later, he takes one look at Josh, and raises his hands. [Bad day?]

Josh nods. [Bad day. Bad thoughts. Bad memories. If you want, you can speak, but my throat isn’t going to do words.]

“Alright,” Neku says, which Josh responds to with another nod.

Both of their phones beep in unison, and they each grab their own.

^Set the cursed sculpture free. Fail, and face Erasure. You have 60 minutes - The Reapers^

[Hachiko,] Josh fingerspells, before Neku can say the name out loud. [Has to be. Cursed sculpture.]

“That’d make sense. This is the Underpass, yeah? So Hachiko should be that way,” he says, pointing. Josh nods. “Let’s get going then.”

Nothing is ever that easy, because there’s a wall to take down, but luckily the mission is just to take out a bit of Noise.

“What’s up with those guys in red, anyway? You said something yesterday about Reapers?” Neku asks, as they walk out of the underpass.

[Reapers are part of the Game. They test Players, whether by creating enemies, as the Harriers do, or by issuing challenges, like the Wall Reapers do. At the end of a Game week, if a Player survives, they have the option of becoming a Reaper. It’s a fresh start, a way to escape their life, if it was bad, but in order to survive, Reapers need to either Erase Players or continue to issue challenges, depending on if they’re a Harrier or Wall Reaper. If they don’t score points, they’re the ones that get Erased.]

“That’s rough,” Neku says, and it looks like he’s going to say more when a big loud shouty guy comes running up to them.

“Gotchu punks now!” says the guy. Daisukenojo Bito, Josh thinks to himself. Nickname Beat, Partnered to his sibling, Raimu, aka Rhyme.

“You got us good yesterday, but today I’ma crush you, yo!” he continues, and Josh sighs.

“What are you talking about? Who are you?” Neku asks, and he has every right to be confused about a person he’s never met shouting at him like this.

[He probably thinks we’re Reapers. You can’t scan Reapers, and Player Pins make it so you can’t scan other Players, either,] Josh signs to Neku, right as Rhyme points this out themselves.

“They’ve got Player Pins. Players must not be able to scan each other. Remember? You couldn’t scan me either,” they say, and Beat deflates.

“… Oh. Yo, sorry I jumped to conclusions.”

[It’s fine,] he signs, but that makes Beat scrunch his eyebrows together in confusion.

“Yo, whatchu doin’ with your hands?”

“He’s speaking in sign language,” Neku says. “Sometimes verbal language can be hard, we happen to both know sign though. He just said it’s fine.”

“That’s neat! Maybe you could teach us some signs!” Rhyme says, flashing a smile. “Oh! We should introduce ourselves. I’m Rhyme, and this is my Partner, Beat.” Something flickers across Beat’s face, and Josh recalls his Fee as Neku introduces the both of them. Rhyme’s memories of him. He feels a pang of sympathy, knowing intimately the heart-stabbing pain of the most important person in your life forgetting you.

He decides to brood, letting Neku talk with the other pair about phones and Reapers and the mission. It’s not like he can contribute much to the conversation without having to go through Neku.

Then Rhyme is suggesting they work together, and Neku looks at Josh, the question he’s asking obvious by the raised eyebrow.

[Sure. Our odds are better if we have more people working to solve the problem.]

Neku raises his hands to reply. A silent, secret, conversation then. [Can we trust them, though? What if they’re Reapers? I can’t scan them after all, could be a ploy.]

[They aren’t. If you don’t trust them much, then that’s fine, but working together benefits us all. You can suggest we split up to cover more ground.]

Neku nods, and turns back to Beat and Rhyme. “Sounds like a plan. We should split up, we can cover more ground that way.”

The others agree, and off they go.

His brain is fog today, so he contents himself to drifting by, letting Neku figure things out. The battles they fight help to clear the air, but he’s moving through jello, and this headache keeps pounding away. Josh hasn’t kept his vibes tuned down for this long in a while, and he hopes that his body will get used to it, because acidic brain fog is not a fun experience.

Neku can tell that something’s up with him, and once the Moyai is cleared of its Noise, he asks, “Hey Josh, is everything alright?”

[Fine. Just thinking. Don’t worry about me,] he signs, and before Neku can ask anything else, he walks off, heading for Hachiko.

He already knows how to solve the missions this week, of course. He had a hand in creating them, so it’s easy to point out how Hachiko is looking dirtier than usual, less friendly, and they get to polishing.

The Garage Wolves that spring out of Hachiko are easy to take out. The Metal Corehog that Uzuki summons is easy too, but it seems Neku doesn’t feel the same. When the next swarm is summoned, Neku looks ready to pounce on Uzuki instead.

“Please tell me you’re not planning on fighting me? Ha ha ha ha! How stupid can you get? You’ll never win against a Reaper! But all right. I’m game. I was getting bored anyway,” she says, and Josh can only sigh.

Leave it to Neku to challenge a Harrier on day 2.

The fog in his head is blown away by the coming challenge, and he feels his throat open up. Finally. “Neku, Harriers aren’t going to be as easy to beat as Noise.”

Neku spares him a glance, surprised at his voice, no doubt. “She’s just going to keep throwing more at us. Take the problem out at the source.”

“Ha! As if a pair of Players on day two could even stand a chance! You got guts, boys.” She’s laughing and them, and Josh wonders where Kariya is, because he should be here keeping her in line. They balance each other well.

“If you fight with us, it won’t be us who end up Erased, Uzuki Yashiro,” Joshua growls. He lets some power leak, eyes taking on a faint glow, as the wind picks up around them all, his hair flowing in it. He’ll pass this off as a trick of the light, later, but the intimidation works, and her stance falters.

“Hmph, you’re boring. I know, let’s have some fun! A special bonus challenge, just for you, orangeylocks! If you pull it off, I’ll let you out of the Reaper’s Game!”

“Bullshit.” Josh cuts her off, rolling his eyes. “You don’t have the authority to do that.”

“And how would you know? Awfully knowledgeable about how us Reapers work for a Player. Here’s your mission, Erase your Partner here, and you’re out of the Game!” She’s got a smug grin on her face, and Josh frowns, seeing Neku waver.

“I have my reasons for knowing what I know, and I promise, Neku, I will tell you them. Don’t listen to her.”

Neku doesn’t have time to decide on who to listen to, because Kariya, followed by Hanekoma, come swooping down to the rescue. Koki gives a nod to him, and projects a thought, We felt the surge of power, figures that she’d be at the center of it. I’ll keep her off of your back.

Josh sends a quick Thanks, to Kariya, watching as he tries to herd Uzuki away.

“Leave the kids alone, you owe me a bowl of ramen, girl. I bagged more Players yesterday,” he’s saying, grabbing her hand and tugging her off in the direction of Ramen Don. Josh can’t help but laugh at the sight.

Once the pair have gone, Josh turns to grin at Hanekoma. “I see you brought in the cavalry to get her off my back this time. Hopefully Koki keeps her from bothering us much more.”

“You should know better than to egg her on, Josh,” Mr. H replies, and Josh can see how annoyed he is, from his hair sticking up to the barely-concealed splashes of color on his skin. Stress-painting again, he figures. He’ll have to apologize for this fit of anxiety later.

“She started it. Anyway, she’s gone now, so it’s time for introductions. Neku, this is Sanae Hanekoma, he runs the WildKat cafe on Cat street. Mr. H, this is Neku, my Partner.” He doesn’t need to add on anything else, Hanekoma knows all about Neku.

“Nice to meet ya, ‘phones. You’re gonna be in for a long week with J here as your Partner. I’ve known him since he was a kid, always had a knack for getting into trouble.”

“You had a knack for getting me out of it.”

Neku looks between the two of them, eyebrows raised, before he takes a deep breath, and sticks out a hand to Hanekoma. “Nice to meet you. How are you connected to the Game?”

Hanekoma shakes the hand. “Think of me as a sort of…guardian. I watch the Game, to make sure shady types don’t start bendin’ the rules.”

“Alright… And how did you two meet?” He gestures to Josh and Hanekoma.

“I visited his cafe, he caught me staring out the window at things I had no right to be seeing. I’ve always been able to see the UnderGround, the Game, and he saw me flinch when some of the Players were Erased. Took me aside, told me all about what I was seeing. First time in 10 year I heard that what I saw was real. Everything about the Game I know, I learned from him.” He’s nonchalant, as if revealing his sight was no big deal.

“Josh here is a trouble-maker, I’ll say that, but he’s a pretty good kid. You’re lucky to have him as your Partner. There’s only one way to stay alive in this Shibuya. Trust your Partner! Especially you, Phones. I saw you considering the offer.” Josh chuckles as Hanekoma goes on one of his speeches, he’s heard them all before.

Josh lets Hanekoma answer Neku’s questions. A better teacher than he could ever be. When Hanekoma lets the title Composer slip, Josh raises an eyebrow, but says nothing. He’ll fill Neku in on that more later. Once Hanekoma tosses Neku the fusion pin and explains it, he departs, and Josh gives Neku a little smile, before everything goes fuzzy.

“Why the hell did you stop me? I had those two in the bag!” Uzuki says, pouting at Kariya.

“Trust me, you didn’t. The orange-haired one, maybe, but the other? Don’t mess with him, if you know what’s good for you,” Kariya says, and she’s always thought that his laziness was a facade, but never is it more obvious than here.

“Who is he?” she asks.

“A kid I met a while back. You know how those people who have some sense of the UG are stronger in the Game? He’s always been able to see it, hear it, and he’s Played before. I’m a little surprised you don’t remember him, honestly,” he says, and he has that knowing look in his eyes that pisses her off.

“Oh, and why is that?”

“The last time he Played was about a year and a half ago. His name is Joshua. If you’ll recall, that was the name of your Partner.”