#i just finished both route ends and the epilogue for the event and i am so obsessed w him

[honeybyte]

i didnt come here to go hunting

[redraw]

#keith howell #ikemen prince #ikepri #i just finished both route ends and the epilogue for the event and i am so obsessed w him #im rebuilding everything i thought the alter might be like from scratch #im so in love

[ghostybane]

Bane's Opinions on MAMIYA DDD

Ok so I finally finished playing MAMIYA DDD and there is so much to unpack! I have been waiting for a year and now after reading through all of the events, I have gathered my resolve to talk about my opinions on it. I'll talk about Doomsday and Daydreams first before Mamiya and Natsume. DOOMSDAY I wanted to get Doomsday out of the way cause beforehand I did see some spoilers containing Minato's route and I wasn't too comfy about it (I hate Mayuri and Minato and tbh it was fucked up as it was). But I'll start off with Minato- and I know that doomsday crosses over with Haruki so some bits remain the same but it's easy to get through.

Minato: I liked reading Minato's route, It does focus on his identity as himself and as "Mina" and that it's about accepting himself, while also confronting Ni'igaki about his experience and that he won't run away from her and face her up front. He's become a much more stronger character and I really enjoyed it, I also did enjoy the part he meets with Yumehisa and Mina together. It was just really sweet and a wholesome moment. That was pretty memorable to me. I liked his character development a lot, he was the type to fall apart if no one could accept the way he is. Dressed up as a girl to continue acting the role of spreading happiness to everyone and even when he is exposed he runs away from it, but he faces it again when dealing Mayuri. Throughout the story, he finds himself, discovers "Mina" and learns to accept himself and face his fears and fight against Ni'igaki. It was a really strong and powerful arc for his character and I think it was a good choice. (I love and care for Minato so much you have no idea!!! But I am really happy with the ending and that I believe in him!) Haruki: It was straightforward but from his point of view. It was an enjoyable experience to go through his route as well. I like Haruki's character a lot, He's the rough looking character with a hard exterior but he's actually genuinely kind and soft. When he meets Touma again, he deals with his family issues and the reason why Haruki isn't able to love anyone cause of something he said in the past that made their family split apart. Though he learns to be more opened about himself and that he is capable of being loved by someone (Minato) and it improves himself as a character, where he takes control over his life and deals with things properly. He then was able to face Touma head on and settle things about their family problem. It genuinely was an enjoyable experience to read.

DREAMSDAY Ok so this is where lore of Keito comes in and an epilogue explaining MAMIYA's existence as well. It was straightforward and to the point, I still don't get how Keito is in the wrong timeline...but It is assumed he just ended up in 2012 cause the years were mixed together with 1999. Aside from that it was enjoyable, and holy fuck this route was more fucked up than I expected...

Ryou To be honest I was a lil confused with the whole Karma thing but it started making sense as the answers were given. The whole thing about Keito's death is so messed up, especially the fact they were making Ryou become MAMIYA was just insane. I love Keito so much that he wanted to protect Ryou at all costs and it was so sweet. It further developed that Ryou, who appeared in the timeline of 1999 wanted to be in a future together with Keito and he also went to save him as well and lead him back to his original timeline 2012 and see Keito alive (He is around 28 years old in the year 2012). Then up against Samejima they were interesting as both of them, tend to fall into their violent tendencies they fought it out to resolve their issue. It was a satisfying ending.

Keito I think Keito's lore was interesting although between the two timelines I'm not so sure which one is supposed to be canon Keito, aside from that. They don't entirely exist since he's perceived much more older after the Karma had been fixed. But anyways I like that it explains from his perspective before and after the Karma, I also did like that he was very close with Yumehisa and that for Keito to stay alive in this current timeline. That is how all the MAMIYA's (pink house) also disappeared. But it was very enjoyable to read his POV and I think it was pretty much the core to the story that leads to Side: Mamiya and Natsume's death.

then there is DOOMSDAYDREAM

I am a lil mixed with it but I think the way it ended was a lil satisfying enough, We had a lot of MAMIYA and Yumehisa lore and it was good for the story! But I sort of wished there was more for Natsume, reason why he was looking for MAMIYA. Why he died in the forest, and I kinda wanted to see baby Natsume...It would be nice if we had more backstory abt the way he perceived the world through his eyes, but all it did was get straight to the point. Let Yumehisa take over Natsume's work and Natsume proceeds to sacrifice himself for the sake of saving his friends and granting them a happy ending. It also didn't go in depth about his death at all, which I thought was the main point but oh well....we get a simple answer and that was he died because of a heart failure.

It was left with a cliff hanger as Yumehisa becomes a spectator and directs Natsume's story to a happy ending. I do also wonder if he may die at the end as well but...man...I didn't feel satisfied cause it was left for the audience to assume that Yumehisa will grant them all happy endings. AND THEN THERE IS EX- And tbh Idk what I was expecting...I thought it was gonna be important to the main story but no- it was a just a WHAT IF and Idk....I was really confused with the way it was supposed to go. All I understood was that Natsume snapped because of Yumehisa, he killed all of his friends and he had nothing. All he wanted was revenge and basically he just becomes a villain and kills off everyone, it's just so out of character. (Someone could you explain what the fuck EX was supposed to mean- but it wasn't that important so I discard that)

that is all of my opinions of the routes of Mamiya! They were heavily spoilery so I don't want to add in the tags. But I loved reading through DDD and it was nice, I feel a lil empty though after the finale but I assume that Yumehisa was able to fulfill Natsume's wish and set things right. Thank you for reading this long ass blog hahah!

[dilatorywriting]

ngl I'm watching the results seesaw back and forth and at this point I'm waiting for it to finish at a dead even.

Jokes aside, it's looking like, if there is a winner, it's going to be something like a 3% or 5% lead at most. Which migghhhtttt not be the grand majority decision that you're looking for.

My unwarranted advice, that no-one asked for, is to plan out both regardless of what the vote ends up being. Sometimes one route looks promising and then you get like 3/4 of the way through it only the find that something's just... not clicking. And you're not happy with it. And you end up going with the other option anyway.

Or, maybe, like someone's already said in the replies, you can actually just do both if you like both. Not as a choose-your-own thing, but just as separate, alternate story versions. Part 4 Alternate: Sweet, and Part 4 Alternate: Sour, both parts follow on from Part 3 and have no relation to each other. Reader picks whatever they're in the mood for, or just reads both for the different course of events. Who said there only has to be one?

-Reaper

Feasibly, there isn't much of a way for me to do both -- time, length, content overlap, trying to continue onwards with another part or epilogue when the story would have branched so severely. It'd just be way too much, unfortunately. I have the big beats down now no matter what, and I've decided more or less on a strange sort of hybrid of both plots. Though I am going back and forth on some of the finer details and tone for some parts still, but hopefully I've got it ironed out! There were a couple specific scenes from each that I just wanted, so so badly. And am determined to have all of them at once, me thinks. They're too fun to let go.

It is very fun to watch the poll shift back and forth though so rapidly though. Usually my polls have a very clear winner, so this was cool to see!

#Asks

[hakuoyuki]

IkePri JP 1st General Election had ended for a week and a half but I've been quite busy so it's a while since I last updated on here.

Yep, the #1 ranker of IkePri JP 1st Election overall ranking and #1 of Nokto's ranking is me 🦊👑💕

After a year of IkePri release I've also finally finished all routes released to date, both ends, and unlock all their both end clear stories. (Note: the route completion status here isn't updated since I don't want to be giving people heart attacks)

And since IkePri Eng is right around the corner, this is just something I want to share with everyone beforehand (without spoilers that is)

Out of the starter three, Chevalier route has the heaviest lore (and triggers, and smut) while Yves route is the mildest.

Chevalier route: heavily recommended for those who want lore and drama, and Clavis stans. Chevalier's True Love End is a Must Read.

Leon route: heavily recommended for Nokto stans. Nokto stole his route 😂 Not completely but A Lot, with tons of cameo in Passionate Love End.

Yves route: the start of his route (Ch 1) have a Very Important bit of information that ties to all routes. Also heavily recommended for Licht stans.

Routes after starters and very very highly recommended to be read in order of release due to how heavily it will be spoiling the previously released route and how The Reveal in the route prior to it links to the subsequent routes. The order: Starters → Nokto → Licht → Jin → Luke → Clavis → Act 2

Nokto route: The first route after starters, in JP it was released just 1.5 months after the app was released. You could say Nokto's route is the one exception to the above order (in terms of completing a route to at least 1 end before starting to next) but please, at the very least, read Yves' Ch 1 (or if possible to Ch 4) before starting Nokto's route since it'll add more depth to his route. Chev's and Leon's common route also adds more depth to Nokto's route as well. p.s. highly recommended for Rio stans.

From Licht route onwards, the story gets darker and darker real fast. I am Not Kidding. Please be forewarned.

For all routes, True Love End is the true end. Both end clear stories all continues after the True Love End's epilogue. Passionate Love End is the alternative ending. (Consider: True Love End = how the main plot actually ends. Passionate Love End = the "smut" except for Yves where it's "crack")

Event stories which continues after the release of routes also continues from the True Love End. It is also to be noted that unlike other titles, IkePri is Very Consistent in its writing and their event stories happens sequentially with references back to prior released contents such as events and even the main route (and happenings from True Love end). The only exception for this is "If Stories" but even with such stories, they are still consistent on the level of an alternate timeline where MC and none of the suitors have yet to become lovers

Last but not least, since Ikemen Prince EN ver is a localization of the game not a translation, there will certainly be bits here and there which are changed from the JP ver as Cybird finds appropriate. I don't know how much of it will be (if any, but most likely given how they localized the suitors' profiles and beast encyclopedia as well as how it's impossible to directly translate everything across languages) or where (until the EN ver is released that is) but enjoy and have fun!!

p.s. Look forward to IkePri's first story event (split into part 1 & 2) featuring all 10 suitors and in this SE, everyone has epilogues as lovers! 💕

Note: It seems IkePri EN are localizing True Love End as "Romantic End" and "Passionate Love End" as "Dramatic End"

#ikepri #ikemen prince #イケメン王子 #cybird #ikemen series #cybird ikemen series

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers: May 15th Part 2

And here’s the next part of the long answer set of the day!

When will OL: N&F take place? Beginnings and Always took place during summer breaks, will now and forever take place during a fall break or will the characters be going to school at the time of the events we play through? 

It takes place over all of the fall season, so school will be happening in OL2. Some events do take place in school, though many times events only start after school is already out for the day, haha.

Hey!! I have kind of a weird question?? I’m sorry if it’s been answered before and I just haven’t seen it but is OL 2 taking place during the same years as OL 1? I’m just curious, thank you for such amazing games!!! 

It’s a similar time frame, but not 100% exactly same.

Do you have any idea when the demo for now and forever will be available? 

Hopefully this fall! But that’s not a guarantee.

Okay the crime show in Step 2: Growing up. Long blonde hair, police station, crime series? Was it The Closer? Because I’m the same age as MC and Cove and my mom was constantly watching that when I was 13. 😂 

Haha, yeah! The Closer and, to a lesser degree, Medium were the kind of shows I was referencing there. My mom also used to watch those back in the day.

Hey um this might be an odd question but if the setting of OL: N&F is  fall/autumn, what country or city will it take because my mind tells me it is either Poland or Canada. Also I can't wait for the game I am hyped 

It’s set in the USA again. We’d like to be able to have cameos and that’s easiest to do if the OL games take place in the same country.

Is it possible for the PC of OL to have non-seriously dated other people in the in between years even if they’ve had a consistent crush on Cove? 

You can causally date Baxter in Step 3 if you get his DLC and then ultimately choose Cove in Step 4. If you mean off-screen people, it doesn’t really come up, but you can certainly headcanon that. The game never says Cove is the only partner you’ve ever had.

Is there going to be a Kickstarter for Now and Forever as well? For like voiced names and stuff again? Didn’t find B&A until after it was released and I’d really love the opportunity to hear my name in the game 🥺 

Yeah, we are gonna have a Kickstarter with getting a voiced name as a reward! Though, it will be more expensive than it was for OL1. I feel bad to raise the price but we realized too late the first time around that it was being super undersold for the amount of work it took, aha.

Do you know how much the remaining DLC for OL will cost? (Step 4, Derek, Baxter) 

Step 4: Free

Wedding DLC: $2.99USD

Derek DLC: $4.99USD

 Baxter DLC: $4.99USD

Has an artist for the new position been picked yet?! I'm super excited for the new game! 

We did fill that spot. Thank you so much for taking the time to apply!

hmmm what would it take to get each of the XOXO jerk squad to feel the need to hug you? 

They’d have to first like you a fair amount, otherwise the most you’d get is maybe a pat on the shoulder. If they were attached, they might hug you if you broke down crying or if you gave them super good news.

Unless it’s Shiloh, of course. If you want a hug you only have to ask!

May i ask how the Derek DLC will work? I believe that there aren’t any memories in step 4 and doesnt derek’s dlc take place during that step? So will the dlc add memories? Thank you! 

Derek’s DLC will add five Moments to Step 2 (a new page will appear on that screen if you get the DLC). Then in Step 4 you’ll have to choose between playing the default epilogue or going through the Derek romance story.

Is the pc version on itch,io different from the steam version? Like an offline one or something? 

Steam has achievements, but that’s about it. Both can be played offline, if you prefer.

I've been wondering this for awhile, what determines if cove winds up with a ponytail in step 3? I've done multiple runs with different MCs with varying hairstyles. Or does it have to do with a particular moment in step 2? 

I’m afraid I can’t say exact choices that determine things. But generally it’s preference based options in the Step before that decide those things.

Any Floret Bond updates? 

No, the artist had to leave the project and it’s been on-hold. I’m not sure if I want to try working just with what we have or replacing it all entirely. The design is a bit too specific for us to easily find someone who could mimic it. Hopefully we’ll work things out later, though.

In step 3 is Cove's plan always to stay in sunset bird? 

Yeah. He is never ready at 18-years-old to make a big life change.

I love your content! If it's alright to ask, you answered in a previous ask about how Jeremy was too particular with what he likes his types to be romanceable with just any MC and it's sort of got me wondering.. What /are/ his types and/or preferences and such? Sorry if it's a lot! 

Jeremy likes stubborn jerks and will not date someone who’s sweet or even generally a decent person, haha.

uh, excuse me if you said this somewhere before, but how will step 4 be actually? Will it he like an actual step and have moments and dlc and all? Or will it be more like a long epilogue of some sort?

Will the step 4, the wedding and extra routes dlcs be paid too? Im just confused, sorry if im asking too much

Step 4 is only an epilogue, so it’s just a long series of scenes one after the other rather than a collection of Moments you can choose from.

The Step 4 epilogue is free, the wedding DLC, Derek DLC, and Baxter DLC cost money.

i’m not sure how much of the wedding dlc you have planned already, or if this would be to spoilery, but what kind of wedding traditions will be included? i keep thinking about how flustered cove would get over a garter toss & was wondering if we’d see a scene like that haha. obviously no worries if it’s not included, i’ll enjoy literally anything cove related 

I don’t know for sure yet, haha. Right now we’re focused on the parts before the big day. We’ll see how many scene alterations we can include for the wedding itself later on.

Hello! Firstly, thank you for creating such an amazing game like OL, and I couldn’t be more excited for OL2! Out of curiosity, are you looking for any writers to come on for OL2 or are you all pretty much set in that department? Just thought I’d shoot my shot haha but I’m still excited regardless ^^! 

We will be hiring writers for OL2 later this year! Thank you for the interest.

Will we be blessed with a spin-off Yandere Cove, like XOXO Blood Droplets? 

Sadly, no. It’s a shame but there’s not enough time to keep making OL1 bonus/spin-off content.

How is Q pronounced?

I’m afraid Q’s full name hasn’t been publicly announced yet so I can’t answer here (Q and T are the first letters of the names for the new LIs in Our Life: Now & Forever).

Question; is the steam version getting a Mac update?  I purchased the dlc there thinking it had Mac support without realizing it and just wondered if I’d need to refund it to purchase on itch.io 😭 

I’m really sorry, you will need to get a refund from Steam. We do hope to have it there for Steam eventually, but have no idea of when it’ll happen. Apple requires special notarization to be an officially accepted app for their devices. We don’t have that. Steam requires having that, Itch will let you release it as an non-notarized third party app. That’s why Itch is the only place that has the Mac version right now.

would you mind posting outfit sheets for Cove in every step? it would make things a lot easier for us artists. it would save a lot of time spent looking for references 

I think we did do the earlier steps when they were finished way back in 2019 (this game took a long time to make, aha), but we can probably repost them sometime!

In our life n&f, will we be able to get into qprs/will there be more options in regards to having deep platonic relationships with the love interests? Because as an aroace individual, it would be great if there could also be emphasis on platonic love so that it's more aspec inclusive. 

It’s a little hard to say at this point. There may not be things like a wedding DLC for OL2 and so the relationship for platonic and romantic feelings might not go as far as it did in the first game. We’ll kind of have to see how much we can do based on timeframe/budget constraints that will only be set near the end of the year. But we will be keeping things like that in mind at least.

hi! i really really like your game and im absolutely in love with it! i cant wait to try your other games like xoxo droplet and future OL NF :))

during the step 3 erands moment i got curious, which fudge flavor is his favorite? it seems like he likes all of them, but which 4 do you think he would like best?

also i noticed that in some playthroughs cove would let me give him a piggy back ride, and in some he wouldn't, how come?

how does your choices affect cove's interests or looks? i replayed the game without changing any choices but i got cove to look different, is it just random?

thank you!

Cove’s favorite flavors are ones with nuts and that are fruity! But he appreciates them all. Whether or not you can give him a piggyback ride depends on if your MC is fit/large enough to hold a muscular 6-foot-tall beach boy, haha.

Cove’s appearance does depend on choices and it’s generally tied to choices that are preference based rather than emotion/action based, such as which key chain you pick in Step 1.

Is it possible for cove to reject MC's proposal at the end of step 3? 

Nope. He’ll always accept.

hi! i was wondering how heavily the side characters will be featured in the our life wedding dlc? obviously it'll be cove & mc focused, but i was thinking it'd be sweet if we could take lizzie dress / suit shopping or dance with cliff at the wedding or something. 

The side characters are there about as often as they are in normal events. So, it’s clearly focused on Cove but he’s not the only person you have any meaningful moments with.

When will responses be sent out to applicants? 

I’m afraid we don’t send responses out to all applications, only ones we’re interested in offering the position to. Not everyone likes rejection emails and the amount of applications is too high to contact them all to say we’re not hiring them. We post updates on the job page when a position has news. Right now we’ve filled every role that was open.

Is there also going to be the option to keep your relationships with the love interests platonic in Our Life: Now and Forever? That's something I really appreciate in Our Life: Beginnings and Always

Yeah! OL will never force you to end up in a romantic relationship with someone.

I was wondering, in the Step 3 Happiness moment, what are the different fishes Cove can compare MC to? I got "you'd be a paradise fish, because being with you is paradise," but my friend got "you'd be an angelfish." Are there more variations? 

He says paradise fish if you’re a couple, angelfish if he’s just crushing, and then a royal dottyback/queenfish/emperor tetra (based on your gender) if he likes the MC platonicly.

Hello! So, in one of the Step 3 DLCs, Cove's arm was gone. I think it was to show him putting his arm behind his back. But if that wasn't the case, did it get yeeted? 

Thanks for letting us know. That was an error we tried to fix a little while back. When did you make the save file you were playing? If it was older that might be why it happened. Or maybe the error wasn’t fully fixed after all.

Asking for your opinion, but do you think Cove would at all be into ABBA? Because all I could imagine during the car trip in step 3 was him and the MC belting to Mamma Mia. 

Haha, yeah, there’d definitely be some ABBA songs he was into.

So throughout the game, Cove can develop different interests depending on the player’s choices; does this mean that he can have different careers in Step 4? Or his is line of work in adulthood never mentioned at all? 

He can have different career paths in Step 4!

Hi!! I'm so so sorry if this has been asked before but I just acquired knowledge about the so famous nsfw dlc for OL and nearly chocked on my bubblegum 💀💀💀 So, my real inquiry is if that specific moment will have any kind of impact at some point of the fourth step OR if it will just be treated as a side-story-ish “what if” scenario.Also, is there any chance there'll be something similar for Step 4? Haha jk,,, unless 😳Questions apart let me thank you profoundly for making the best visual novel I've ever played 😭 Really really looking forward the epilogue and OL2 💕 Have a nice day 

It’s just a bonus side story that’s fully separate from the main game.

It would be nice to have one for Step 4 too, but I sadly don’t see us having time to actually do it. I don’t know, if people are still asking for more OL1 content several months from now it might be doable and worth doing.

I'd just like to ask, when is Baxter's birthday :0 -- I'm really curious esp with their zodiac signs so ;w; 

I don’t know, haha. Maybe I’ll come up with one someday.

Please help!! I bought the Step 3 DLC but I still have no idea how to get to where you can propose to Cove - any tips? 

&

How do I get the option to propose to Cove at the end of the game?

You can click HERE for a discussion on that.

I love that Miranda and Terry are getting together! I'm curious if you have canon sexualities for them? Also just wanted to say how much I love OL and how much joy it brings me everytime I play it <3 

Terry likes ladies and Miranda likes dudes!

ngl Step 4 Terry's design reads like y'all see trans guys as their assigned gender more than you see them as men to me (a trans guy)... like maybe if he isn't heavily dysphoric, I could see it, but everything you've said about him doesn't line up with that. Even then, immediate warning bells go off in my head looking at him. I wouldn't have touched the game if I saw him ahead of time.

I’m sorry you aren’t comfortable with the way the design looks. The situation with Terry is that he’s now open about who he is, but the body he was born with is still physically the same. He only came out recently as an adult and hasn’t gone through any treatments/procedures yet (his chest is flatter because he wears a binder). However, even though his body hasn’t transitioned at the point Step 4 happens, no one treats him as anything other than the guy he is. Having a trans character who’s identity is supported/respected from the start is what we’re going for in this case. But what we’re doing with Terry isn’t the only trans content we’ve ever had/ever will have in the future.

how would baxter react to bae pyoun and vice versa? and can you please detailly explain both love interests personalities from our life 2: now and forever? i was just curious, sorry for dumb question!! 

I imagine it’d be pretty opposite experiences, haha. Bae would initially think Baxter is pushy and thoughtless, but would quickly realize, oh, he’s instead a soft, considerate boy. Very cute. Baxter would first be struck with the impression that Bae is charming and gentlemanly, but then would realize that, no, he’s a sarcastic asshole. And I’m afraid we can’t reveal the personalities for the next game yet.

Sorry if you've already answered this, but I have a question about the patreon exclusive moment you're working on. I was wondering if it's mainly going to be CGs or if it's mostly character sprites + backgrounds with some CGs.

Either way, thank you for doing the Lord's work and not only making Cove, but making this bonus moment as well 😌😌😌

It’s mostly sprites/backgrounds with two CGs!

—– —– —– —–

Thank you again for the interesting questions everyone :D

We released a new FAQ! It answers common questions and we’ll keep adding more to it. Please check there before sending an ask. FAQ   Also, if you prefer to just see the main posts without all the asks/reblogs, feel free to follow our side account instead: GB Patch Updates Blog

#our life #Our Life Beginnings & Always #Our Life: Now & Forever #xoxo droplets #ask #gb patch #gb patch games

[baoshan-sanren]

Part 21 - Epilogue? Epilogue.

“How To Communicate With Your Husband: A Narrative in Many Parts by Lan XiChen and Nie MingJue”

pt.1 here | pt.2 here | pt.3 here | pt.4 here | pt.5 here | pt.6 here | pt.7 here | pt.8 here | pt.9 here | pt.10 here | pt.11 here | pt.12 here | pt.13 here | pt.14 here | pt.15 here | pt.16 here | pt.17 here | pt.18 here | pt.19 here | pt.20 here

The Conference takes three days to wind down, despite the fact that the Chief Cultivator is chosen by the end of the first day. 

The margin is narrow, but the elders carry a voice as well, and majority of them, unsurprisingly, side with MeiLing’s preference. MingJue thinks they will not soon forget the sight of her storming down the Nightless City halls with a saber in her hand, looking for something to fight, and would rather agree with her, than find out all the ways in which she means to retaliate.

In the end, it is three votes more in favor of Madam Yu, and she takes the Chief Cultivator seat calmly, as if she had expected nothing less. MingJue would have been happy to leave at that point, not caring much for any other complaints the rest of them may have, but the first issue brought forwards is the issue of the Wen Sect.

Jin GuangShan could not secure the title of His Excellency, and has obviously come prepared to make at least some people as unhappy as he is. He does not say it outright, that the Nie Sect is harboring the Wen remnants, but he talks in circles enough where more than half of the sect leaders turn nervous, and insist on knowing the truth.

MingJue has already made his peace with fighting another battle if needs be, and has no intention of yielding. He stands up, and calmly proclaims that the people currently residing in the Unclean Realm are, in fact, a branch of the Nie Sect from HeJian, seeking refuge from the war.

Jin GuangShan can hardly wait for him to finish speaking, before he is jumping back up, “See! It is a lie! There is no branch of Nie Sect in HeJian! There never has been!”

Sitting a step below MingJue, MeiLing clears her throat loudly, effectively cutting off the murmurs around the hall.

“Sect Leader Jin is remarkably well-informed. Pity he does not keep track of his own offspring with the same level of concern.”

Hush falls at her words, and Jin GunagShan slowly turns purple, his mouth working, but no words being formed.

“Lady Nie,” Jin ZiHan says, “We had agreed to keep this discussion civil.”

“Was I uncivil?” MeiLing says, her eyes widening, “I only thought I should speak plainly. Jin GuangShan can whore around as much as he pleases, that is for his wife to worry about. But I do believe that I have the right to question the location of his offspring, if he insists on questioning the location of mine.”

Another murmur goes up, now both Jin GuangShan and Jin ZiHan wearing the same shade of purple on their face, and MingJue does not know if he wants to laugh or cry. On the other side of him, XiChen is still cool and collected, although both his hands are tightly clasped in his lap. But on XiChen’s right, HuaiSang’s entire head is hidden by his fan, and he is laughing soundlessly, his shoulders shaking in mirth.

“Lady Nie,” Jiang YuXuan says carefully, “You have never married.”

“I am old, A-Xuan, not feeble,” she says, “A woman has never needed a husband to have a child. Or three.”

‘This is preposterous,” Jin ZiHun finally finds his voice, “You expect us to believe that you-- that you had--“

“Multiple children out of wedlock?” MeiLing says sweetly, and HuaiSang starts to sound as if he is choking.

“You are saying that the Nie branch from HeJian are your descendants,” Lan XiaoChun says calmly.

MingJue thinks he likes this man well enough, even if he is a Lan Elder. In the entire hall, he is the only one who does not look ready to swallow his tongue.

“Yes,” MeiLing says, “Illegitimate, of course, but I gave my sons the Nie name, as is my right, and they in turn, passed it to their many children and grandchildren.”

“And great-grandchildren,” Wen Qing says softly, from her place at MeiLing’s back.

“Quite correct, my dear,” MeiLing smiles up at her, “And great-grandchildren. How large is the HeJian Nie branch now? Remind me.”

“Fifty-six members,” Wen Qing responds promptly.

“Ridiculous! Ridiculous!” Jin GuangShan exclaims, “This is all nonsense! They are part of the Wen Sect, all of them!”

“Sect Leader Jin,” Jiang YuXuan says, “Do you have any proof?”

“I do not need proof! They are Wen!”

“That is enough,” Madame Yu says firmly, “This discussion has gone on long enough. Nie Qing had arrived at the Nightless City with the rest of the Nie Sect, as their healer. Her skills have saved dozens of men from every Sect. My own son is alive today because of her, and I will not have accusations thrown around without proof. Sect Leader Jin, sit down. We have many other matters to discuss, unless you mean to spend the winter in the Nightless City.”

Jin GuangShan’s color truly does not look healthy any more, and MingJue is afraid that the man means to drop dead in the middle of the hall. It would be no great loss to the cultivation world at large, but it would keep them all here at least another day, and he would very much like to leave the Nightless City for good.

“That is settled then,” Madam Yu says, “The QiShan farmland west of YueYang is next on the list. Sect Leader Yue, what do you propose to do?”

And just like that they are moving on, as if nothing of importance had happened. MingJue glances over to find XiChen smiling at him brightly, and feels his heart skip a beat at the sight. He thinks he will never get used to those smiles, as long as he lives.

“NaiNai,” he hears Wen Qing say softly, “Would you like a cup of tea?”

“I would love some,” MeiLing sighs, “Fetch one for yourself as well.”

--

It is only as they are traveling back to QingHe that MingJue starts to wonder if perhaps, it had all gone off a bit too smoothly.

They are riding back, taking their time, as XiChen should not exert himself by flying yet. Approximately a third of the Nie Sect is riding with them, making a grand post-war procession across YueYang and YingChuan. Wen Qing had warned them to limit the riding as well, no more that six hours at a time, and although at this rate, it will take many days to reach QingHe, MingJue does not mind.

It feels very much like the trip they never got to take after their wedding, the one that was to take them back to Cloud Recesses. Although postponed once due to the war, Lan WangJi’s own wedding is to take place within a month, and MingJue supposes another trip must be planned, almost as soon as they arrive home. In the meantime, he enjoys having XiChen all to himself, for the first time since their wedding day. Their nights are spent in small inns, eating questionable spices and sharing cramped beds, and MingJue thinks he has never been happier in his life.

But he cannot help circling back to the events at the Conference, although he tries his hardest to put them out of his mind.

“Do you not think Madam Yu was too lenient?” he says, out of the blue one day, as they are half-way across YingChuan.

XiChen, who had been riding silently by his side, looks startled by the question.

“I am glad, of course, that it was all so easily settled,” MingJue adds, “But for her not to question MeiLing’s story seems... unlike her.”

It is the nicest way he can refer to a woman that he still wants to grab by the neck, and shake her vigorously for the entire Wen Chao incident, but he is trying. Heavens help him, he is trying.

“Ah,” XiChen says, smiling, “This has been bothering you for some time. I had wondered.”

“Was it obvious I was bothered by it? You did not ask.”

XiChen looks down at his hands, smile slipping away, and MingJue immediately regrets his words.

“You are always entitled to ask for my thoughts,” MingJue says, “but never obligated to do so. That was not a chastisement, do not take it as such.”

“I know,” XiChen says, “It-- it does not come naturally, this. I have learned long ago not to question unspoken things, and must unlearn it now. It will take time.”

He lifts his head, and smiles, something mischievous in the curve of his lips, “My husband should indulge me, and say things more often, without having to be asked.”

“You--“ MingJue says, spluttering, “I offer understanding, and get chastised in turn.”

“My husband is very understanding,” XiChen says, his meek tone at odds with the smile, “I am eternally grateful.”

MingJue wants to pull him from the horse, toss him on the grass, and kiss him until they are both breathless.

“Madam Yu has her own secret to hide from the other sects,” XiChen goes on, “A much smaller one than ours, but one she would dearly like to protect.”

MingJue perks up, then immediately feels ridiculous. He is no HuaiSang to get excited about other people’s secrets.

“I thought gossip was forbidden,” he says, and XiChen laughs.

“If you do not wish to know--“

“I do. I do wish to know. Tell me.”

XiChen grins, “As it happens, the Jiang Sect has also found a long-lost member of the clan. A cousin of one of the Elders had an illegitimate son, who had a son, who-- well, you are familiar with the method of these things.”

MingJue grunts. He still cannot believe that was the route MeiLing had chosen to take. She is lucky that he is shameless, otherwise he would have never been able to show his face in the cultivation world again.

“This long-lost member of the Jiang clan has a very rare, very particular skill. There has only been one other cultivator in the history with this particular skill, but this man was unfortunately killed by the Violet Spider, when the Nightless City fell.”

“She is hiding the Core-Melting Hand?” MingJue exclaims, and XiChen’s eyes widen.

MingJue can hear the men some distance behind him liven up at hearing the title, and shrinks down, feeling foolish.

“It is a secret,” XiChen hisses, and MingJue rolls his eyes.

Now it all makes sense. She probably did not have a plan when she had decided to spare the man’s life, and MeiLing’s bold strategy must have given her an idea on how to proceed. Still, he is dumbfounded by the revelation, and does not understand why she would risk so much for one man.

“Why?” MingJue says, but XiChen only shrugs.

“I suppose he is a useful weapon to have, for a Chief Cultivator. But MeiLing claims that both Madam Yu and Jiang FengMian seem fond of the man, for whatever reason.”

They are both fond of the man? MingJue does not need to know that. He does not want to think about the Violet Spider and Jiang FengMian both being fond of someone. MingJue does not know what crimes the Core-Melting Hand might have committed in his service to Wen Chao, but in his opinion, spending his life between the Violet Spider and Jiang FengMian is too cruel of a punishment for anyone.

XiChen sighs, “Would my husband think less of me if I insist that we stop for the day? I am very tired, and my back is sore. Perhaps my husband could find an inn with a large bath? One we could both share for a change?”

MingJue nearly swallows his tongue, and covers it up with a slight cough.

“Yes,” he says, “I believe that can be managed.”

“Good,” XiChen smiles sweetly, and rides ahead.

#the untamed #cql #mdzs #nielan #nie mingjue #ficlet #m #arranged marriage pt. 21 #AND THAT'S ALL FOLKS #unless i decide to wrote another 40k of side-pairings lmao #did i fall out of the cliche tree and hit every fic trope branch on the way down #YES #is it self-indulgent AS FUCK #you betcha #THANK YOU ALL FOR READING IT

[chiefnooniensingh]

I Won’t Hesitate (for you) Chapter 12

Chapter 12: What is lost will be found (when the truth hunts you down)

In this chapter: The truth.

A/n:  Oh my god guys. Here we are. I'm so nervous about this chapter because I am equally excited and nervous about your reaction to it! After this, there's only an epilogue left. Enjoy, and please let me know what you thought of it!

As always, a special thanks to Aileen (@acomebackstory), Callie (@callieramics), @hm-arn, @royalshadowhunter, @ladymajavader and May (@merlinss) over on Tumblr for their continued support and cheerleading. I don't know if I would've finished it without you guys!

@hmd23 guessed it, last week's chapter title was from Third Eye Blind again. Congratulations!

Can anyone guess this week's?

Also on: ao3

other chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

January, 1934

Liz Ortecho, now 23 and wise beyond her years, entered the little cabin she had rented, a newspaper clutched in her hand. They were living just outside of New York, trailing a ghost that refused to be found.

They’d travelled all across the country; starting from New Mexico, they went to San Diego, Sacramento and Seattle, travelling north past the Canadian border, even going so far as Calgary, before returning to the States to follow even the smallest hints of Rosa’s killed.

Five years they’d searched. Five years of barely any food, finding work wherever they could, and constant disappointment. They’d built up a steady network of informants, through a mix of bribery, good Samaritanism and flirting, but apparently Rosa’s murderer instilled fear in the hearts of men. Not many were willing to sell him out. Those who were, quickly dropped off the radar after that.

Liz knew she was being watched. She’d seen the shadows in the corner of her eye, the unremarkable cars in her rear-view mirror. She knew, if she ever got truly close, she’d probably end up dead. But she was determined and so were her travel companions. Rosa’s killer needed to be unmasked, taken off the board, or he’d kill again.

“I have news and you’re not going to like it!” Liz announced as she entered the tiny living room. The other two women immediately joined her at the table. Liz smacked down the paper, pointing at a small article, accompanied by a picture.

The immigrant man Sheriff Valenti had had to let go because of lack of proof. Looking fancy and happy, standing next to an absolutely gorgeous blonde young woman. “That’s him,” her friend said, her voice shaking, “that’s Rosa’s killer.”

“I’m pretty sure, too, yes. Sheriff Valenti was never able to get any proof, but…he’s the only suspect we have. Either we cross him off the list or we get the bastard. Either way, we need to find him.” Liz looked at the picture, her face hardening. “And he just made it extremely easy.”

The headline read:  Oil Mogul Noah Bracken (33) and noted event planner Isobel Evans (25) tie the knot in Malibu.

Liz looked up at her companions, who looked back with the same determination on their face. “Alright, call everybody. Michael, Kyle, my dad…” She felt her lips pull into a sardonic smile. “We’re going to plan a murder.”

Maria and Mimi DeLuca nodded, heading off to pack up their stuff and call the cavalry. Maria had grown up with Rosa, had been her best friend for as long as she could remember. Mimi had taken care of Rosa, and Liz when she came along, for years. When news reached them of Rosa’s disappearance, Mimi had wanted to return immediately. Mr DeLuca’s illness prevented that. When Michael called another few weeks later to tell them Rosa’s body had been found, just days after Mr DeLuca’s own passing…something broke in Mrs DeLuca, and she was never the same again.

Both were extremely determined to hunt down and kill the monster who killed that little girl.

Present day, 22nd of October, 9PM

Alex was standing in front of the passengers that had occupied so much of his mind for the past three days. He looked over all of them, and he wondered why he hadn’t seen it before, why he’d missed all the little things that could’ve tipped him off. He wondered if he was getting rusty.

They were all sitting in the dining carriage, their chairs moved to face Alex, who was standing with his back to door. He had always been able to command a room with just his silence, and now, too, people were waiting for him to speak.

“Thank you for coming,” Alex began, his eyes locking with each of them in turn. Isobel Evans, Max Evans, Beth and Arthur Otto, Kyle Vale, Maria and Mimi DeLuca and…Michael Guerin. All of them liars. All of them trying to hide themselves from him. But the jig was up, the curtain had fallen, and Alex could see clearly now. He continued. “I have a decision to make. I need to decide what to tell the police when we arrive in Paris tomorrow. And I was hoping you all could help me.” He saw the surprise on Michael’s face, and most of them exchanged worried and confused looks.

“We all know there was a murder here on this train. I have been working relentlessly to find out who did it, and after three days of hard searching I have narrowed it down to two theories. I will lay out these two theories before you now.”

Several people shifted in their seats, others smoothed down their clothes. Alex couldn’t help a small, half-smile that played around his lips. “My first theory is as follows. In 1920, Noah Bracken kidnapped and killed Rosa Ortecho in revenge over a workplace dispute with her father, Arturo Ortecho.” Alex let his gaze fall on Mr Otto, who blushed and lowered his eyes. “Rosa was loved by many, and her death instilled a rage in the hearts of those who loved her, none more than in the heart of her sister, Liz Ortecho.” His eyes moved over to Beth, whose eyes were already filled with tears. “So, presumably when she turns 18, Liz sets out to find her sister’s murderer, aided by her sister’s best friend Maria, and the latter’s mother and the Ortechos’ former house maid Mimi DeLuca.” Beth, Maria and Mimi all looked at each other uneasily. “Somehow they find out who Rosa’s killer is. Maybe they saw him on a train. Maybe they read about him in a newspaper. It doesn’t really matter how; they find him anyway. So they bring in the cavalry; Rosa’s father, still grieving for his eldest daughter; Kyle Valenti – ” Kyle shifted in his seat but kept his eyes steadily on Alex, though Alex could see the tears forming in them. “ – the son of the Sheriff who tried to find Rosa’s killer and failed, killing himself with shame of it – ”

Alex took a deep breath and turned his eyes on Michael, who looked at him with clear eyes and an expression of love and acceptance on his face. “ – and finally, Michael Guerin, the boy who took care of the Ortecho sisters when he couldn’t take care of himself. Six people, who all loved and adored Rosa, who all wanted to see justice for her death, a justice the system would never give them.”

“Rosa was the brightest star on this planet,” Liz burst out, tears falling freely down her face now. “She was happy when things got tough, when dad had to work long hours, when mom died. She loved and laughed and lived and that monster took her away from this world.”

Alex merely acknowledged this outbreak with a simple bow of his head, then continued. “So they devise a plan. A plan that would bring them justice for Rosa, that would – if carried out properly – help them get away with murder. It soon becomes clear they can’t get close to him. Noah Bracken has transformed himself from illegal immigrant to an oil mogul; rich, powerful and, in almost every sense of the word, untouchable. So they approach his wife. Isobel Bracken, née Evans, who may have already figured out who her husband really is…”

“He had a box,” Isobel whispered, her voice hoarse, her eyes hard and filled with disgust. “A box filled with newspaper clippings and writing. He boasted about killing that poor girl. Kept track of what the police knew. Disappeared when he needed to. I had unknowingly married a monster.” Max put a hand on hers, and she trailed off again.

Alex continued again, as if he had never been interrupted. “Isobel, having figured out who her husband really is, realizes nobody will believe her. Noah Bracken is rich and powerful, surely he would never harm a child? So when Rosa Ortecho’s loved ones show up with half a plan, she knows the only way out is through; she has to kill her husband. She knows someone in the police department of Roswell, someone with access and credibility and skills. Her own brother Max. This is also presumably how the two siblings find their long, lost brother; by planning a murder.”

“I couldn’t believe it when we suddenly were face to face,” Max muttered, glancing towards his brother. “After searching for so long, to find him in the middle of this awful tragedy.”

“So now the group is 8, and they need a plan. A plan that can help them get away with murder. A plan so intricate that even the most brilliant minds would have a hard time finding the truth.”

“Such modesty,” Michael muttered with a small smile, and despite everything, the group chuckled.

Alex smiled, too, but continued. “And then, a window of opportunity. Noah Bracken has a meeting in Istanbul with other big oil companies, and Isobel manages to convince him that they should make this a little holiday. Fly to Istanbul, spend a few days there, and taking the scenic route back; the Orient Express. A little…second honeymoon, as it were. What reason would Noah Bracken have to doubt his loving wife? She’s an exceptional actress and has not once slipped up in her façade of loving him, though she has known, at that point, for a long time. So, they come together to plan the perfect murder.”

Alex started pacing slowly up and down the dining carriage, his leg already twinging, but biting through the pain, nonetheless. He needed to get through it, he needed to know their reactions to his theory. “Isobel has her own income from her business, so she buys out an entire car on the Orient Express, two for her and her husband, and 6 for the remaining group. Michael gets a job at the Compagnie, getting himself stationed aboard the Istanbul-Paris line. There needs to be a minimum appearance of foul play. Coincidences is where they hope to confuse and befuddle anyone who tries to look closer. Simply coincidence that Isobel’s brother is on the train. Simply coincidence that the Ortechos’ house maid and her daughter are on board. Coincidences hide facts more completely than people think. This group of avengers realize this.” Alex looked at all of them in turn. Liz was still silently crying, with her head on her father’s shoulder, who in his turn looked stricken, almost sick. Mimi and Maria were sitting straight-backed, staring right at him, almost challenging him to continue. Kyle stared at his hands. Michael merely looked at Alex, an expression of pure wonder and awe on his face.

It almost made Alex falter.

“They needed a weapon that would also be a coincidence. The knife Michael always carried with him, because it reminded him of his first great love.” They locked eyes and for the first time, a single tear escaped Michael’s eyes. Alex’s heart ached. “And so they plan, first finding the perfect time to commit the murder. Kyle has medical training, and he knows that cold decreases body temperature faster than usual. So the time of death needs to be when the train passes through the coldest regions; the Alps. The decreased body temperature will not only throw off the time of death to a time that coincides with a brief stop and will provide alibis for them all. For who is awake at 3 the morning? Isobel starts taking sleep medication, weeks, maybe even months in advance, complaining of insomnia to her doctor who is fooled – again, she is a terrific actress – so that she cannot be the murderer; she was asleep, heavily medicated, so how could she possibly have killed her husband?”

Alex stopped for a moment to prop himself up on a table, unable to take the twinge in his leg any longer. “And so, on the morning of the 19th of October, 6 seemingly random people board the Orient Express, pretending not to know each other, knowing they are stepping into a closed environment with a murderer. In the evening, either Isobel or Michael put a sedative in Noah Bracken’s evening tea.”

“I did that,” Isobel said, her voice strong. She looked hardened and sure of herself, a stark comparison to the shocked and traumatized girl Alex had seen that first morning. “Michael brought the tea, but I put the Barbital in his drink. I knew if he woke up at any point, he would be able to fight back and win. He was a terrifying man, Mr Manes.”

Alex inclined his head. “At 4AM that night, everybody sneaks towards the Brackens’ cabin. Every one of these people has a reason to want Noah Bracken dead. So instead of just one person committing this murder, the knife Michael brought exchanges hands. This has the added benefit of thoroughly confusing any coroner examining the body, because not one of the stab wounds has the same depth and patterns. So every single one of the hurt and grieving people takes a stab at Noah Bracken’s chest, ending his life like he ended Rosa’s, justice finally done, Rosa’s spirit finally at peace.” Alex took a breath, examining the faces of the people in front of him. Liz and Arturo were quietly sobbing, Max holding Liz’s hand tightly. Michael’s face was wet as well, but a small smile played around his lips, too. Kyle was white as a sheet, his face taut with emotion. Maria and Mimi were holding each other’s hands tightly, their knuckles turning white. Isobel just stared at Alex, an open challenge. Alex let them all absorb the information he had laid out so far.

After a minute or two, he cleared his throat. “Now there was one thing none of them counted on. Passenger number nine. The unknown variable. I believe they tried to fill it with someone they trusted, a Miss Cameron. But she never showed up, so the cabin was given to a man who had already tried to get a ticket to Paris, but failed. Me. When the group realized a renowned private detective had somehow gotten aboard the train and straight into their meticulously planned out murder, I believe they panicked. Maybe they tried to blow the whole plan off, to try again at a later date. But they knew this was their one shot. So they went through with the plan. I think Michael was supposed to be my distraction, an actual coincidence that we had known each other in a previous life. He’d always been rather good at that, and maybe he was supposed to be that again. And it worked. For a while.”

“In the end, it was you who distracted me,” Michael said, with a shrug. “Long enough to understand that you are more important to me than anything in this world.”

Alex’s heart twisted in the best way, but he ignored it and continued on. “The group tried everything to throw sand in my face. The fake identification papers were a stroke of brilliance. The broken timeclock. Even stabbing Liz. I presume that was your doing, doctor Valenti.” Kyle inclined his head. “I still don’t understand the placement of the half-burned newspaper clipping, though – ”

“ – that was Noah’s doing,” Isobel interrupted, shrugging. “When he realized you were on board, he burned all his memorabilia he always carried with him, so you couldn’t inadvertently catch him. You scared him, Mr Manes. And my husband didn’t scare easy.” She gave him an impressed smile.

Alex inclined his head towards her slightly. “In the end, I realized I should’ve seen it before. Should’ve realized who each and every one of you was. I think Michael’s distraction worked beautifully. If only it had worked a little longer.” He let a silence fall, the group digesting Alex’s words slowly. Michael reached over and squeezed Alex’s hand. Alex squeezed back.

The silence stretched between them all, as each tried to compose themselves. After a few minutes, when even Kyle had lifted his head to look Alex in the eye again, Alex pushed himself off the table and went back to the middle of the room, facing all of them. “It’s the most plausible theory I have, it is true. But it is not bulletproof. While I have uncovered every identity, I have not a single shred of proof.”

“You said you had another theory?” Michael said, sharpest of them all, the love of his life, and Alex smiled.

“I do. After I lay out this theory, each and every one of us is going to have to make a choice. A choice that we will have to live with, one way or another.”

“Share it with us, Alex,’ Liz said, wiping her nose on her sleeve and looking up at him, trust in her eyes. She trusted him still, after all this.

Alex inclined his head. “Noah Bracken was murdered at 3AM when we were stopped in Vinkovci. An unknown assassin slipped on board this train while the conductor was making his scheduled telephone call, killed Noah Bracken in his sleep and locked the door to incriminate his sleeping wife. Then he slipped out through the window, which he left open, and disappeared into the night.”

A stunned silence fell in the dining carriage. Everyone was staring at Alex, then at each other and then back at Alex. Alex knew it was the simplest theory of all the ones he’d run through his head, and the one that had the least chance of ever being proven wrong. “Are you…are you serious?” Isobel said, leaning forward and staring up at Alex. “That’s…that’s your other theory? After you spend 20 minutes explaining your first one?”

“The simplest theories are often the truest, Ms Evans,” Alex said with a small smile that made Michael chuckle. “Every investigator knows this.”

“But in this case…” Liz started, but Alex held up a hand.

“In this case, I am faced with a choice. A choice of what I will tell the French police that will be waiting for me in Paris. If I choose option 1, you will all go to trial for murder. You may get off, since the theory I have is merely a theory. But your lives as you know it will be over. I will have to live with putting the man I love and good people to whom bad things have happened, behind bars.” Alex swallowed thickly. “If I choose option 2, you all walk away from this, and we will all have to live the rest of our lives knowing the truth. You will have to live with blood on your hands. And I will have to live with letting murderers walk free.”

Alex put his hands in his pockets as he looked at all of them. They were all looking at him, scared, afraid of his judgement, of his choice. But Alex shook his head. “I cannot make this decision alone. This is going to affect all of us. So we are all going to make a choice. And whatever we decide, that decision will haunt us for the rest of our lives.”

A stunned silence followed that. Alex looked at them all in turn, ending on Michael’s face which was filled with love and hurt and fear, mixed with just a tiny hint of pride.

“So,” Alex said, “what’s it going to be?”

#malex #malex ff #rnm ff #malex fanfic #roswell new mexico #Alex Manes #Michael Guerin #a disaster bi and a chaotic gay #what could go wrong #otp:I Don't Look Away #my fanfics #my rnm ff #my malex ff #motoe au

[lickthatbattery]

dirk ascending toward Ultimate Self destroyed the barriers between him and his splinters, causing them to reintegrate into the dirk-shaped narrative voice present in Meat. villainy is NOT an inevitable truth of dirk strider.

he's fashioned himself into villain (by his own admission!) by forcing himself into narrative importance because he's scared of irrelevance and powerlessness. he's grabbing the story by the horns in an attempt to steady himself in the face of impending unimportance. it's bad.

ultimately, dirks of all flavors, and all dirk-flavored things, want to be important and in control. we see this in Meat, we see this in doc scratch, we see this in bro. they force themselves into a place in the story you can't ignore. too often at the expense of others.

he's the way he is right now because having Ascended to... like, "meta-tier" lets say, is Destroying Self on the narrative scale. not just the Self of others, but the boundaries between his original Self and every one of his splinters. like davebot expresses, but heart-ways.

dirk fixes things, problems. he's a mechanic, a machinist, undoubtedly a perfectionist. crucial to his growth as a person, to *not* becoming Meat or bro or whoever else, to reach his best self? learning to let other people take the reins. letting things be just okay, not perfect.

meat!dirk is the dirk that doesn't do this. candy!dirk sees no point in trying, because he's meat!dirk up until john decides to stay. this is one instance of who he is, who he could be. it is not emblematic of his fundamental truth.

everyone on earth c in either route at some point expresses some dissatisfaction or dissonance with being where they are, and it's because none of them did much of anything after arriving. this is what sours both ends. they plopped down, and tried to continue living as is, mostly

terezi knows this. she and john can most readily admit that this isn't home. it doesn't feel right. there's too much unfinished business, and too many things that haven't been said. the events of this epilogue only exist because key players didn't bother finishing their arcs.

back to meat!dirk. he concocts this whole grand plan as a last-ditch effort to try and restore his own relevance, because he's not done being canon yet. rose is along for the ride because she is useful, and as callie notes, he's terrified at the idea of being alone.

he's fine puppeting along people he's supposed to care about as a means to an end, if the end means there's more of a story to tell. he's already won in that respect, to a certain degree. which sucks. c'est la vie. but this is only an option to him bc of a lack of personal growth

23 years old and he never came to the realization that maybe, just maybe stuff would be okay if left alone. a lot of our cast can be horrifically dense at times, but, jeez. i know it's no one's *job* to facilitate his character arc, but someone ought to knock some sense into him.

it's nearly 2:30 AM so I'm going to wrap this up here but the ideal dirk, the dirk who does not become a weird puppeteer-machinist-metavillain is one who is okay with the idea of things not being perfect, and not in his control. take a page out of candy!rose's book perhaps.

in conclusion. narrative villainy is the natural path of a meta-tier dirk who has not gotten his head out of his ass. a dirk who has grown as a person would have come to terms with the idea of leaving the spotlight, and try to kickstart another sburb session to stay relevant.

#homestuck #homestuck epilogue #upd8 spoilers #homestuck spoilers #meat or candy #dirk strider #homestuck epilogues #ask to tag ? #put this mess on twitter so here it is too

[ikevampeventarchive]

[Event Info-SE] Once Again, I Will Fall In Love With You ~ Pt. 2

Event Overview:

The second part of the 2nd Anniversary Story Event, [Once Again, I Will Fall In Love With You], is here! It’s certainly shaping up to be a busy month of July for IkeVamp, with events being released left and right. Not to forget, IkeVamp JP Anniversary on July 31st!

We’ve also hit our 200 Followers milestone, so please look forward to those bonuses being released as soon as we’re able to finish them. ^^

Announcement: 22 July 2019 | Duration: 25 July (4:00 PM JST) ~ 6 August 2019 (9:00 PM JST)

What awaits you, who happily lived out your life till the end in 19th century France, is a reunion with him in the current era. However, you seem to have lost your memory….? Part 2 will be a reunion with him in modern day France—

—From IkeVamp Twitter.

[This is an unofficial work based on fan-translation. Copyright belongs to Cybird.] 

Warning: Spoilers Below

Prologue:

—Unknown memories, a forgotten promise. Led by fate that transcends time, once again I fall in love with “you”….—

(..Ah, this dream again.)

—Ever since I was a child, I’ve seen this dream countless times. In a mansion hidden deep within the forest, a place that I do not know, I spent my days with “those men”….—

**(Napoleon): (yawning)….’Morning, MC. You prepared breakfast for me? Thank you.

(—….You’re calling my name in such a familiar way. Who are you?)

(Mozart): While I was gazing at the sunrise this morning, a new melody formed in my mind.

(Jeanne): It’s a good song. When I listen to your piano, it calms my heart like magic. MC, you think the same, right?

(Mozart): Ha…My first audience will be you and MC. Make sure to stay and listen ‘till the end.

(Even though this scenery should all be unknown to me, but somehow, they feel painfully familiar…)

(Dazai): How about it, Miss Toshiko? Won’t you partake in an apple as well?

(Isaac): I’ve told you already, stop mentioning apples!

(Arthur): This again? It seems like you never learn— You agree of course, MC?

(Even though this is a dream, it feels just like reality—)

(Theo): Hey, MC. Why is he here?

(Shakespeare): My, “he” is a bit cruel, isn’t it. I am here because your older brother invited me so.

(Vincent): I wanted to have tea with everyone, so I invited Will, but… MC, did I mess up?

(Theo): That’s not….you didn’t do anything wrong! C’mon join in, Mutt!

(…Every day was lively and fun, repeating over and over.)

(Comte): …Hm, it has a lovely scent. The coffee you served was amazing.

(Leonardo): Making something that even we would praise, cara mia, you’re quite talented, aren’t you? Or is it due to being under the tutelage of a genius butler?

(Sebastian): I would disagree. MC has been extremely quick in picking up everything and assisted me greatly.

(I want to stay here. And I came to wish for it desperately. But…. Dreams will always have an end — it is the inescapable truth of parting.)

???: I love you…MC. …If there is such a thing as being reborn, I will search for you. No matter how long it takes.

(…I’ll wait for you. I will wait for you no matter how long it takes.)

Embracing my beloved’s words in the final moments, I slept for a long, long time…—

Opening my eyes to my ordinary bedroom, I let out a small sigh.

MC: ….What in the world was that dream….?

(The place…was an old, foreign country, and I lived with someone in a large mansion….That’s it. I can’t remember anything else.)

The dream that was so vivid in my mind becomes obscured by mist the moment I open my eyes. But even so, my heartbeat races, and overwhelming feelings of happiness and pain remain.

(In my dreams, I feel like I made an extremely important promise. An important promise, with an important person….who was that person…?)

It was merely a dream, and I’m not sure if there was any meaning held within. But deep down, I had a feeling our meeting was seared into my heart.

** - The nameplate is blank but there are sprites that appear to signal who is talking.

Event Info:

If you’ve been playing other IkeSeries games, Secret Endings are nothing new. For this event, players must first clear the same character’s Sweet End and Premium End consecutively (it doesn’t matter which End is chosen first), and only upon completion of both Ends, will they unlock the Secret End.

There is a Secret End for each route, with the amount of points needed to clear One route, all Ends, is 28,396. Projected Full Clear amount is ~64,000. 

Upon completion of the first end for each route, players will be prompted to buy the Epilogue, with the Epilogue bonus being the speech bubble accessory item shown below.

Visit the links below for ERS (Event Route Summary) of each event route.

Routes: Mozart | Leonardo | Vincent

Fever Schedule

*Time listed in PDT (Pacific Daylight Time) | GMT-7

Battle 2x: 7/25 12:00 AM ~ 7/26 12:00 AM | (24 hrs)

Battle 2x: 7/26 08:00 PM ~ 7/27 02:00 AM | (6 hrs)

Battle 2x: 7/27 04:00 PM ~ 7/28 04:00 AM | (12 hrs)

Battle 2x: 7/30 02:00 AM ~ 7/30 07:59 AM | (5:59 hrs)

Battle 2x: 7/31 02:00 AM ~ 7/31 07:59 AM | (5:59 hrs)

Battle 2x: 8/2 02:00 AM ~ 8/2 07:59 AM | (5:59 hrs)

Battle 2x: 8/2 04:00 PM ~ 8/3 04:00 AM | (12 hrs)

Battle 2x: 8/3 04:00 PM ~ 8/4 07:59 AM | (15:59 hrs) 

Battle 2x: 8/5 08:00 PM ~ 8/6 05:00 AM | (9 hrs) 

Event Rewards

Early Clear Bonuses

Early Clear Bonus Gold: Clear 2 Premium Ends within 24 hours of entering the event.

Get [ Ash Grey Party Hair] (Beauty: 200)

Early Clear Bonus Silver: Clear 3 (All) Premium Ends within 48 hours of entering the event.

Get [Glittering Party Makeup] (Beauty: 200)

Early Secret End Clear Bonus: Clear all Secret Ends by 8/4 at 11:59 PM (248 hrs).

Get [Gorgeous Flower Chandelier] (Beauty: 200)

Early End Clear Bonus: Clear a total of 6 Ends by 7/30 at 11:59 PM (128 hrs).

Get [Gorgeous Party Room Sofa] (Beauty: 200)

Ranking Bonuses

Ranking Bonuses:

Ranks 1 - 100

Sexy Off-Shoulder Party Dress (Beauty: 280)

Mature Sex Appeal Party Suit (Beauty: 260)

Sexy Colored Corsage Ribbon (Beauty: 180)

Diamonds x 50

—

Ranks 101 - 300

Mature Sex Appeal Party Suit (Beauty: 260)

Sexy Colored Corsage Ribbon (Beauty: 180)

Diamonds x 50

—

Ranks 301 - 800

Sexy Colored Corsage Ribbon (Beauty: 180)

Diamonds x 50

—

Ranks 801 - 1500

Diamonds x 50

—

Ranking within the shown borders will also grant you an extra accessory item!

Purchase Bonus

Set Purchase Bonus Present: Purchase the [Event Specialty] Set within 7/25 at 4:00 PM to 7/30 at 11:59 PM and receive [2nd Anniversary Celebration Chibi].

Set Info Post [Link]

Epilogue Bonus

Purchasing the Epilogue will give you these bonus accessory items! 

Mozart: “I’ll definitely make you say ‘I love you,’ so prepare yourself.” 

Leonardo: “In the past, and into the future as well, I’ll always love you, cara mia.” 

Vincent: “I keep falling in love with you. Over and over, hundreds of times.” 

Clear Bonuses

All Clear Bonus: Clear all Ends.

Get [Mansion’s Shining Party Room] (Beauty: 220)

All Premium Clear Bonus: Clear all 3 Premium Ends.

Get [2nd Anniversary Party Ms. Bunny] (Beauty: 200)

Mozart Secret End: Frilled Collar Sexy Cropped Top (Beauty: 60)

Leonardo Secret End: Gorgeous Fringe Sandals (Beauty: 60)

Vincent Secret End: Glittering Frilled Mermaid Skirt (Beauty: 60)

Mozart Premium End: Mature Crossed Ribbon Cuffs (Beauty: 60)

Leonardo Premium End: Sexy Gold Hoop Earrings (Beauty: 60)

Vincent Premium End: Gorgeous Frilled Barrette (Beauty: 60)

Love Point Bonuses

10,000 Points - Closet Space x 2

20,000 Points - Gacha Token x 1

30,000 Points - Closet Space x 2

40,000 Points - Gacha Token x 1

50,000 Points - Closet Space x 2

60,000 Points - Gacha Token x 2

70,000 Points - Closet Space x 4 and [Party Room Candles] (Beauty: 80)

80,000 Points - Gacha Token x 2

90,000 Points - Closet Space x 5 and [Party Room Curtains] (Beauty: 100)

100,000 Points - Gacha Token x 4

—

And that concludes the [Once Again, I Will Fall In Love With You Pt. 2] event! It’s been a very busy July, and a very busy year for Ikevamp so far. Please look forward to the election event coming up as well. 

--- Ikevamp Event Archive Contributors

#ikemen vampire #ikevamp #story event #2nd anniversary #mozart #leonardo #vincent #event info #once again i will fall in love with you #jp ikevamp #july 2019 #august 2019

[snowtimeisbesttime]

Thoughts and questions on Pesterquest Volume 6, routes 1 and 2! Aka the one where shit finally goes down.

-!!!! musics from the homestuck albums!!!! more concretely i'd say they’re from Alterniabound; Gamzee's is MiRaClEs, while I can't for the life of me remember how that Vriska theme was called but it's Good.

~ROUTE 1~

-The question of “does alternian seawater corrode humans (/friends)” is left for another day (considering the acid rain. it probably does corrode humans.)

-Gamzee warms up to MC almost immediately; which actually makes a lot of sense considering... later events.

-Why's his hive so shoddy, by the way? He's in the highest landdweller caste and benefits from the miracle of speedy online deliveries (when back in Hiveswap 1, Xefros mentioned that deliveries for rustbloods could take sweeps- then again Hiveswap (/Friendsim) is a very different time period than Hivebent, and one we'll hopefully learn more about soon!). As far as I remember trolls would have their hives built by carpenter drones very shortly after leaving the Caverns... how long has he been eating those pies again?

-what's the thing about MC that makes everybody go “hmm yes I am going to give Funky Chemical Substances to the alien now”. Seriously by this point I'm expecting Feferi to bust out a 6 pack of Drugs (soda) the second we even see her (as we all know, her mom bought them).

-We also get a pesterquest murderstuck!! Though iirc HS's murderstuck happened because Dave sent Gamzee an ICP video, not just because he ran out of slime pies... and here, he says that someone's been talking to him, and that we'll meet him soon...... (he does go for a lot longer without sopor in pesterquest though...)

(-also like. why wouldn't he get a pie's captcha code and alchemize more on the meteor??? like they had at least one alchemiter... were they too expensive?)

-We got the “okay ending” from that post i made yesterday: clown lore!! As well as our memories of Karako, briefly... he did make MC an honorary clown when he took them with him to the Dark Carnival, didn't he? (There's also the blood initiation (murder) they got in Chahut's bad route... i cant believe mc is double cloun)

-Once they remembered Karako, MC tried to zap to him, and ended up... somewhere nobody was ever supposed to see. A tunnel with a light at the end, where we got to see MC themself in third person and some random humanoid figure T-posing at us (though that was more of an A-pose); before getting zapped back to the main narrative, some time after leaving. ...Might Karako, our most baby clown, be dead when Hivebent happens? Highbloods are supposed to be very long lived, but we don't know just how long has it been since Friendsim's time... and of course, we've already seen him die once :(((.

-wait didn't karako also all but instantly befriend MC? As in, the only route of his that didn't end with friendship was the one where the drone took him...

-Somebody does NOT want MC to get their memories back. We also have more limits here than in Friendsim; if MC opens the mop closet instead of Gamzee, the universe straight up crashes, whereas the last time something like that happened it was more gradual (Boldir & Karako's routes)

-most importantly, we did Not get anything similar to the “cursed ending”, thank fuck.

~ROUTE 2~

-Vriska's good route in a word and several images of crying cats with heart emojis: aaaaaaaAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!

-trans vriska real!!!!

-Of course, we open with a callback to Ardata's route.

-MC manages to miss Vriska doing stuff with dice right in front of them and thinks she means a political campaign, but they're happy to help anyways- and Vriska's definitely happy to explain how FLARP works to them!

-Was that a Nepeta hint??? We know she lives in a cave and it seems that houses are very important focus points for MC's powers... blease let me see my daughter soon (also. when the fuck has vriska been to nepeta's hive??????)

-And we get a sweet sweet FLARP loredump, featuring classes and attributes and Interactivity!!! fuck now i wanna make my fantrolls stats

-The weird shit starts early on in this route- see MC's random reluctance to make more friends, the few monochoices before the route's Actual Big Choice, MC briefly thinking this is the first time they've been to Alternia, the actual literal punching of a hole through the fourth wall when they check out the warnings on the options menu (while vriska just waits for them to finish)...

-We get to give MC an actual name we can see in words! In a route where they explicitly have trouble seeing themselves as a distinct, unique entity...

-Vriska tries to use her powers to control MC and give them Epic Sword Skills- but all she can do to humans is make them fall asleep. (also it says that “the seven red dots of her prosthetic” glow- what prosthetic??? her glasses??? did she have a robot eye all this time???)

-Thanks to that we get to meet again with the Best Troll, Boldir!!! Who also speaks about a he who's fucking shit up here. Her presence in MC's mind (and maybe not only there) also helps us remember our friends, finally. Sadly we're separated by the strings way too soon... and immediately transported back to DS the first's house.

-What will you do? That's STILL the best fucking question anybody's ever asked. MC has the power to direct the narrative now, and what they'll do is FIX THIS.

-Not only do we get explicitly stated out that Spidermom's a piece of shit (as seen in the post i made yesterday), but MC also yeets her into Jade's volcano!!!!!!!! Now all Vriska needs to do is break free from all the boxes society's given her... (while her good route's great, both her bad routes are short and sad...)

-Vriska also joins the list of Trolls Who'd Benefit A Lot From Living In Earth C (As We Imagined It Before The Epilogues And All That), which includes Karkat and of course Daraya, amongst others.

-She looks up to Mindfang the rebel, too........

#pesterquest #homestuck #vriska serket #gamzee makara #pesterquest spoilers #thoughts and questions #so. better late than never huh? orz #timezones whomst #long post #just in case

[thindol]

Fire Emblem Three Houses musing now that I’ve finished 3 of 4 routes (all but Silver Snow though I’ve seen the ending) and I just want to ramble about all the things I keep noticing. Edelgard is really interesting but awful.

Dimitri is also interesting, I appreciated that he stuggles with his trauma, but the path to overcoming it felt unearned and contrived. Somewhat creeped out by the fandom around him. Claude is very fun, as everyone knows, but I don’t see a lot of fandom discussion of his development from “that smile doesn’t reach his eyes” to “I can trust my friends” over the GD route.

And now the spoilers.

Edelgard: She’s a dictator who uses cruel, violent means (including war crimes) in order to overthrow other governments and the church. Her route feels like a fascist propoganda fluff piece, complete with “all of Fodlan was ours, so we deserve to own it all despite the Kingdom and Alliance existing for hundreds of years at this point, nobody has any problems with all the terrible murder and war going on, everything is fine and Edelgard is an inspiring leader.” I wish there’d been more emphasis on Edelgard actually having to justify herself and convince the other students instead of “well, the professor follows Edelgard so I guess we do too.” I really loved how genuinely happy she was to see Byleth again - she the only house leader who finding Byleth really made a difference (aside from in war efforts; yes I know Byleth helps Dimitri but the feel is very different) CF, the route, felt incomplete. At points other routes had full animated cutscenes, CF only gets a CG still - this happens a few times. There’s a point where you’re dumped into a room that exists for one mission and it’s so jarring with how poorly it fits into the narrative. My favorite, however, is Hubert shouting “oh no we need to get out of here”, cut to a black screen with some dragon roaring sounds, and then cut to “well I don’t know how we escaped but thank goodness we did.” Hilariously badly executed. It’s established in other routes that Hubert can teleport Edelgard away, why not have him teleport both Byleth and Edelgard but be exhausted afterwards? Rhea: She’s creeped me out from the beginning, with her weird obsession about Byleth, weird cult-leader way of acting, keeping secrets from her closest advisor and long-time friend (Seteth), and the entire pope thing. I don’t think she’s evil, as she does appear to genuinely seek to spread peace and care for orphans etc, but her obsession with her mother has consumed her, and her attitude at the start of Crimson Flower says a lot for her true motivations. She strikes me as very “human” due to that internal conflict of “who she wants to be” (kind, loving, savior) and “what she really wants” (her mom, at any cost.) I appreciated her “death bed regrets” in BL and GD where she admits she’s been terrible. Her characterization unfortunately feels a bit disjointed between routes, which I think is why there’s so much (very interesting) discussion of whether she’s a haphazard experimenter or a dastardly genius manipulating all the world’s events. (For example, it’s stated in Silver Snow that she gave her blood to the upper ranks of the Church, with the implication it was to empower them to manipulate events in the course of their church duties.) Dimitri: He’s interesting, and I wish there’d been more chances to interact with him. As written, his change of heart after Rodrigue’s somewhat contrived death felt unearned, and I think a few conversations with Byleth beyond “I support you yay” would have helped show his growth. Iit’s somewhat frightening how thirsty folk seem to be for Post-Timeskip Abusive Dimitri. (I just worry about how it intersects with our cultural message of “it doesn’t matter how he treats you just love him enough and you’ll fix him.”) Claude and the Golden Deer route: best described by a quote I read elsewhere: “you’re outsiders to this conflict between two big personalities leading warring nations, trying to navigate your people to survive the war.” He’s also my prime example of why the epilogues should be available like the Support scenes are, because his F!Byleth S rank changes from a bittersweet “I love you, but I have to leave you to pursue my dream” cutscene to “and then I came back as King in my own right and we united two warring countries” in his epilogue. I love the subtle way he goes from being this traumatized “the only hope I have for acceptance is changing the whole world” to “I am cared for and trusted by people I love in turn.” The game really needs a “suggested route order” - Blue Lions felt anticlimactic and missing huge important parts (like the Slithers) after doing Golden Deer first, and I outright pity folks who did Black Eagles first. Do Blue Lions > Golden Deer > Crimson Flower > Silver Snow, just for least spoilers to most spoilers/context.

#fire emblem three houses #FE3H #rambling thoughts

[spnbaby-67]

Craving You Epilogue.

A/N: Hi ya’ll, I have to say sorry again for something so late. this is the end of Craving you and I’m so sad to see it end. it had been a total blast writing it. but this really killed me. I dunno how much I even cried while writing it. you put so much into your characters and to see them go through so much, my heart broke. I know I am a sap, but that’s how i am with my characters. I am a HUGE Jensen fan, and he’s my heart. remember this is for pure fanfiction and should be treated as such. It’s an Alternate Universe world where Jensen is single. I want to thank you all for you amazing comments, anon comments which inspired me to keep going and finishing this series. Please do not copy and save and post on other sites and claim as yours. I don’t do that and I don’t want others doing that. it’s not fair to the original writer. But if you have questions or concerns always inbox me or send me an ask which i never hardly get, and I’ll be happy to talk with you. Please on a side note, this is UNBETA’D because I wanted to get this out to you today. I have other stories i plan to write. Let me know what you think. I forgot to mention that Gaynor @secretlyfurrydragon did have a version as well, i took some of that and added some to. She was a major help with this and without her I couldn’t have finished. She pushed me to no end to finish. Even took the time to beta some. So Thank you Gaynor, your time and considerations are very important to me. Thank you!!!!

Pairing: Jensen Ackles and reader, Bobby Singer mentioned, Mark Sheppard and Mark Peligrino mentioned, Casey from season one route 666 episode mentioned. Jo OFC mentioned. 

Warnings: NONE! 

It’s been three months since I have seen or heard from both Jensen and Jo. Yeah they tried to call me here and there, but I would ignore there calls and text. I just wasn’t ready to hear anything they had to say, because I knew what would come next for them.   For the longest time, I had even  contemplated on calling them. But once I saw there face on my phone, I couldn’t do it. The flashbacks all came back to me twice as hard, that I would immediately close the phone app, then I’d toss it to the side of me sitting there with fresh set of tears. The pain of it all was still to dull, it hurt to breath kind of dull. The deep pressure building in your chest waiting for someone to pop it, kind of dull. It was just too painful and cut like a knife going through your chest.  I lost everyone I cared for in a blink of an eye. If only they were honest with me from the beginning, it would be so bad. Jo of all people, i’m totally surprised by her decisions.

Every time I looked out the window at Starbucks where it all began, tears would fall. I should move. I should definitely move. I can’t tell you how many countless nights that I had cried myself to sleep, because the pain still fresh on my mind. I tried everything i could think of to get over it, but with the bullet wound to my shoulder, and this growing bump; nothing worked. Not even eating ice cream, or watching netflix movies helped. Even that had me crying. I’d get mad or upset when I saw someone else have a happy ending and wonder why I couldn’t. I mean I could if I bit the bullet and let them back into my life, but at the same time pride got in the way stopping me reminding me all over again why i wouldn't make that call.  I just couldn’t take anymore, so I threw the remote to the other side of the couch and decided I needed a walk.

It was evening around 6 pm, the skies were going from a brisk sunny day to a night filled with different colors of blues, pinks, and purples cascading across like a blanket ready to tuck everyone in bed for the night. I smiled at the beautiful artwork God had created, I silently thanked him for letting me live to see the beauty in it and reminding me that life is precious.  The wind blew cool and felt amazing hitting my face. I guess being cooped up inside for so long I forgot what the cool air felt like. I’m glad I brought a  a small shaw with me because of the dull ache in my shoulder, I get when the weather changes like now. I’m thankful there were no permanent damages to my shoulder even though it took longer to heal.  I had to undergo physical therapy and attend classes for emotional trauma while I was recovering. It was ok, I was able to get a lot of things off my chest. Not only the recent happenings, but with my mom passing and the way I was treated growing up. I still continue to go to the classes, it really does help.

Mr. Singer, did save my job for me once I was able to come back. Which was good, because I needed to get back and save money for this little one’s future.  He also gave me a promotion, one that I never thought I’d ever get in my life. I am now Vice President of Singer Inc. He said I deserved it on many accounts and not just because of what had happened recently. Thankfully, he considered other options of my work and appointed accordingly. Otherwise, I doubt I would have taken the promotion based on the events that changed a lot of people’s lives including mine.

Walking across the street to get some hot chocolate, I covered my shoulders with my shawl welcoming the warmth. I squeezed my arms across my chest to shake off the shivers down my back. Remembering a time when I was little and my mom wrapped me in one of her shawls like this one, I sighed and shook my head out of the thoughts only to find myself back where it started. Standing in front of Starbucks, I took a deep breath and went in.

I quickly scanned the area because I know Jensen comes here a lot or did, and I really wasn’t in the mood to see him. Once I seen the coast was clear, I went in further to order my Vanilla Bean Frappuccino. I know I said I wanted hot chocolate, but it never fails I always get my favorite drink.  I ordered, paid and got it from the barista. Turning around to go back home, I swear life played a joke on me again. I looked up and saw Jensen standing there with my Frappuccino squished between us. Deja vu anyone?  

“Hi,” I said looking at him as I grabbed some napkins.

He did the same, “Hi, how are you?” he barely spoke, his voice sounded sad like he’d been crying and you can tell he had been. The look in his eyes were pain filled, red and swollen. His voice was a bit raspy.

“I’m ok, minus a Frappuccino.” I giggled a bit remembering how it started in the first place.

He ordered two drinks, then once we got them he led me over to the table we sat at and things were quiet at first, but I looked at him. “Jensen, I know things have been kind of crazy. I’m still a little pissed, but I missed you so much.” I tried to hold his hand, but he was shaking which I didn’t know if it was from the cold of the drink on his chest or just being around me.

He nodded, “I missed you to, you look great.” he bit his bottom lip almost as if he was scared to say anything. You could tell he lost weight, he was wearing my favorite red long sleeved dress shirt and that even looked big on him.

I slid closer to him, just looking at him made my heart break, did I really hurt him by not talking to him this long? I took my right hand to his cheek and made him look at me. “I love you Jensen, I do. I have not stopped loving you. But what happened was wrong, I know now you did it to protect my company and save me from getting hurt. Could it had been different? Yeah, it could. Could it made a difference if you told me up front who you were? Definitely. I know how to act, and i could have played the part had I known.” subconsciously, I rubbed my thumb on his upper jaw line.

I paused a bit, then sank back into my chair. “Mark Sheppard and Mark Pellegrino had been up my ass for two years now, I know how they operate and how they do things. I knew something was up when they hired Kali, i didn’t know she was fbi but I knew something was going on because she was in Mr. Singer’s office every day. I even knew something was up with Cassie with her attitude, Course, she just better hope she nevers sees me again, because I will punch her in the face for laying her hands on you.” I crossed my legs and took a drink of my frap, the taste going down my throat was amazing. It was like a balm coating the insides of my soar throat that burned.

He looked at me with a faint smile, “Jealous a bit?’

“Noone, and I mean no one lays a hand on my man when i’m around.” I smiled assuring him I still loved him.

He sucked his bottom lip in between his teeth, damn he’s so hot when he does that. “Joking aside,” his voice was still gravely, filled with emotions. “I missed you to, not a day went by that I didn’t wish things were different. I even begged Jo to not put me in this position, she told me that she only wanted the best for her friend, her sister she loved. She wanted someone who would love you unconditionally and be there for you when you eventually found out the truth. I hated lying to you, I did. I’m so sorry you found out the way you did, I’m doubly sorry that you got hurt. A piece of me died when I saw you fall to the ground. It paralyzed me.”

He paused a bit to regain his composure, you could tell he wanted to break down and cry. “There had been many nights that I had laid awake thinking of what and how I could have done it differently. That day in the barn, when you trusted me with the blindfold on your eyes. I should have came clean then, that’s when I fully and truly fell in love with you. Something clicked inside me, telling me she’s the one. I told Jo and Jeff that night that I had to tell you the truth. Jeff told me that if I did tell you, he would have fired me and assigned you to someone who I didn’t trust. I couldn’t let that happen, and against my better judgement it backfired on me.”

I placed my hand on his that was still softly laying on my knee, he closed his eyes a moment,  “Jensen, look at me.”  I said softly.

Just as he opened his eyes, tears fell that he had been holding back. “I never stopped loving you, my heart went through so much and the thought of losing you now, would kill me. Especially, knowing something I know that you don’t.”  I decided now was a good time to tell him he was going to be a dad, because he’s so broken up over this. Just the looks in his eyes, hurt me seeing him this way.

He sighed and looked at me.”I understand if you never want to see me again, I can live with the pain if that’s what you chose, I deserve it --” he paused after realizing I said something different than what he was thinking I was actually saying. “Wait? What do you mean especially knowing something I don’t.”

I took a deep breath, bit my bottom lip, “I’m pregnant Jensen. I’m three and a half months pregnant.” I swallowed hard waiting to the shoe to drop.

He looked like I punched him in the chest, and the breath he was holding back knocked out of him. He blinked his eyes a bit as to gain control of his site from the tears and shock. “W What? p p pregnant? As is your going to have a baby?” His bottom lip was trembling, his hand I was holding shook and his breathing picked up a bit with short breaths in between.

“Jensen, you ok?”  He just continued to stare at me, the look in his face went from sad and dull looking to shock and emotionalist in a blink of an eye. I couldn’t read his expressions, my heart even skipped a few beats. “Jensen, please talk to me. You’re scaring me.”

He coughed a couple of times, to try and even say anything. You could tell this really through him for a loop. He leaned over towards me, took his right hand which at first I thought he was going to slap me. I wouldn’t have blamed him though if he did. But he placed it gently on the nap of my neck and shoulder, then  pulled me closer to him for a kiss that knocked my socks off. Literally.

“As much as I want to continue this,” I said in between kissing him. “I think we need to take this to my apartment.” I pulled away from him and rested my forehead on his.

His eyes were still closed, and I could tell he was happy about the news I gave him. He nodded his head still against my forehead agreeing. “Lets,”  he spoke silently and stood up.

He helped me stand up, we through away our fraps then walked to my apartment arm in arm and close oh so close together. It made the cool breezes a joy to walk in with his warmth radiating between us.

--------

The next couple of days after we had officially gotten back together, I decided that I would talk to Jo. I needed to clear the air and let her know that my life is not of her concern and I knew what I would have done if I had known. She agreed, and said that she was sorry and would not do it again. “Another thing Jo, Jeff telling Jensen he would fire him if he told me the truth. That is what really severally pissed me off. Jeff is going to hear about it when I see him.”

“I understand, and I don’t blame you. Look Y/N, I am truly sorry for everything. You mean the world to me. I didn’t want just anyone fall in love with you, I wanted the best and Jensen was the best. I hope one day you forgive him, because he does truly love you.”

“I know he does, but you could have told me what was going on as well. You know that I know how to act and get information needed. Your forgetting that we took classes in college for this crap. Even though it was a fun class, it did teach me a lot about what to expect when people turn on you.”

“Yeah, you were awesome in that. When do you go back to work?”

“Tomorrow actually, I don’t know how it will feel going back into that place after what happened. But knowing they won’t be there will be the highlight of my day. I will be making changes and additions to keep everyone safe.”

“That’s good to hear, well Jeff just got home and I’ll see you soon ok.”

“Yeah we will, we still have a lot to talk about.”

I couldn’t see her but i felt her nod her head in agreement, because I did the same. “Yes, we will. Tell Jensen hi for me, and I’m glad you two are back together.”

“Thank you, I will and you tell Jeff he’s in for a good long yelling.” I sat back sighing.

“Will do.”  she said her goodbyes and hung up the phone.

Just then, Jensen came home from getting his stuff from his apartment. We are moving in together and decided mine was a bit bigger than his,  since it had room enough for the baby when he or she arrived. After we put his stuff in proper places which he really didn’t have much, we sat down on the couch snuggled in each others arms.

“Did you talk to Jo?” He asked as his right hand rubbed up and down my arm.

“Hmmm, I did. We worked things out, and I told her that I still plan on talking to Jeff.” I curved my legs under me and laid my head on his chest.

“I don’t blame you, but do it after you have the baby please, I don’t want you stressed.”

I turned to look up at him with a smile. “I love you Jensen.”

He winked at me, and then bent down to kiss me. “I love you to Y/N, always.”

We had a great evening together before we both had to go to work tomorrow. Life changes in a blink of an eye, you can choose to accept things as they happen, or ignore it and let things get out of control. If anything this has taught me that I need to accept things and trust in what God had for me. Jensen is an amazing person, and I thank God everyday he sent him to me, even though it was complicated….. I love him, now and forever.

Current tags:  Let me know if you want on or off. 

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#craving you #craving you by thomas rhett #Jensen ackles #jensen ackles fanfiction #jensen ackles x reader #reader insert #reader fanfiction #bobby singer #Mark Sheppard #mark pellegrino #kidnapping #pregnant reader

[hakuoyuki]

Hi! Do you suggest skipping Licht route in the Christmas event? It's coming out in 2 days, but i read it will spoiler his ending so I am concerned. I am very careful around spoilers, and I am SO ANNOYED English is doing this. I want to read all Licht stories, but I would also like to play the game spoiler free. Sadly i won't be able because Licht route will come up after this event part 1 is already over. What do you suggest? Is the Spoiler in the Christmas event big enough to be an issue, or not?

Hello Anon! Okay so let me first explain what I meant by "Licht's route in Beauty and her Beast Christmas Part 1 Story Event contains spoilers for Licht's route"

The spoiler here isn't for "how the route end" but it's the spoiler for "Licht's character development" and also the internal conflict Licht been going through.

With that said, by going straight into the Christmas Event, you'll see Licht post-character development and his thoughts regarding his pre-chara development phase (his way of thinking through out the majority of his route and before).

How the character development happen / what leads to it remain in the route and not fully revealed in the story event.

The internal conflict Licht had gone through however, is a major spoiler for his character in and of itself.

If you've read BOTH Nokto's route and Licht's 1st Birthday (His POV) before, this won't be much of a spoiler for you because those two stories combined reveals the cause that leads to Licht experiencing that internal conflict up until his character development. It's actually still there because it doesn't just disappear, but he's working on it.

If you've only read one of the above and not the other... then this would be considered spoiler territory.

ー

As for my suggestion on what to do....

Personally, I actually recommend you to read Licht's route for the event (perhaps keep his epilogue for after you finish his route, ideally True Love (Romantic) End because that end is there Licht's character was fully developed and it directly links with the discussion in the Christmas' Story Event. This end is also the end in which its epilogue continue directly to the Both End Clear Bonus Story)

And here's my reasoning for why I highly do not recommend skipping events.

As I've mentioned before in other posts (like this one),

It is also to be noted that unlike other titles, IkePri is Very Consistent in its writing and their event stories happens sequentially with references back to prior released contents such as events and even the main route (and happenings from True Love end). The only exception for this is “If Stories” but even with such stories, they are still consistent on the level of an alternate timeline where MC and none of the suitors have yet to become lovers.

With the current 2nd year's Christmas Story Event "Xmas Memory", so far I've only done Nokto's both end + epilogue and gone through Chevalier's preview, however, both of their event stories makes references back to previous events as well as to their Beauty and the Beast Christmas SE (1st year's Christmas Story). It wasn't just mentioned that this was the 2nd time Nokto and Chevalier spent Christmas with their respective MCs...

In Nokto's Xmas Memory Story, there were direct references made to and a direct continuation of Nokto's 2nd Birthday Story (which was also a continuation of his 1st Birthday Story but an event which happened a year after the 1st). Not only that, but there was also mentions back to the gifts from their 1st Christmas as well.

Chevalier's Xmas Memory Story, based on the preview, already showed that it's a direct continuation of "Your Exclusive Maid Just for Today 〜Absolute Obedience to the Master〜" SE too with how the maids (with names) from those events showed up again and their chara development (yes, the maids got chara development from the events too) continued from the ending of Chevalier's Exclusive Maid Story Event.

Licht is part of Xmas Memory Part 2 which won't start until Dec 8, 4PM JST so I can't tell yet which other event(s) it continues from, but seeing how Nokto's and Chevalier's both has mentioned of Beauty and the Beast Christmas SE... I'll say Licht's too would be the same.

Another important thing I want to point out as well, for both the 1st year Christmas Event (Beauty and the Beast Christmas) and the 2nd year Christmas Event (Xmas Memory).... while the epilogue does indeed continue from the Premium End.... the event in the Sweet End happened in between the Premium End. So by reading both Sweet and Premium (and the epilogue), it would give you the complete story as to what happened.

ー

Regardless, there's also the fact that ENG indeed been messing up the event orders so the consistency are already....... suffering as a result so...... In the end, the choice is yours.

#asks #ikemen prince #ikepri #イケメン王子 #cybird ikemen series #cybird #ikemen series #licht klein #ikepri licht

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers: May 15th Part 1

It’s been longer than usual since our last answer session, so I’m answering a ton of questions today! It’s so big I split it into two parts. Thank you for the patience on getting a response to these.

Thanks for reaching out to us with your questions and kind words ^^!

Sorry if this has been asked before or isn't something you can say but is there anyway for Cove to confess in step 4? I wanted him to confess in step 3 and followed all the steps to make him do it but ended up texting my family instead of Cove at the end.

Yeah, Cove can confess in Step 4!

Hello! I heard that Cove is on the spectrum, albeit undiagnosed. As someone who is ND, this makes me UNBELIEVABLY happy. I literally was brought to tears! Thank you for that!

Out of curiosity, will Cove be diagnosed in Step 4? I have a strong feeling y’all won’t make it a HUGE deal/make it out to be negative, so I’m not worried about that whatsoever! I’m just curious just he’ll off handedly mention it? Or will it just not be touched upon at all (which is ok!)?

Either way is ok, I’m just curious!

I’m happy it made you happy! Admittedly, Cove simply being someone with autism that grew up not being diagnosed was something I included for myself. I didn’t really think anyone would notice or ask about it, aha. But players did start to have questions about his traits, so I started to talk about it outside of the game. It’s great to see it get such a positive response and now I do feel like having it be a non-topic may have been the wrong choice and bringing it up would’ve been good in terms of having positive representation for that. I don’t know if I’ll find a way to mention it in Step 4 now, with how far along the game is, but I am at least thinking about it when originally it wasn’t something I really even considered.

Hey!  Just wanted to say thank you for Our Life.  It's been a bright spot and a needed escape in what's otherwise been a crummy year.  I know you just did a Q&A post but I figured I'd ask anyway.  Was just curious about Step 4.  Will it be similar to the other Steps in that it consists of several different moments or will it just be one long sequence?

Step 4 is shorter than the prior Steps because it’s just an epilogue rather than a full arc of a story. It’ll consist of scenes that all happen in a set row one after the other. There won’t be a collection of Moments to choose from. But it’ll still be very sweet and fun.

¡hola!, you see, first I want to say that I love Our Life! (°◡°♡) and I have 2 important questions, would Cove cry watching titanic? and what is the saddest part according to him? (sorry for my english) 

Titanic would make him cry. He’d probably think the parts showing people who aren’t able to make it to the life boats/are choosing to stay and go down with the ship were the saddest.

Hello, I wanted to ask how much you earn with creating games? Like is it possible to make a living? Thank you >< <3 

How much I earn varies a lot month to month based on Steam sales, Patreon backers, and how many projects are in full production at the time. It’s also hard to say how much I make historically, since that also changes dramatically year by year. But I do earn enough to work on these games full time! I really appreciate all the support that allows me to do that.

Hey!! I was wondering for the 18+ Our Life moment, will there be an emphasis on safety/comfort for all involved? I feel like there  would be just going off of what the rest of the game is like, but I wanted to ask 

Yes! Cove is a nervous boy himself and also super cautious about doing anything the MC doesn’t like, so clear consent from both is absolutely needed for anything to happen. It’s a conversational sexy times Moment with stops/starts so the two can talk about how they’re feeling, rather than a heat of the moment just going for it kind of thing.

Hey!! I was wondering how long the wedding dlc would be? Will it be broken up into moments, or just one big event? 

It’s one long series of scenes all in a row rather than a collection of Moments to pick from. It’s the shortest and the least expensive of all the DLCs. It’s not super crucial to get and those who aren’t into big weddings can totally skip it without worry.

HELLO AMAZING DEVS 👋 i am hopelessly in love with the worst guy ever (jeremy king) and because of this i have a really stupid question: does he really hate people who are nice to him? TvT he’s too cute to be mean to istg it’s a miracle JB held the urge to be consistently nice to him bc just look at his FACE he is so cute! thank you for jeremy’s route it’s so lovely (and awful bc he’s scum 11/10) it gave me so much laughs LMAO i hope you guys have a good day!! 

Haha, thank you. He doesn’t hate them but he’s certainly not pleased with them. Jeremy is either uncomfortable with or annoyed by people being sweet on him, depending on how they approach it. He’s far more comfortable with jerkiness. It lets him relax and he can be himself without it being a problem, since he’s also a jerk. He feels a level of guilt being such a little punk to kind people, not enough to be a better person but still.

Has Cove dated or been interested in someone other than MC? 

Nope! He stays single over the course of the game if he’s not with the MC.

Is Step 4 more mature? Or it's gonna be set in similar atmosphere as Step 3? 

Step 4 is a similar atmosphere as Step 3. Though, it’s actually kind of less mature-topic heavy than Step 3 since it’s just a ‘hey, let’s check in on the gang to see what they’re up to’ style epilogue rather than a story arc with serious issues.

will there be new music for now and forever?? or will the old our life music be reused? 

It’s gonna be a brand new soundtrack. We’ll be opening up a job position for that soon.

Hi, is it okay if we use the assets in Our Life (like the sprites) for fanworks or fan content content, like edits? 

Sure! Just as long as you don’t use the assets made by those artists to make money.

Quick clarification on Step 3 choices: I hope I didn't come off rude (because I LOVE the game, really!!), I was just curious because the intro threw me off at times. For example, you could choose how you felt about Elizabeth in Step 2 (Dinner), but during the Step 3 intro, it says that you got closer to Liz and I didn't get a choice in it. 

For the example, it can’t be helped that you’re closer to Liz in Step 3 than you were in Step 2 because she’s inherently closer to the MC regardless of whether you liked her or not in Step 2. Her feelings are out of your control and the game isn’t so dramatic that you can push her affection away and not let her bond with you, haha. But ‘being closer’ can still be relative. For some people maybe that means you’re best buds now and for others it might just mean you’re not fighting all the time any more. If there’s other parts you want to mention, feel free to let us know.

Did the illustrator for Our Life change? 

We have many OL artists! The main artists who set the game’s style haven’t changed, but there’s multiple other artists who help finish assets.

So Miranda's type is confident and outgoing, huh? So...does that mean Terri's her type?? 👀 

Haha, sorry for the late reply on this. As you might’ve seen in our post yesterday- yeah that is her type.

Hey! First, I just want to say I've really enjoyed how detailed OL got with gender identity and sexuality and how respectful the topics were handled! It's been so wonderful to play since the experiences could be close to my own (I'd be lying if I said I didn't tear up at parts). Second, I was wondering, would future games explore the topic of polyamory? I'd love to see more visual novels allow room for that and I saw you've explored the topic before.

Keep up the amazing work! ♡

Thank you! We do want to include polyamory in at least some of our future projects. Floret Bond, which might be what you’re referring to when mentioning how we’ve explored the topic before, is on hold unfortunately. So right now I’m not sure when something might release or what will be the first game of ours to come out with poly relationships (we might do something else before FB is done). We’ll have see how things ends up coming together.

Hey um. I feel like im not allowed to ask this on the private discord cuz people will yell at me but why is there so much focus on OL2 and not finishing OL1 stuff? I like the new people but i kind of want to finish cove's story and get derek and baxter stuff first. didn't people pay for it? 

I’m sorry, I don’t understand entirely what’s making that situation a concern. There’s a channel in the discord for critique where no one is allowed to comment back. People can voice things they’re worried about without any way for others to push back on it. And the two teams working on the OL games are different. We try to post pretty often about how we’re hiring brand new people to start on Our Life: Now & Forever. The OL1 team is all still working on OL1 like normal. There’s only more updates on the Patreon for OL2 because the expansions to the first game are mostly script-based at this point while OL2 is just starting to get all its art, which means there’s a lot more to show off as previews.

Also, there was a Kickstarter for the first Our Life, if that’s what you mean by people paying for it. But one of the stretch goals was to start Our Life 2 early, before fully completing Our Life 1, so that the new game could be out sooner. It wouldn’t make sense to stop doing OL2 work because that would be going against what backers were promised. Maybe you didn’t get the full story before and hopefully this clears it up!

Hello! I know it's up to every player but.. What is your recommendation for playing order? Did you ever had any timeline  events planned? 

I didn’t make the events with a planned timeline. The events got made simply as I had ideas for them and then I just kind of organized them from left to right on the screen in an order to space out more dramatic ones between more lighthearted ones. Any order the player wants to go with is totally valid!

Hi! It's Step 4 a paid dlc or update? And how long it's planned to be? Ps. Love the game! 

The Step 4 epilogue is free! The Cove Wedding DLC does cost money, though. Those are planned to be shorter than the usual Steps/DLCs.

Will we have options for what sort of job the MC might have by the time step 4 takes place? 

Yeah, you can. It’s not super exact or detailed, but there are options about it.

Is there a pandemic in Our Life world, or is it just in a better timeline with no pestilence? 

Our Life is pandemic-free! That didn’t exist when we began working on the project and it’s not something we’d like to feature in this story now that it has unfortunately come along, aha.

Hi, you said that you can play tic-tac-toe or hangman with Cove in Boating if you're sick/scared but I keep getting tic-tac-toe. Am I doing something wrong?

After being sick/scared you have to continue to be upset/unwell. If you calm down and decide to just chill you’ll end up playing tic-tac-toe.

Hi, GB Patch! Since Lee was initially commissioned to only appear in two Steps does this mean she won't appear in the Wedding DLC? I really like her character so it'll be a little weird to not have our cousin at our wedding, aha.

She is gonna be in Step 4/the wedding DLC after all! We’re still working with her creator to make sure it fits with what they wanted.

Is Sunset Bird based on a real place? Asking for a friend, not trying to move there or anything. 👀

It’s based on small beach towns in So-Cal, but not one specific town you could go see in real life, I’m afraid. It’d be nice if it was real, though.

—– —– —– —–

We released a new FAQ! It answers common questions and we’ll keep adding more to it. Please check there before sending an ask. FAQ   Also, if you prefer to just see the main posts without all the asks/reblogs, feel free to follow our side account instead: GB Patch Updates Blog

#our life #Our Life Beginnings & Always #Our Life: Now & Forever #ask #gb patch #gb patch games #xoxo droplets

[rubyleeray]

Love365 Love Choice Stories - What’s the T?

I’ve been hearing so much about it and decided that the only way I was going to know what the truth was/how I really felt was to find out first hand for myself. I went in with an open mind and wallet and this is what I found! Please enjoy my investigative report（＞ｙ＜）(read more isn’t working fml I’m so sorry!!!)

Spoiler/Verdict/TLDR:  Is Love Choice the worst thing to ever happen to Otome? No. It’s really not that different from the normal/premium route choices in a lot of other popular games. I had fun.

Okay so, so far there have been 2 Love Choice stories released in the English Love365 app: A Kissed By The Baddest Bidder - Eisuke story called: Seductive Love Triangle and a Scandal In The Spotlight - Kyohei story called: Hot & Heavy Friday. I played both twice (once all free and once premium) and here is what I found as someone who was, up until recently, completely unfamiliar with the system:

1) You can play the entire story for free. And as many times as you’d like while it is available! I feel like a lot of people aren’t mentioning this. It is totally possible to play and enjoy the entire story for free. Yes, there are more premium scenarios available for money but what game DOESN’T have a similar system in place? I was actually able to clear Kiyohei’s CG (Premium) end with just the hearts I earned for free. I technically did not spend a single dime.

2) From the first KBTBB story to the second SITS story Voltage changed a lot of things!!! This is obviously a direct result of the feedback they received, so it’s nice to see them trying. Here are some of the most noticeable differences:

A) The stories are yours to keep if you clear the CG end by the specified date. Frankly, I am confused if that date is when the stories will disappear entirely or if they will be available after that but you only have until that day to keep the story. From what I understand, the stories will not be available forever much like Event Stories in other games, so I imagine the stories disappear when the promo ends. In total it only took me 2.5 days to finish each story and this was with working a full time job and sleeping a decent amount at night. (Social life TBD). 

B) The most recent story (Kiyohei’s) was WAYYYYYY more affordable than the first (Eisuke’s). On the banner it even advertises “Number of Hearts reduced!” I will say that Eisuke’s had more legitimate smut so the later heart options were more worth it to a thirsty girl like me, but still - that shit was hella expensive in comparison. Most choices are 6-10 hearts but this was Eisuke’s final choice. (To be fair, I don’t remember how much Kyohei’s final Love choice was, but it was no more than 10 hearts but it also wasn’t half as graphic or explicit as Eisuke’s.) 

C) You don’t need to choose the premium option/spend every single time to get the Premium/CG ending. So for example, the earlier on in the story you are, the less likely it is to be smutty (which is true for 99% of games I have played). If smut is what you are after, save for spending in the middle and end.

D) Kiyohei’s story had a little indicator to tell you how many hearts you needed throughout the entire route to fulfill the CG end. This was super helpful because you know right away what you have to spend if you want to spend. Eisuke’s route did not have this and that was very frustrating. They also gave you 10 hearts for free at the start of Kiyohei’s route so this Choice was free.

3) Not every question had a Love Choice and sometimes there was more than one (in Eisuke’s story at least). Also in Eisuke’s story - there were a couple times where I paid hearts and at the end of that option, it would actually say “End of selection.” and then show me the free route as well? I’m not sure if that is a bug or what but it was interesting and worth noting.  

4) The stories are 10 chapters and each chapter is a decent length. While the 5 hour wait was long, you do have the option of spending 5 hearts to skip the wait. (The wait didn’t bother me that much as I already learned the patience required for this system after playing games from SWD and Fairy Tale Love Game). 

5) The free options are great. I suffered no FOMO! The premiums are longer and have more romance/sex but at the end of the day, both options still tell a good story. 

In total I spent roughly $5 CAD (35 hearts) to get Eisuke’s Premium Cg/story and 0$ to get Kiyohei’s because I had all the hearts from logins  and reading other Main Stories.

I probably could have spent less for Eisuke but I didn’t have the metre that Kiyohei’s route had so I chose to be safe rather than sorry. I do not find this to be an unreasonable amount to spend for a smutty story with a CG. I spend the same on other stories in this app and for SLBP epilogues during every event and those don’t even come with CGs. I would have also been fine spending on Kiyohei but as I mentioned, his story had far less smut and if I’m spending, I like as much sexual content as possible. 

Finally, I want to stress - 

LOVE CHOICE IS NOT GOING TO BE HOW EVERY STORY IS RELEASED FROM NOW ON. 

Think of it like Love365′s version of an Event. It is only going to be the occasional story. Voltage said this themselves and the statement is available on their Facebook page. 

Verdict/TLDR: Is Love Choice the worst thing to ever happen to Otome? No. It’s really not that different from the normal/premium route choices in a lot of other popular games. I enjoyed both playthroughs (One premium and one free for each story) and didn’t feel shafted when I went free in the least. It’s something different from Voltage for sure, but I get that they were trying to do something in the Love365 app that lets free players enjoy more stories while also encouraging spending (they are a business after all so this makes sense and is not shady). As long as @officialvoltageotome continue offering Love Choice stories the way they did Kiyohei’s (the most recent story after the feedback), I think everyone will be happy.

As always, while it’s important to read what the fellow members of the community say, always try and find things out for yourselves before you make a decision or send Voltage feedback based on someone else’s opinion. I encourage you to try these Love Choice stories for yourself right now. They’re really not that bad.  

Feel free to share your thoughts with me on the matter, I fully admit that these are just my experiences and I may be missing something here, so I’m totally open to conversations about it. However, I won’t put much weight behind intense negativity/heated opinions if you haven’t actually tried the English app’s experience yourself. 

#love365 #voltage inc #love 365 #love choice

[lyntendoswitch]

At the tail end of 2020 I discovered the video content of Tim Rogers who has inspired me to also voice my game opinions in an unnecessarily verbose and personal way. I don’t recommend clicking on the read more, but if you’d like to read a little bit about the best games I played this year, go on ahead.

10. What Remains of Edith Finch 9. A Short Hike 8. Disco Elysium 7. Personal 5 The Royal 6. Persona 3 Dancing In Moonlight 5. Vestaria Saga War of the Scions 4. Ring FIt Adventure 3. Final Fantasy 7 Remake 2. Hades 1. Animal Crossing New Horizons

2020 found me with an unprecedented amount of free time. I spent most of this year working for the government (a job with a very small brain effort that left me with evenings and weekends free to do whatever the hell). Additionally, I spent most of the year in quarantine with video games as my true, real friend and life companion. Compiling this list gave me more titles than ever to choose from, so I feel better about my list than ever. So here are the best games that I played this year.

Before I get into the top 10 I want to give 4 honourable mentions.

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim This is the most recent game I played since making this list. I loved so many things about this game - the soft art style, the harsh music, the convoluted crazy plot. I love the aesthetic of this game and loved the characters - I believe it is rare to have an anime game where none of the characters irritate you. I even loved the combat, although I did not think I would. Something about shooting so very many missiles is so satisfying even when you don’t exactly know what is going on in the screen. The final battle in this game was definitely my favourite moment in this game - it was stressful, it was engaging, it was so extremely fun. The tragedy of this game comes down to personal taste. All time travel stories with complex timelines are bound to fall apart eventually, because no writer can keep all the threads together in a logical sense. 13 sentinels had so many story beats, plot twists, betrayals, and sci-fi tropes crammed into their storyline that I knew halfway through the story that there was no way they would be able to resolve all of it in a fulfilling way. I was, unfortunately, right - the ending explanation for all the chaos is, in my (correct) opinion, extremely lame. However, I certainly had fun on the journey.

Fire Emblem 3 Houses: Ashen Demons DLC I did not place this on my ranking since it is not really fleshed out enough to be considered its own game (unlike in previous years, where I have confidently but the Splatoon 2 Octoling Expansion as a separate title from Splatoon 2). However, this blog is, above all else, a Fire Emblem stan account, and I will not NOT talk about Fire Emblem. I do not care for the Abyss house. I think the characters are too close to being plucked out of the Fire Emblem Fates universe for comfort, and I mean this to be as profound an insult as possible. These characters are gimmicks above all else. I also do not care for the expanded lore that the sewer city brings to Garreg Mach. The idea of a centralized church school army is already so unstable, and to have a population of rat people living under it makes the whole foundation of the world crumble a little. However, the story and gameplay of the Ashen Demons DLC added something that the base game did not, which is challenge. (As an aside, I play on normal mode and am aware that there is challenge available to me if I wish for it.) FE3H offers you so many characters, so many paralogues, so many opportunities for training and stat increases, that eventually plot missions become completely boring. Ashen demons limiting everyone to new and interesting classes, limiting your available units, and preventing any sort of training made the chapters fun again. I found the chapter where you were supposed to outrun a golem before some gates closed fun as hell - it was my favourite part of the entire side story. 

Kentucky: Route Zero I played this game in February, and I remember not liking it at any point. It is confusing, disorienting, and lacked a clear goal. However, it has now been 10 months and I still think about it constantly - both the vignettes presented in it, and the way it made me feel. The Besties podcast made an excellent point about this game when they said that no one who plays this game ever compares it to other games - only books, movies, or paintings. The whole game is so fascinating and sticks with you - the wretched circle of a highway, the horse funeral. My favourite part is the live performance you attend at a run down diner with your party of four as the only audience. It is so quiet and contemplative and melancholy, and the scene is absolutely perfect. Kentucky Route Zero might be my favourite high concept artsy abstract artwork ever.

Blaseball As with everyone, it is difficult to call Blaseball a game. As the website says, it is a cultural event that I am so happy to participate in. I am so happy to have found a piece of media to fill the aching void that left by Homestuck when it ended, then re-opened the wound with their awful post-epilogue novel. I deleted my Twitter account this summer because I was tired of being angry and doomscrolling. And then, after Chris Plante on the Besties told me about Blaseball, I happily remade a Twitter account that only followed the official Blaseball account, the devs, and the numerous RP accounts. The quality of life improvement that having simulated, pleasant, hilarious social media to check every day is indescribable. It helped me cope with a rough life transition. Thank you, Blaseball. My favourite moment of 2020 is the 11pm boss battle of Shoe Thieves vs The Shelled One’s Pods.

And now....... The List.

10. What Remains of Edith Finch The start of 2020 was incredible because games journalism websites were churning out endless top 10 lists for both the end of 2019 as well as the end of the decade. I religiously picked through all of these lists and wrote down a list of 30 best indie games of this past decade that I missed out on for whatever reason. It was my first and last experience with a backlog - previously, I would simply impulse purchase games I really wanted to play, and I would not rest until the game is beaten. Having a backlog of things to try stressed me out endless and it dampened the impact of almost all of these quirky 1-6 hour indie experiences. However, not even the stress of meeting a self-imposed quota could dampen the impact of What Remains of Edith Finch. Exploring this house and playing through its various scenarios was so fascinating and beautiful. For me, the most impactful moment of the game was playing as the little girl who became an owl who became a sea serpent. That was when I realized I was not playing something that I would be thinking about for a very long time.

9. A Short Hike A Short Hike was the very first game I played off my backlog list of Best Indie Games. And boy, is it ever. This game takes 2 hours to finish but is absolutely saturated with heart and the exploration makes those 2 hours feel like you have been on a much longer and more fulfilling journey than you believed possible with so few hours. It is Animal Crossing and Legend of Zelda combined, condensed, and polished into a beautiful pearl. I was so instantly in love with the characters and loved doing the little side quests. I also loved getting totally lost because I wanted to see how far I could swim and ended up on a different part of the island. The most impactful moment of this game is its finale, which I won’t spoil, but it is absolutely incredible.

8. Disco Elysium Many people more eloquent than me have said great things about Disco Elysium, and they are all correct. As someone who loves character building and creating a character to roleplay instead of playing as myself in a game, I have never been more enabled to do just that than Disco Elysium. The mystery was so cool, the mechanics are exactly what I like, the exploration is great. The one drawback of this game is that I literally cannot remember a single song from it. Maybe it had an amazing OST? Every game that is released nowadays has to have an amazing OST. There is so much reading in this game that the music really has to be unintrusive, and so it faded right into the background and out of my memory. I love that you could create your own persona in the game, but that you find your identification later and discover who you were before. Also, I would die for Kim Kitsuragi. The finale of this game also kicks ass - I will not spoil it but there is a moment that is so quiet and intimate that it took my breath away. What an amazing experience.

7. Persona 5: The Royal In 2017, I did something that is not the deciding factor, but definitely contributed to, my being sent to hell after I die. I was in an unhappy relationship and really wanted out, but my boyfriend at the time had a PS4 and I did not, and I really wanted to play Persona 5. As such, when he got the game and I borrowed it, I tried to finish it as quickly as possible so that I could give it back and break up with him. To my dismay, Persona 5 is upwards of 80 hours long, and I was burned out long before it was over. I finished the game with such resentment in my heart that I could not fathom why anyone would like it. As someone who is older, wiser, PS4-er, and in a better mental state, I decided to give P5R a try. Playing the remake at a much slower pace and really contemplating the story and characters made for a totally different and much more pleasant experience. I finally was able to shed my dislike for these characters who held me hostage 3 years ago and really appreciate them. Additionally, the new content they added to the original was SO good. The new music in Mementos makes that whole section bearable!! Akechi’s entirely reworked social link!! Maruki is one of Atlus’s most interesting characters, and the final dungeon was so so so interesting!! I am profoundly sad that I can’t recommend this game to anyone because 120 hours is just prohibitively long. Most impactful moment: when Akechi joins the party and he is like, totally feral, lol

6. Persona 3: Dancing In Moonlight Every once in a while my palms start to itch because it has been entirely too long since I’ve played a rhythm game. This palm itch feeling sunk me deep into Theatrhythm Final Fantasy back in 2017, and this feeling forced me to impulse buy Persona 3 Dance. I am furious that I liked this game so much, because I know it was created simply to extract money from fools like me. The story was so blatant about it! “It’s a dream, ok? We’re all dancing because it’s a dream and none of this matters. Go play a song, idiot.” I’m not even angry at this - I almost respect the hustle. Additionally, it was so wonderful to hang out with the Persona 3 crew again. I did also play Persona 5 Dancing in Starlight, but since I had already spent a hundred and twenty hours with the phantom thieves, there was no feeling of being reunited like with P3D. Also, in my mind palace, I consider P3D to have “actually happened”, and P5D to be the money grab hustle. S.E.E.S. is a cohesive unit. If Mitsuru Kirijo says it is time to dance, then dance we shall. I cannot be made to believe that Ryuji, Futaba, or Makoto will be compelled to dance even in a dream. Finally, having Elizabeth as your velvet room attendant did wonders. If there is a line between being a loveable eccentric and being annoying, Elizabeth tiptoes just around the former, whereas the twins are squarely located in the latter. The remixes in P3D also all kick ass (Burn My Dread Novoiski Mix? Deep Mentality Lotus Juice Mix?? Neither had any right to go as hard as they did), and I loved how they personalized the dance styles to the characters’ personalities. Even if this game was a money grabber, it was still made with love and respect for the series, and I loved playing it.  Most impactful moment: That first king crazy ranking on all night difficulty... god damn

5. Vestaria Saga: War of the Scions I had mentioned earlier that I appreciated the FE3H DLC for adding challenge back into 3 houses, but then I played Vestaria Saga and I realized I simply did not remember what challenge actually was. Vestaria Saga, the game by Fire Emblem’s creator, is the hardest Fire Emblem game I’ve ever played. This game honestly rules - it closes its door to the waifus of modern fire emblem games and is a return to form with political intrigue and smart tactical decisions and well-rounded characters. Every single chapter has these wonderful and deeply stressful plot twists and you always have to scramble to get all of the objectives complete without dying. There is a moment in this game where the main Lord, Zade, scolds princess Athol for being so reckless, how he had to force the army to fight a losing battle to rescue her, and look at how exhausted everyone is. He gestures to his army, and for the first time in a tactical RPG, I felt it. In all the fire emblems I play, my units end up being able to dodge and tank any hits they receive, but in Vestaria Saga finishing a map was a stressful, long, and sweaty process. I loved every second of playing this game - it is so rewarding in its gameplay and so rewarding in its story. Most impactful moment: the kiss!!! And how all of them face consequences immediately afterwards!!! I adore this game.

4. Ring Fit Adventure Ring Fit Adventure is the most fun I’ve ever had with a gimmicky fitness game. This game finally understands that they key to continuing with the game and building good habits is the ability to unlock and equip beautiful athleisure clothing. I actually got gains from Ring Fit Adventure, and I know this because I stopped playing it for a month, came back, and was unable to finish the reps at the difficulty I set for myself. This game make gym stuff so genuinely fun in a way that no one else has been able to do. I also really like the feel of the ring con! I have a few moderate complaints about it (a fitness game will never be perfect, unfortunately): you always start reps on the same side, and if you kill enemies then you don’t get a chance to try the other side at all, the motion sensor on yoga poses is wack, and FUCK the robot baseball minigame game to hell. Despite this, I absolutely adore this game and what it stands for. I may never beat the campaign, but it will always have a place in my heart. Most impactful moment: the first fight with Drageaux

3. Final Fantasy 7 Remake I was so so so curious about the hype surrounding this game that in the month before its release I manically played through the original Final Fantasy 7 so that I would have enough background information to be able to play and enjoy the remake. I was very glad I did. FF7R kicks ass. It is my favourite Final Fantasy game ever, and maybe it will always be so. I take a lot of issue with most FF games because they get too cosmically big and ridiculous and nonsensical by the end and that ruins the immersion of the story for me. Since FF7R only covers the Midgar portion of the original, it is forced to create grounded characters and a grounded, smaller scale story. And it is AMAZING. I loved every single minute of this game. The OST is incredible, and the art in it is absolutely unbelievable. I love how they incorporated random encounter enemies in this more realistic version. Also the dialogue!!! The way these characters banter with each other is so life-like and true to character that it boggles my mind. Even the NPC side conversations - never has a city or town felt so alive and filled with people than in FF7R. The ending of this game filled me with PRIMAL fear for the future, but it is so clear that the team making this game loves the world and its characters so much that I cautiously say I trust them to take the story further in the later remakes. Most impactful moment: Cloud saying “bring it on bitch” to an enemy made me black out laughing

2. Hades I generally stay away from rogue-likes and from real-time combat because for a game-liker I SURE am bad at video games. However, everything Supergiant Games ever makes seems tailor made for me, so when Hades came out of early access I bought it, and then I didn’t stop playing it until 80 hours later when I had unlocked everything ever. This game is SO good. The voice acting and storytelling is phenomenal. They did a spectacular job blending the story with the core gameplay elements. They made dying in a rogue-like fun and rewarding. The music is (as always) transcendent. I cannot say enough good things about Hades. Most impactful moment: a tie between the first time you watch the sunrise after your first successful escape, and the romance social link between Zagreus and Thanatos

1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons Of course... Death Stranding may have prophesized the pandemic, but Nintendo created it to sell copies Animal Crossing New Horizons. This game saved all of us. The experience of having so many people I knew playing the same game all the time for the entirety of March and April was so incredible. I have plenty of quips about ACNH with relation to old games in the series (I loathe crafting, I loathe printing out Nook Miles Tickets one by one, and I worry that the sandbox landscaping feel of this game makes me less inclined than ever to actually talk to my villagers), but while they are all valid criticisms, they certainly did not stop me from pouring 350 hours and counting into this game. I have loved slowly, carefully crafting my island into a replica of Garreg Mach. I have loved collecting furniture and making turnip money and completing the museum. There is simply no other game that can be 2020′s game of the year. Most impactful moment: checking your mail and having one of your friends mail you an item that reminded them of you

#adventures of big man