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#I think the difference is that the mario games have a very consistent identity so like. there's a clear list of criteria there

factual-fantasy · 30 days

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Hello Factual! Thanks a ton for answering my last question regarding your acquiring of your Pokemon- the quirky stories attached to their origins make them all the more memorable and lovable! And alongside that, thanks for drawing the full party together in your most recent post! Their personalities were all fleshed out really well in such a simple set up, and as always it's impressive that you kept your art style practically identical despite the transition to paper!

If you don't mind, since I've got the ball rolling at this point- I wish to ask your thoughts on two somewhat more well known Mario enemies than the last pair- and inquire as to their placement in the AU- starting with the jumping dangers from another game- the Ninji!

Ever since their strange "dream" debut in Super Mario Bros 2, they, like many others from that game, have become recurring staples of the main games- always being shown as quick, jumping warriors who work primarily under Bowser. But do you think these goofy little guys would work in the AU? They probably wouldn't be directly affiliated with your mostly Koopa centric Koopa Troop- but perhaps they could be a small band of dangerous assassins, known to do business with the Troop- for the right price- eliminating targets using more "Ninja" like techniques, rather than just jumping...

And the other I wished to mention could prove either very easy or very difficult to implement- another creature hailing from SMB2- the bullet spewing shy guy look alikes- the Snifits!

You of course already have shy guys in the AU, living in seclusion in Shy Guy Woods- but would there perhaps be any Snifits among them? Even in the most recent movie, Snifits have always been shown commanding their weaker Shy Guy Cousins- though their exact biological connection has never been explained- how would you explain it? How would their strange, biological bullets work? Would they live alongside the shy guys, or just live somewhere else entirely? If anywhere at all? And most importantly- would they still have an obsession with hosting game shows, as all the spinoff games show!?

Thanks as always for taking the time to answer our Asks despite your health troubles ( which I sincerely hope are getting better now ) and I'm glad answering them makes you happy! I've obviously been asking a lot of Mario questions lately, so let me know if you want me to ask about a different AU for a change- I just love Mario so much! ( Your awesome AU especially! )

(First post in question) (Second post in question)

No problem! :DD I had a lot of fun making those. And thank you! It certainly isn't easy to keep my style consistent on paper. But hey, at least it's keeping my mind busy! 😅

When it comes to the critters you sent.. I've actually never heard of the first one! 😰 I'd have to do some thinking about where those guys would fit in my AU..

Now for the Snifits, I did see them in the Mario movie. So I am aware of them! But where to put them.. hmm.. I can see myself taking the idea of them, rather than the actual functionality of them.

What I mean is, there could be "higher ranking" shy guys amongst the tribe. And they could wear these black masks instead of white ones. Perhaps they could make use of slingshots or some kind of projectile to keep with the theme..? :0 I'm unsure, but it's definitely something to think about!

And no worries about too many Mario questions, I'm having a lot of fun with them! Thank you for sending them! :D And thank you for the well wishes. I'm hoping that all of this mess is finally over soon 🙏🥹...

#my response #super mario bros

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wariocompany · 2 years

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I think what I mean to say is that, while I'm not necessarily immune to it, I generally have little interest in Astérix things that treat it like a franchise or general pop culture icon rather than literature. I don't think I'd consider Astérix literature - not even because of the can-comics-be-literature debate but rather just because it relies so heavily on its visuals for the humorous delivery that it cannot be divorced from its status as visual art. However, just because it's popular doesn't mean it has to be treated like you'd treat Mario, like Spiderman, like Dragon Ball. Where much of the appreciation as a fan is about owning the action figures or shirts or any spin off in which they happen to appear; themes becoming irrelevant.

Astérix is already unique in that in lieu of being a face to which anything can be attached, the core of his identity is tied to three things: the apolitical yet satirical faire-rire, the homely simplicity of his life and its pleasures, and successful resistance to unnecessary change, adversity and oppression, despite looking tiny and unimposing - all the while taking pride in the very things for which you are persecuted.

To say nothing of how Astérix can be seen as a critique of the post WWII modernisation France faced to the detriment of the more basic and human underbelly of its culture, this means that general franchise shenanigans such as merchandise and games and theme parks which otherwise have nothing to say lose their inherent Astérix-ness by default. The entire reason Astérix is so popular and so brilliant is gone, and as such, the reason anyone should want to buy it is also gone. You could reply that even if all of this were true it is still enjoyable to appreciate the world of Astérix purely for affinity's sake, but to that I say : what world? Besides some very basic plot points which stay somewhat consistent, everything within Astérix is malleable to keep the pacing convenient and to align it with whatever's funny. Details that might render Astérix more grounded and unchanging are disregarded the moment it is more productive for them to be different. Those fandom-type discussions are wholly unproductive for Astérix because you will never get anywhere; those things were never the point. And that's probably why it doesn't have a fandom (again it's literally just me with an active dedicated Astérix account because I'm weird).

It's easy to not realise this because so many people grew up with Astérix, and hence don't necessarily appreciate it for its brilliance but rather just because it's What Was There in their childhood. Most pop culture is somewhat like that. But Astérix isn't selling a combined 200 million just because kids have it read to them at bedtime; it is genuinely stunning as a series. It's why parents speak fondly of it rather than "that stupid book you always read". Sure, other pop culture icons have their genuine merits, but I think you can get away with ignoring this the majority of the time. Like, Pikachu doesn't suddenly lose what makes him so iconic because you're wearing him on a t shirt as opposed to rewatching the scenes where he refused to get in the Pokéball. When you really get down to it, it's because he's cute and everyone knows who he is. Contrarily, what even is Astérix stripped of the series' context and humour? What reason does anyone have to appreciate him divorced of what made him rise to worldwide success in the first place?

This might appear like a You Need A Very High IQ To Understand Astérix sort of argument but I don't mean that. It is true that, in my humble opinion, Astérix is special and has more depth than most pop culture icons; but even assuming I did not believe that, I think it's just a matter of recognising the series has a very particular tone that cannot be translated into mass production.

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dracolunae · 1 year

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I WOULD LOVE TO KNOW ABOUT SONIC lay it on me. sits head in hands attenative mode

I’ll just give you a general ramble of whatever I can think of but if you wanna know anything specific like lore or the different comic runs or stuff about the music lmk!!

Sonic is a franchise that I’ve found so fucking fascinating for a long time because it combines just so many fun things: a mostly non-human cast, intricate world building a continuity between games, interesting abilities, and a protagonist that is not only cool and fast and heroic but also a wildly fascinating personality!

My start into Sonic was, ironically, not any of the actual mainline games or anything because my ass was a DS kid with no consoles. It wasn’t even one of the mainline DS games! My start was Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games for the DS.No clue of any lore, all I knew was that this franchise had really interesting character designs and was really cool because YO IS THAT A ROBOT??? (I was also. Very into the transformers movies at the time so robots were fucking awesome).

Anyway, from there my brother and I shared a copy of Sonic Colours for the DS! Sonic Colours for the Wii is often regarded as one the better if not one of the best modern Sonic Games with unfortunately really bad writing but fear not! That’s where the DS version comes in! Entirely different gameplay wise since in that sense it’s a continuation of the earlier Rush games but the story is nearly identical to the Wii version except there’s more of it and the characters are significantly better written!

It’s pretty common to make jokes about people who play games for the plot but honestly the plot is really one of the main draws of Sonic for me! The Adventure era (Sonic Adventure, Adventure 2, Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog and kind of Sonic 06) had overarching story elements and would legitimately flash back to what happened in previous games, which at the time (1998-2006) was huge!

There’s also several runs of comics and manga as well as several tv shows that accompanied the franchise, most of which are entirely non-canon to the games but still add so much to the characters and in some ways the world.

The original 2 shows and Comic runs were Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog (more commonly known as Sonic SatAM), the Sonic Archie comics and Sonic the Comic, published by Fleetway. The shows were both made simultaneously by the same people and a lot of elements from both (though mainly SatAM, the grittier of the 2) were adapted into the Archie Comics. Sonic the Comic (more often referred to as Fleetway) was the British run of Sonic Comics and while Archie went kinda wild with a lot of stuff, Fleetway did so in a way that was less insane and more just incredibly contradictory to the games, such as changing the way that Super Sonic worked (it splits Sonic into 2 different beings instead of just being like a Dragonball Super Saiyan inspired power up) and also entirely changing the design and origins of Chaos, the additional antagonist of Sonic Adventure.

Both Fleetway and Archie have been canceled, Fleetway quite a while ago and Archie in 2017, which has brought a new Comic into the scene, published by IDW! The staff is comprised almost entirely of former Archie Sonic staff, who were pulled over by head writer Ian Flynn, who took over this position for Archie in 2006 and was hired by IDW pretty immediately once they got the comic license for Sonic. These comics directly tie into what was at the time the most recent Sonic game, Sonic Forces, and are confirmed to be canon, unlike literally every other piece of extended media we’ve ever gotten!

The American Sonic comics are very dear to me because I used to read them a lot (in what is possibly the most annoying way one could possibly read them, YouTube videos panning through incredibly slow pans of each individual page or panel). And the staff post Ian Flynn takeover is fascinating to me because a decent chunk of it consists of Sonic fans that started out as fancomic artists, got recognised for their talent and then hired to work on the real deal! What kind of Dream job is that???? The amount of passion the current staff has for the world of Sonic is palpable and so refreshing. Ian Flynn also got to write the story for the most recent Sonic game, Sonic Frontiers and holy shit I love the way he respects the previous world building done by older games. It might come off a little awkward to some but I’m just glad they’re acknowledging their past

With all my love for the comics tho I gotta say the Archie comics are a wild fucking trip, especially when Ken Penders had free reign of the plot. I’m rereading the Archie comics and I skipped over the first 60 or so issues the first time I read them as a kid and wtf???? Why did I just read about a bee dying of an LSD overdose???? (Yes. This is a real plot point. It is relevant for one 3 issues side arc and never again)

#friendly visitors #my beloveds came to talk

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blackknightax · 19 days

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So today, I’ll be choosing a character for the Kirby franchise. Kirby is the franchise that belongs to Smash Bros creator Masahiro Sakurai so of course Kirby is here. That being said, Kirby is a franchise with 3 characters and a lot of stages and even a couple items. Kirby is represented quite well here. Kirby’s 3 characters are it’s most reoccurring characters and almost inarguably it’s 3 main characters, Kirby, Metaknight and King Dedede. It can be said that the Kirby franchise already has all of it’s important characters in the game and for the most part I’m inclined to agree as kirby has a LOT of characters who, while they are very much loved, only appeared in one game. Kirby likes to tell very detached stories and rarely has a reoccurring bad guy outside of Dedede and the former main baddie of Dark Matter, who appeared in 4 maybe 5 games. So let’s discuss what I personally would add.

So when wanting to add more characters there are a couple routes to go. The first is chosen by the fans most often. This being the Bandana Waddle Dee, the spear wielding waddle dee that first appeared in Kirby Superstar Ultra and has been kinda appearing ever since but got a personality of sorts when he first appeared in Kirby’s return to dreamland for the Wii. All in all, i get him as a choice but, i don’t think he’s the best one. The other options are the many dream friends, and some of the villains who only appeared once. If you want me to be frank, what I’d personally love to see represented is Kirby 64’s power combo system but you can’t justify giving that to anyone but Kirby. But I can’t have what i want in that regard. Oh well. So Let’s show who I would personally add given the power to choose.

It’s Gooey! I love this goofy little guy. In his first appearance he was trapped in a bag and occasionally showed up to give Kirby extra lives but in his second appearance he was a co-op partner and even had Kirby’s copy ability. He later appeared in Kirby Star Allies and was given all the abilities he was able to copy back in his second appearance all at once. Obviously this will be the source of his moves. Though a little more basic than Kirby, his normals will consist of him using his tongue to whip enemies and will have a chain grapple like Seamus and Toon Link that can be used in the air to grab the ledge. Unlike Kirby, he’ll only have 2 jumps like the rest of the cast. Because even though he derives from Kirby he isn’t identical to him. So let’s begin

For his Neutral B he will perform a eating move like Yoshi’s neutral B but then he’ll gain the character’s Neutral B like Kirby does but he’ll use it his way, a way that differs from how the character themselves uses it, for example his Mario fireball has a low bounce but longer distance bounces. When he inhales kirby he gets nothing.

For his Up B he transforms into his Mock Matter form. He then flies around with the player’s influence for a limited time, pressing A makes him fire lasers directly ahead of himself in a straight line. Firing the laser reduces how long he can stay in Mock Matter form, and when the timer ends he goes into special fall.

For his Side B he uses Burning, not much to say here, he sets himself on fire and dashes forward doing damage to everything he makes contact with while doing so. This does not put him in special fall but can only be used once per jump similar to other moves like it.

For his Down B he uses Stone like Kirby. Nothing to say, it works almost identically to Kirby’s. Maybe he transforms and falls faster but does less damage?

In the grand scheme of things, i kinda designed Gooey as an Echo Fighter for Kirby but this makes sense. But he’s definitely more unique of an echo fighter than others like say, Richter and Lucina.

I think Gooey would be a great and fun unique addition to the game with this move set. I hope you enjoyed reading it.

#super smash bros #super smash ultimate #smash bros #Kirby #gooey kirby #Daily post #Day 7 #rambling #unfiltered thoughts

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bltngames · 3 years

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Review: Hotshot Racing

(For this review, Hotshot Racing was played on the Nintendo Switch and the Personal Computer)

If you were to ask me what the most important features of a racing game are, somewhere near the top of the list would be artificial intelligence. Racing games are one of those genres, like fighting games or shooters, where simulating how real human people play the game is vital to the experience. They are inherently multiplayer concepts, even if you’re playing by yourself.

Focus on multiplayer artificial intelligence has waned over the last 15 years. With the rise of the premium multiplayer subscription, it’s more important than ever before to drive players to play matches with flesh-and-blood human beings online. Thus, advancements in “bot” (simulated human player) development hasn’t just slowed down, but in some cases actively regressed. Epic Games, once home to some of the smartest, most robust first person shooter bots in Unreal Tournament, now features bots in their popular Fortnite Battle Royale that fumble around the map with low attention spans and aim like they're blindfolded.

Humans are hard to simulate. The basic functions of a player are easy to emulate -- navigation, aiming, and so on, but it’s the organic logic underneath that proves to be the primary challenge. Humans have lapses in judgement. Humans make mistakes. Mistakes compound on other mistakes. A person wins or loses a given game because of a constantly cascading sequence of decisions, all feeding in to and out of themselves. Whether they realize it or not, every individual person is their own infinite web of chaos. For a computer, which operates in a binary of either perfect success or total failure, no amount of processing power can make for an accurate duplication.

As such, artificial intelligence has to “cheat.” Flaws are introduced into the simulation in order to throw the player a bone. Intelligence almost doesn’t even enter the equation; instead, it’s more about developing a bot that the player simply believes is human, like some kind of a magic trick. It’s a tight balancing act -- if the bot is too good, it looks like an unfeeling terminator. On the opposite, well… compare my Fortnite example up above. There’s a sweet spot that must be hit: smart, but not too smart. Dumb, but not too dumb. It’s easier said than done.

Racing games are a special category here. On top of simulating a human, they must also simulate an automobile, with all of its physical interactions. Tire friction, suspension bounce, weight distribution, and horsepower efficiency just to start. I’d argue that this lends to a much greater tendency for natural mistakes to occur, as the two different simulations (vehicle and player) interact and bounce off of each other. This has led to racing games relying on a handicap known as “rubberbanding.” Essentially, if the player is doing a little too well, the game will start giving tiny advantages to the computer-controlled racer. A boost to top speed, a reduction in weight to improve handling, whatever it takes to ensure the player does not remain unchallenged for very long.

Which finally, at long last, brings us to Hotshot Racing. Developed by Lucky Mountain Games, with assistance by Sumo Digital, it attempts to capitalize on the growing faux-retro-3D trend. It promises visuals to remind you of Sega’s Virtua Racing or Namco’s Ridge Racer, but with decidedly modern vehicle physics and a bit more content than any of those old games could muster.

It honestly makes for a weird first impression. This is a retro-looking game that does not feel like any retro racing game I’ve ever played. Some would undoubtedly argue that’s for the better; like with most sports games, there’s this sense that more simulation is always better. Even modern “arcade” racers like Need for Speed or Wreckfest run pretty robust physics simulations under their hoods, even if they do not necessarily adhere to the rules of reality. But I’ve honestly never seen a problem with this -- I will readily go back to something like Daytona USA or even Stunt Race FX on the Super Nintendo, and never feel especially bothered by their primitive simulations. To me, racing is often more about the sense of speed, how well the controls respond, and the track design than any notion of feeling “realistic.”

That’s not to say it’s really a negative that cars in Hotshot Racing have some vague facsimile of modern weight and “realism” applied to their driving physics, I guess. It’s just something that takes a little bit of getting used to, because seeing these cars drift and sway like the racing games of today is a little anachronistic to the era being called back to. If you still burn a candle for the eventual release of the long-lost Kickstarter darling “90’s Arcade Racer,” know that this isn’t that game. I think it’s fair to say it’s trying to scratch a similar itch, but it’s doing so in a very different way.

One of the more important things Hotshot Racing brings to the table is a roster of personalities to race as and against. When you think of characters in a racing game, your mind probably more naturally gravitates towards something like Mario Kart or some other similarly kid-friendly cartoon racing franchise. For most "serious" racing games, your opponents are unknowable, faceless competitors, but Hotshot gives them voices and identities. Every character in the game has a garage of four cars unique to them, in addition to having their own story to tell. It’s nothing especially deep; most plot manifests in a single cutscene played at the end of a given grand prix, sort of like what you'd get for finishing arcade mode in a game like Street Fighter 2. It’s just a snippet, a taste of what motivated these people and what they’re going to do after winning, but it’s enough.

It goes back to what I said earlier, and how it’s important for the player to believe the artificial intelligence is more than just a computer. Making the racers into characters, with identifiable personalities, faces, and dialog goes a long way to fleshing things out and makes you connect with what’s going on just a little bit better. Or at least, that’s how things would work in theory.

The problem is… well, none of that matters. Put simply, the actual artificial intelligence you race against kind of sucks. In fact, it’s hard to even call them competitors, because your opponents seem to be running a different race where you straight up don’t exist. During any given event, your rival computer drivers seem to be totally blind to your presence, as they will spend the entire race trying to drive straight through you. I don’t know how else to explain it. This isn’t a simple case where the computer drivers are a little aggressive, because they usually aren’t racing to be destructive. They never seem to specifically go out of their way to attack, they just don’t seem to be able to see where you are, and make no effort to react to your presence. You happen to be in their way, so they plow through from behind, ram from the side, and generally just knock you around as if you were invisible.

A side effect to this is something I’ve started noticing in games that bear the Sumo Digital name: computer drivers can hit you way harder than you can hit them back. Whether rubbing against a rival car or engaging in a full-on collision, computer drivers always seem to be able to overpower player vehicles no matter what. In Hotshot Racing, I’ve encountered multiple scenarios where a computer driver shoves me around with little effort, but any attempts to return the favor and my car may as well be made out of styrofoam for how little impact there is. I know Sumo Digital only assisted Lucky Mountain Games on the back half of developing Hotshot Racing, but this has been a consistent element I’ve noticed in Sumo’s Sonic Racing games, too. The computer can be as aggressive (or as blind) as they want, but human players are never allowed to retaliate in a way that feels meaningful.

The worst, by far, is what I mentioned earlier: rubberbanding. “First place” in Hotshot Racing is an often endless war of attrition, where no matter how fast you drive, there are always cars nipping at your heels. Hotshot Racing has a boost system, wherein by drifting or drafting you charge up a segmented meter. Once a segment is full, you can burn it for a burst of speed. I’ve spent 2, 3, even 4 consecutive boosts in a row and the same three opponents were still right behind me, aiming to blindly smash my car out of the way. Hard, medium, or easy mode, it doesn’t matter. They are always there, just a few feet from your rear bumper, magically closing the distance to constantly steal your lead.

From a game design perspective, I understand why rubberbanding exists. It’s to keep the player feeling challenged and engaged. Spending too long in first place going unopposed can start to feel boring. Some game designers view that as a turn off. Races are meant to be battles. At the same time, being able to totally shut out my opponents and gain huge leads makes me feel good. Hotshot Racing robs you of that sense of total domination because of some artificial rule of competitiveness. It’s not that the computer-controlled racers are better than you; they don’t seem to race with any sort of great care or skill. Instead, they catch up and pass you strictly because the Hand of God bends the rules to accommodate them. That doesn’t feel very challenging and it certainly doesn’t feel fair.

That being said, the pseudo-realistic physics mentioned earlier do have their own downside: I found it a little too easy to lose control of my vehicle and spin out. If you brush against a wall wrong or get bumped by a rival during a drift, you often find yourself in a tailspin and unable to recover. Combined with the blind artificial intelligence and the rubberbanding, you have a recipe for getting frustrated. I want to feel confident in my losses, not because I couldn’t predict what Mr. Magoo was going to do next. To add insult to injury, the rubberbanding only gets more prominent as you move up in difficulty, so expect to get spun out more and more as you progress through the game.

There also isn’t a lot to do with your vehicles, either. For many, tuning is an important aspect of racing games, going all the way back to 1989’s “Super Off Road” in the arcades. No upgrade path is available for any of the vehicles in Hotshot Racing, with a basic unlock system geared towards limited cosmetic tweaks. There's tons of tracks to race on, and you constantly earn currency for winning races, but I never cared about spending any of it, because there wasn't much worth buying. Arguably the specific mid-90′s era that Hotshot Racing is aiming at wasn’t really heavy on upgrading or modifying around vehicle stats, but neither were they focused on visual customization either, so it does feel a little arbitrary what they chose to modernize about this experience and what is intended to be a retro tribute.

Beyond standard racing, Hotshot does offer a few alternative modes, but none of them are spotlight features. “Barrel Barrage” has you earning an explosive barrel to drop behind you at every checkpoint until the track becomes a minefield. “Drive or Explode” takes the concept of 1994’s “Speed” and straps a bomb to your car that will explode if you slow down for too long. Finally, “Cops & Robbers” is a confusing push-and-pull where you must steal money as a robber and alternatively wreck other racers as a police officer. Of the three modes, “Drive or Explode” is the clear winner, as it most easily fits into the standard three-lap structure the game centers around. “Barrel Barrage” is merely okay, and benefits more from an increased number of laps, as things slowly get more and more dangerous as you progress. These modes would also benefit if I didn’t get thrown back to the menu after every race; they really needed some kind of Grand-Prix-style playlist.

“Cops & Robbers” deserves its own entire paragraph for what a weird idea it is. It’s less about stealing and arresting and has more in common with the “zombie” modes seen in other games, where everyone gets converted to a specific team until there are no more players left. The idea is that you start with a pot of money that slowly depletes, and you have to race to the next checkpoint to cash out. The faster you get there and the higher amounts you cash out with, the more the cops specifically will target you. Once they wreck your car, you become one of the cops, and it’s your job to wreck the remaining robbers until they all become part of the cop team. Once all the robbers become cops, winners are tallied based on who stole the most money. On paper, this works, because it plays into the game’s slap-happy nature, but in practice I would find myself miles ahead of my fellow robbers and once I finally switched over to a cop, I had to slam on my brakes and wait for everyone else to catch up. By then, the computer-controlled cops had usually done most of my work for me and I lost for... being a better robber than a cop, somehow? It left a lot to be desired.

All of these modes can be played online, where presumably human players would make them more balanced and fun, but finding random pick-up games proved difficult in the time I spent with Hotshot Racing. Now, to be fair, I didn’t try especially hard -- racing games have always been a single player experience for me, as should be obvious by my spiel on artificial intelligence. But I did spend a couple nights trying to match into an online “Quick Race” on the Switch, where I universally came up empty handed. On the PC version of Hotshot Racing (which I received as part of a Humble Bundle), the application completely froze upon trying to start a “Quick Race” lobby, forcing me to ALT+F4 to close the game. For what it’s worth, the Switch version does also include a “local multiplayer” option for playing wirelessly with friends in the same room, and all versions support traditional split-screen.

Despite all of these shortcomings, I just can’t bring myself to hate Hotshot Racing, and it’s hard to pinpoint why. I’m definitely in love with this aesthetic -- the retro visuals, the upbeat music, the blue, blue skies (that I see), it all appeals to a certain part of my brain that likes razor-sharp, ultra-clean polygons. The introduction of named racers with backstories and character-specific “endings” is a really smart, fun idea. I just wish it was more fun to actually, like… run a race in this game. I understand the necessity behind concepts like rubberbanding, but it feels like the artificial intelligence cheats just a little too much, and as a player I don’t feel like I can do a lot to fight back. Running a good race isn’t always good enough.

Some games deliberately incite a feeling of disempowerment in their players, and that can be a totally valid design decision. But should that really be the goal of this kind of racing game? I guess I don’t have an answer for that, but I do know that I probably won’t be going back to Hotshot Racing very often.

#writing #review #hotshot racing #lucky mountain games #sumo digital #artificial intelligence #racing apex

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wolfgabe · 4 years

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Luigis Mansion 3 review

Now I will make one thing clear right now. I did not grow up with the original Luigis Mansion on Nintendo Gamecube, My introduction to the series came in the form of Dark Moon which then led me to the original LM remake on 3DS. And now I have just finished Luigis Mansion 3 the latest in the trilogy as well as the series return to a full fledged home console. How does it hold up against its predecessors and is this a Hotel worth checking out? Well let’s find out shall we

NOTE This review will primarily be focusing on the main campaign of the game. I won’t be discussing any of the multiplayer modes since I have yet to get into those.

The story begins with Luigi and the rest of the Mario Gang having received an invitation to a 5 star luxury hotel known as the Last Resort and at first everything seems all fine and peaches but in no time at all in a somewhat sickening sense of Deja Vu it turns out the entire thing unsurprisingly was all a ruse perpetrated by Hotel Owner Hellen Gravely as part of a plot by King Boo to capture Luigi and friends. What I can’t help but enjoy in the games opening moments that classic sense of how its plainly obvious to the player something isn’t quite right. Yeah nothing suspicious about the hotel staff wearing creepy masks no sir. Fortunately Luigi manages to escape and inevitably ends up running into Professor E Gadd who ended up meeting a similar fate. From there it becomes a trek upward through the Last Resort to find your missing companions and stop whatever King Boo has planned. Fairly standard stuff for a Mario Story but its serviceable and gets the narrative out nice and clear.

Now onto the gameplay. If you are familiar with Dark Moon much of the combat will be highly familiar to you. You use your strobulb to flash ghosts which stuns them allowing you to vacuum them up. The Dark Light returns as well which pretty much serves the same functions as before One difference to the combat though comes in the form of the slam attack which more or less replaces the Power Surge from Dark Moon. In some ways I actually like this new change as it has applications both as a form of crowd control as well as a puzzle solving tool to an extent more on that in a bit. Another new ability is the burst which is triggered by pressing both shoulder buttons. This is primarily used as another form of crowd management during fights as well as a means to activate certain mechanisms as well as being used in some boss battles to either to dodge attacks or to help expose a bosses weak point. The third new ability is the suction shot which allows you to attach a plunger with a rope to an object which can then be pulled on. Next to the Dark Light the suction shot is probably your biggest puzzle solving tool period. Not only can it be used to destroy objects and furniture when combined with the slam but many of the games bosses practically require it. Don’t be surprised either if you find yourself compulsively firing plungers everywhere just to see what you can grab onto which is often rewarded with you finding more gold or collectibles. The final new skill and probably the most important one at that comes in the form of Gooigi a flubber esque doppleganger of Luigi that can be summoned at any time by pressing in on the right stick. You unlock him not far into the story but once you do this is where the game really starts to open up puzzle wise. Gooigi has a few distinct advantages over Luigi mainly being not effected by spikes and other hazards as well as being able to slip through pipes and metal grates to access new areas. But don’t think you can just use Gooigi all the time as his advantages are offset by a number of key weaknesses chief of which being he doesn’t handle water very well and he has less overall health than Luigi. These are pretty much all the skills you will be using through the whole game although there is one other ability you unlock relatively late in the game but its incredibly situational being only required once with other cases just being to retrieve a few optional collectibles.

Now how bout that Last Resort. The hotel itself is divided up between 17 floors total consisting of 15 main floors and two basement levels Unlike Dark Moon, Luigis Mansion 3 goes back to the single building setup of the first game but its amazing really how Next Level has managed to pack so much variety into a hotel. Initially you will be exploring typical hotel trappings such as state rooms, gift shops, and a dining area. However its not long before the floors start becoming more increasingly outlandish. One floor might have you exploring a medieval castle while in another floor you will be exploring a full fledged film studio to help a ghost director find his prized megaphone before ending up being cast in his own monster movie. Then you have a floor that somehow contains an entire Egyptian Pyramid riddled with booby traps. I could go on and on but I will keep the rest of the floors a secret so I don’t give everything away. Progression itself is relatively straight forward basically involving you traveling to a new floor solving some puzzles and fighting some ghosts before taking down the boss ghost of the area which generally rewards you with the elevator button to the next floor. If there is one niggle I have its that some floors seem somewhat more underutilized than others. Generally floors tend to alternate between being miniature dungeons and dedicated boss arenas. But I will say the more expansive floors really is where the level design really shines in the puzzle department The film studio floor being a major highlight with how you need to figure out the connections and interplay between various film sets. There were quite a few puzzles that actually did end up stumping me for a bit. Luigi’s focus on greater thinking and using your head is a perfect contrast to Mario’s general focus on platforming and action. The amount of interactivity packed into every area is impressive itself with each floor almost feeling like a miniature physics sandbox begging you to suck and smash everything. And your curiosity and rampant destruction is often rewarded with with piles of treasure or one of the floors 6 gems. The physics model is impressive in itself as smaller objects are easily brushed aside while larger items require your Poltergust to budge. It’s quite a treat especially during heated fight scenes with ghosts as you are slamming an enemy around and inadvertently smashing apart the room even more.

And I can’t help but discuss Luigi’s Mansion 3 without talking about the bosses. These are basically the successors to the portrait ghosts from the first Luigi’s Mansion and I will say without a doubt they are probably Luigi’s Mansion 3′s biggest highlight. These aren’t just glorified mini bosses that you have to take down for a key to another room, no these are full fledged bosses with their own fleshed out personalities and strategies. Each one serves as a perfect bookend to cap off their respective floor. A bumbling security guard with a squirt gun, a concert pianist with serious anger issues, a prehistoric caveman. an Egyptian ghost queen, and a trio of magician sisters are just a handful of the spooks you will encounter during your stay. I must admit I was surprised myself how many of the bosses can pose a decent challenge especially if you don’t know what your doing. These aren’t the typical Mario fare of 3 bops on the head and you’re done. Many of the later bosses especially will really test your knowledge and understanding of all your abilities in many cases forcing you to get creative with the tools you have. With one or two exceptions including a somewhat underwhelming final boss, these are probably some of the most memorable bosses I have seen in a Mario series game to date.

And the graphics, hot damn the graphics. The advancements made in graphics technology over the past 20 years has done wonders for video games in terms of presentation and Luigi’s Mansion 3 is a clear testament to that fact. In an age where developers seem to be trying to push more and more for the most realistic graphics possible, here you have companies like Nintendo to remind people that show that cartoon artstyles can really shine on modern hardware. Dark Moon was a wonderful showcase piece for the 3DS both graphically and technically although at times it felt like the game was a bit too much for the system it was made for. Now being free from the shackles of the weaker 3DS hardware has really allowed Next Level Games to go all out on the presentation and it definitely shows. The amount of care and detail packed into every corner of The Last Resort is second to none helping give every floor its own distinct identity. The games opening moments are a real treat with some pretty gorgeous lighting serving to highlight the initial grand opulence of the The Last Resort before the darkness takes over and the hotel reveals its true form. Its at this time the lighting really starts to shine with plenty of instances of dynamic lighting, shadows and reflections. Luigi’s Mansion 3 may lack the buttery smooth framerate of Super Mario Odyssey but I feel the sacrifice in performance has been justified and balanced out perfectly. Some of the performance warts from Dark Moon have also been lanced with the game maintaining a rock solid 30 frames per second throughout. And I can’t talk about graphics without discussing the animation quality. With Dark Moon Next Level was able to demonstrate how one can really highlight Luigi’s bumbling and cowardly personality and here that expressiveness has been cranked up to 11. I cant help but crack a smile seeing Luigi shaking in terror at the presence of ghosts or reacting with surprise every time an elevator button magically flies out of his hand and screws itself into place . The bosses themselves are also a highlight with each one being wonderfully animated which helps highlight their personalities and quirks especially in the numerous cut scenes showing their interactions with Luigi which there are plenty of. I admit at times I couldn’t help but feel it was almost like I was looking at a borderline interactive Pixar movie. Each floor also has a ton of its own exclusive items and assets further cementing each floors sense of depth and identity.

There are also plenty of other little details and easter eggs to enjoy as well such as how you communicate with E Gadd using a modified Virtual Boy complete with a joke about the system’s absolute failure or the amount of pizza boxes that litter Mario’s hotel room. Or how about the fact that the boo and gem locator items you can purchase from E Gadd resemble actual Virtual Boy cartridges. And yes, you can in fact pet Polterpup in this game.

In terms of additional content each floor has 6 gems for you to find plus a Boo that appears once the floor has been cleared. The gems themselves are the source of some of the games strongest puzzles often testing your abilities as well as your awareness of your surroundings. Hunting Boos is relatively similar to how it was in Dark Moon in that you examine the correct object based on the intensity of your controllers vibration then stun the Boo with your Dark Light before slamming it into submission. Both Gems and Boos provide a good incentive to revisit previous floors although the rewards you get for finding them all are relatively underwhelming mainly just being some minor cosmetic items.

To wrap things up there are a few minor gripes I have with the game. For one thing you are unable to remap controller bindings. Now this isn’t a major dealbreaker at all and the controls work fine for the most part but it can make certain actions such as using the dark light awkward since the dark light is mapped to the X button which makes it pretty much impossible to use the light and aim with the right analog stick at the same time. You do have the ability to aim via gyro controls but its mainly limited to just up and down. You can however make things a bit more comfortable by enabling move while poltergusting in the options menu. Some people may also be disappointed by the lack of interconnectedness between floors. Each floor is more or less its own self contained level which means you won’t be encountering any puzzles on one floor that effect the other. There are a few instances during the story when you will be required to revisit a previous floor but they are relatively far and few between. While there are the aforementioned items to purchase from E Gadd they basically amount to gold bones which act as extra lives and Boo and Gem locators which are somewhat pointless since no doubt many people will likely just resort to a guide to find the more obscure Boos and Gems. You will likely feel inclined to avoid spending as much as possible especially since like the first Luigi’s Mansion you are ranked at the end based on how much treasure you found.

On an additional note, I didn’t encounter any major glitches during the game except for a minor bug I ran into where the music suddenly cut out during a boss battle but that was pretty much it.

Ultimately, I find I highly enjoyed my stay in Luigi’s Mansion 3. This is no doubt one of my top picks for Nintendo Game of the Year. It may have taken over a decade but I think Luigi has finally cemented himself firmly and proven he can indeed stand apart from his brother on his own two feet. If you decide to book a stay at The Last Resort you won’t be disappointed. I think its safe to say Next Level Games has cemented itself firmly as one of Nintendo’s top partner studios and I can only imagine what the future holds next for our favorite green underdog.

In the end I would rate Luigis Mansion 3 an 8/9 out of 10

EDIT Just a quick correction but I found the aiming issue can be in fact easily mitigated as the suction shot, strobulb, and dark light can all be activated with the L and R buttons.

#luigis mansion 3 #nintendo #nintendo switch #review #luigi

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small-leviathan · 6 years

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The themes of the Splatoon series

(Heads up, this essay analysing Splatoon is literally 2300 words long. You’re gonna be for a while if you decide to stick around.)

In case you've missed it until now, Splatoon has taken the world by storm. Nintendo's cephalopod-based multiplayer shooter series has sold almost 12 million copies across two games in just about three years, and as a result of this still young franchise has cemented itself as one of the legendary Japanese game developer's new hallmark series. Nintendo seems inclined to agree, as Splatoon's central Inkling characters have been featured prominently in the marketing for their latest game in the prestigious crossover series, Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, with the Inkling girl even earning a prominent spot on the game's cover art alongside titans like Mario, Donkey Kong and Link.

So perhaps some of you would scoff at the idea that Splatoon has a deeper message behind it than it first appears. Nintendo isn't really known for baking thought-provoking stuff into their games, and this seems like it'd be doubly true for a game that is first-and-foremost a competitive multiplayer shooter. I don't know if I'll be able to convince you otherwise, honestly, but I do sincerely believe that Splatoon has something to say and in this essay, I will explain why I believe that to be the case, and just what that thing is.

Let's start by describing the most important elements of Splatoon's narrative, and just as a heads up, I think it goes without saying that I will be spoiling pretty much every major reveal across all of Splatoon 1, Splatoon 2, and its DLC, Octo Expansion. Splatoon is set twelve thousand years after global warming and environmental pollution has wiped out mankind as well as most mammals. Having taken our place is a large assortment of evolved sea critters, including crabs, jellyfish and most prominently, cephalopods. Squids and octopi alike have evolved the ability to shift into humanoid forms, becoming known as inklings and octarians, respectively. Unfortunately, our squishy successors didn't get along very well, as rising sea levels forced them into a violent conflict known as the Great Turf Wars. This conflict was eventually won by the Inklings, letting them claim the surface while the octarians were forced into hiding in great underground cities.

Splatoon proper takes place a hundred years later, and the Octarians have been reduced to just a distant memory in the mind of Inkling society. Trouble is brewing under the surface, however, as the leader of the Octarians, DJ Octavio, is planning an attack on the hub city of Inklingkind, Inkopolis. The player takes control of a customizable inkling who is recruited by the military veteran Cap'n Cuttlefish to help take down the Octarian menace before they can start their campaign. Along the way the player, now dubbed as "Agent 3", is helped not only by Cap'n Cuttlefish, but by his granddaughters Agent 1 and Agent 2, who are eventually revealed to be the two members of the pop idol duo The Squid Sisters, Callie and Marie (to no one's surprise, the game does not try very hard to conceal their identities). Long story short, Agent 3 defeats the Octarians, ending in a grand battle against DJ Octavio. The Octarian threat is defeated and DJ Octavio is captured, with inkling society none the wiser.

Splatoon 2 unfolds two years after the events of the first game, and a lot has changed. Callie and Marie have drifted apart, following a popularity contest ending in Marie's favour, and taking their place as the number one musical act is a new duo known as Off the Hook, consisting of the rapper Pearl and the DJ Marina (who looks suspiciously like an Octarian, but more on that later). Marie discovers that DJ Octavio has escaped his containment, and now alone due to Cap'n Cuttlefish and Agent 3 having gone on a new mission and Callie suddenly disappearing in the midst of a trip, she is forced to follow her grandfather's footsteps and recruit a new Agent, this one being our new playable character, Agent 4. Not much is different from that point onward, except for the eventual reveal that DJ Octavio is responsible for Callie's disappearance, having kidnapped her after he escaped and is now brainwashing her with a pair of hypnotic sunglasses. Nonetheless, Callie is saved and DJ Octavio is defeated once again.

You might be wondering why I bothered to explain all of the plot of Splatoon's singleplayer content, and the reason for that is that I believe that understanding all of this is necessary to explain the first and most important of Splatoon's themes: The positive power of pop culture and self-expression.

Splatoon heavily encourages that the player uses its system to express themselves. Aside from having character creation, there is an emphasis on fashion, both in the culture of the inklings themselves and in the gameplay proper, with the player having access to a wide variety of clothes, headwear and shoes with which to accessorize their characters. It might be easy, perhaps even tempting, to read this in a cynical manner and characterize inklings as a bunch of shallow trend-chasers, slaves to consumerist fads built to wring as much cash out of them as possible. And this interpretation is, in all honesty, valid, but it's certainly not a philosophical standpoint that Splatoon itself agrees with. The game encourages mixing and experimenting with its fashions, but all of that fashion is bought with a currency that you earn by playing the multiplayer game, which in-universe is explained to be a kind of competitive shooting sport, not unlike paintball, that seems to be the hyperfixation of every single inkling teen like the player character. It's a bit hard to read the game's take on fashion as cynical when you literally earn money by doing something you were not only going to do anyway but were also actively seeking out and enjoying. The multiplayer mode itself is also encouraging self-expression, in a way, due to there being a wide variety of weapons available, all of which feel distinct and unique, allowing the player find the ones they like the most and use only those. This isn't "do tireless work to keep spending money", it's "do the things you like to get the things you like." And I feel like that is a very clear subversion of consumerist culture, unless you feel like pointing out that Splatoon itself is something you have to spend money on to play and therefore it is inherently a part of consumerist culture, in which case, alright then, Holden Caulfield, don't you have anything better to do?

Moving on, there is also a massive focus on music in the setting, with a lot of different fictional bands, all of which sound completely unlike each other. Crucially, the "pop music" in Splatoon is not as heavily standardized as our own pop music is, in Inkopolis everything from the Bottom Feeders' Celtic rock to Chirpy Chips' chiptune to Diss-Pair's... whatever they are, can find mainstream success and popularity. Perhaps the most telling sign that Splatoon thinks music is important is that all of the most important characters are artists, from Callie and Marie to Pearl and Marina and even the antagonist himself, DJ Octavio.

That said, there is a very important distinction to be made here. In an interview with Famitsu from 2015, series art director Seita Inoue stated that the music that plays during the singleplayer levels is composed by DJ Octavio and his subordinates, and that "it’s like the Octo side broadcasts their music in order to control the many Octarians.” When this is combined with the fact that DJ Octavio uses a pair of sunglasses to brainwash Callie, I think it's clear that the true face of his villainy is shown. DJ Octavio isn't just the antagonist because he's the final boss, but because he takes music and fashion, which the game has established as ways in which to express personal freedom, and repurposes them as tools of control and oppression. DJ Octavio is literally the antithesis of Inkling society and Inkling values.

There is one final point I want to make, but it requires delving into Octo Expansion a bit to explore, so we'll start that now. Octo Expansion is the paid singleplayer DLC for Splatoon 2, adding a pretty sizable new story campaign. In this new story, the player takes the role of an Octoling (the Octarian equivalent of an Inkling, though I will be using two terms rather interchangeably in the rest of the essay) who wakes up in an underground subway with no memories. Here, they meet Cap'n Cuttlefish, who explains that they had been in a fight with him and Agent 3 before all three of them got swept away to the locale they are now in. As Agent 3 has gone missing, Cap'n Cuttlefish teams up with our amnesiac player character to find a way out of the subway, giving them the nickname Agent 8 in the process. Along the way, the two of them end up coming into contact with Pearl and Marina, the previously mentioned music duo, who resolve to help Agent 8 and Cap'n Cuttlefish escape. A lot of things happen between the start and beginning of the story, but I want to focus on the most important revelation: Marina is revealed to have been a high-ranking member of the Octarian military who deserted after the final battle between Agent 3 and DJ Octavio in Splatoon 1, and was inspired to become an artist after hearing the Squid Sisters perform their iconic hit song Calamari Inkantation, the very same song that was stated to have inspired Agent 8's desertion as well. Calamari Inkantation was always played up as being a very special song, as said by Marina herself: "Once our souls have been freed, there's no way we can continue to live under the oppression of Octarian society."

So at this point, it's not even subtextual but literally textual, Splatoon sincerely believes that music has liberating properties, able to make people realize that they're being held back by societal structures and also gain the willpower to break free of those shackles. The lines are very clearly drawn here: In Inkopolis music and fashion are ways in which people express themselves and therefore it is an idyllic and diverse place, but Octarian society is an oppressive dystopia where these things are used to control the populace. To really hammer the point home, in the final battle of Octo Expansion, in which the very fate of the world hangs in the balance, the day is saved by Pearl and Marina (and Agent 8) working together and combining their talents and technology to destroy the giant superweapon threatening their home. The world is literally saved by a pair of musicians. It doesn't get more explicit than that.

There are two more themes I think Splatoon play with, but to a much lesser extent than the one previously mentioned. The first of these is the importance of moving on and not being stuck in the past. This is an explicit character trait in both of the central antagonists. DJ Octavio, who was the leader of the Octarians in the Great Turf Wars a hundred years ago, has been holding a grudge against the inklings for all this time when he could have been focusing on trying to improve his people’s living conditions, or even broker peace with the Inklings, who clearly don't have an issue with a bunch of Octolings running around following the events of Octo Expansion. The second case study is the antagonist from Octo Expansion, Commander Tartar. An ancient AI built by a human scientist before their extinction to pass on their knowledge to whatever species inherited the world to come, Commander Tartar fails this mission because it holds humans on such a high pedestal that it sees the flaws of the Inklings and Octarians as proof they aren't worthy to pass the torch to, and resolves to wipe them both out and create its own "perfect species" instead. Additionally, I think it's worth mentioning that the weapon it plans do this is with is a repurposed statue resembling a Greek marble bust, a relic of the past that becomes a literal metaphor for how Commander Tartar's mindset is destructive.

The second of these themes is the recurring motif that despite all of their differences and their conflicts Inklings and Octarians become complete when working together. The first sign of this is their opposite traits as species, Inklings are energetic, flighty and have a short attention span while Octarians are more serious, work-focused and obedient. It's pretty clear that both could stand to learn from each other's positive traits, and a bit of dialogue from Marina in Octo Expansion implies that she hopes as much. Off the Hook themselves are also an example of this theme in action, Pearl had trouble finding herself as an artist and was not doing very well before meeting Marina, and it's through Pearl that Marina gains the chance to follow her dream, and their cooperation makes them so successful that they become Inkopolis' number one artists. This theme is also a part of the final battle of Octo Expansion, as mentioned earlier, as it is the cooperation of Inklings and Octarians that saves the day.

If there's anything to take away from this overly wordy essay, it's this: Splatoon wants you to know that there is no shame in enjoying "shallow" pop culture, that there is meaning even in things not deemed "high culture". Splatoon wants you to know that the value of something lies not in the value of its production, but in what it expresses and the joy it brings to the people observing it, and the people making it.

Because to Splatoon, these simple things have the power to unite, to free us, and ultimately to save the world.

And personally? I think that's a pretty worthwhile message.

#splatoon #splatoon 2

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redqueenmiku · 5 years

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Why do you dislike Rosalina? Is it because of how she appears more often? If so, she has been a spin-off regular for quite some time now. I do think it was a bit odd for her to get into Smash and in a platformer before Daisy, but I like the character regardless. She is a unique and gorgeous addition to the cast. Before you ask, I adore all three of the Mario ladies equally!

Well, thankfully, I already had something typed up specifically for this occasion. It was going to be its own post, but I think an ask is a perfect segue into releasing this thing I’ve had lying around wondering whether I should post.

Now, DISCLAIMER: I’m not trying to tell anyone they shouldn’t like Rosalina. This is just the reason why I personally dislike the character. This is an opinion piece. Nothing more.

Also spoiler: I do dwell on her game appearances for a while, but that’s not the only thing I touch on.

If any of you read all that’s ahead, thank you so much for taking the time to hear me out and please excuse any pettiness I may display. Thank you.

Now, welcome to a rant I like to call…

DEATH BY OVER-HYPE: THE RISE AND FALL OF ROSALINA

Now, as we all know, Rosalina first appeared in 2007’s Super Mario Galaxy. In said game, she served as Mario’s guide, being the caretaker of the game’s spaceship hub world, the Comet Observatory, and its residents, the Lumas. She was regal, mysterious, and motherly with a stoic yet kind air to her. You really got the sense that she was unlike any character in the series beforehand. She was powerful and she was in a league of her own.

This same game also gave us Rosalina’s backstory in the form of her storybook. She was just a normal girl until she found a Luma and a broken spaceship. She helped the Luma repair the spaceship and set off into space with it to find its lost mother. Along the way, she took in more Lumas, who became her family as she traveled through space. There’s something about a dead mother in there that I thought was way better explained than it actually was and then the first Luma Rosalina met transformed into the Comet that became the Comet Observatory. It’s a touching story.

After that, Rosalina began appearing rather frequently. Of course, she regularly showed up in Mario Kart starting just a year after her debut, but she also stepped foot into Mario Party, Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Mario Sports Superstars, the Mario and Sonic series, and even bit cameos like the Mario Mash-Up pack for Minecraft or as a sprite in the moon-themed areas of Super Mario Odyssey. I have no complaint about any of these appearances. They’re all either inevitable and open to all sorts of characters already or, in the case of Super Mario Odyssey, it fits her role.

Now allow me to complain about a select few appearances that really get on my nerves.

Now, games like Mario Kart and Mario Party and all that make sense. Those are games where all sorts of characters show up and it makes sense for the most distinct characters to make constant appearances. Rosalina was always going to be a regular for those.

What I can’t excuse is three very specific games.

The first is Puzzles and Dragons: Super Mario Bros. Edition. Now, this might seem like a really weird game to be bringing up, but, when you really think about it, it’s really messed-up that Rosalina appears in this game. The only other non-enemy characters playable in this game are Mario, Luigi, Toad, Yoshi, and Peach. Rosalina has absolutely no reason to be in this game, yet here she is.

You know what other game Rosalina has absolutely no reason to be in? Super Mario 3D World.

Super Mario 3D World was Rosalina’s fifth appearance in the franchise and her very first playable appearance…in a game that takes place in another world, the Sprixie Kingdom, and whose only playable characters are franchise staples Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad in a throwback to the US version of Super Mario Bros 2. Rosalina has zero reason to be in this game, much less be a prominent playable character.

Then, there’s the biggest blow of them all, which came just one year after 3D World: Super Smash Bros.

If Rosalina hadn’t appeared in Super Mario 3D World, there would be absolutely zero merit to putting her in Smash Bros considering that, outside that single instance, she was made no more important than any other character in the Mario series and she had never done anything to merit a Smash appearance. Because Super Mario 3D World exists, though, she has to appear in Smash, right?

And then there’s a point that I’ve had yet to bring up: the existence of Baby Rosalina. Like, gee. Rosalina sure warrants a baby form that goes against her entire backstory, doesn’t she? Let’s just do that.

By now, my biggest problem with Rosalina should be readily apparent. Rosalina shot to favorite child status way too quickly and her most egregious appearances are nothing more than blatant fanservice.

There’s an old document I have where I try to talk about my distaste for Rosalina. The explanation was really poorly thought out and filled with a lot of salt that didn’t need to be there, but one particular section I can still get behind is one where I essentially compare Rosalina to Shadow the Hedgehog. I think the comparison is still rather relevant.

Once you really start thinking about it, Rosalina really has this kind of Shadow the Hedgehog syndrome, not in the personality itself, but in how her creators treat her. Both characters were created for a specific purpose in a specific game in already well-established franchises with a lot of characters already, but gained an explosion of popularity due to popular aspects in their characters along with their compelling backstories that shot them past the other characters into a place where they’re now used in just about every game including ones they have no place in and are touted by their fandoms as some of the best characters to ever exist.

One major difference between Shadow and Rosalina, though, is that Shadow is actually a really well-developed character that has developed even beyond where he first came from. This is the effect of being part of a largely story-driven franchise that has allowed Shadow to evolve and come into his own. He’s earned his place among the cast through meaningful interaction.

Rosalina is cursed with coming from a franchise that doesn’t even have well-established characters much less any kind of evolving story. Rosalina just…exists, meaning she can’t do anything to really make herself fit in being who she is. Her personality constantly fluctuates to the point where the most I can tell you about her personality is that “she’s nice”. The rest of the main characters in the franchise all come from the same world and regularly interact with each other. This has the negative effect of making Rosalina feel like an outsider. She doesn’t need to be there in any instance and any time she is it just feels like going out of her way to be there, which would be fine if Nintendo wasn’t trying to sell her as this mature, introverted character that’s supposed to contrast the rest of the cast. She’s constantly contradicting herself left and right and it doesn’t feel like Nintendo ever really knows what to do with her but shove her in everywhere they can because “she’s popular, right?”.

That would be the reason I don’t like Rosalina. She doesn’t fit in, but Nintendo keeps trying to shove her where she doesn’t belong. She doesn’t have a consistent identity outside of the one from Galaxy that she keeps contradicting all the time and she’s been in games she has absolutely no business being in for absolutely no justifiable reason.

Now, maybe I’m just being over-critical, but this is something I personally feel very strongly about. Rosalina is one of the most overrated characters in existence in my opinion and it’s gotten to the point where I don’t even want to see her anymore, even in places that she does belong. She’s been absolutely ruined for me by Nintendo’s practices concerning the Mario franchise and I can’t even stand her anymore.

Yes, it’s petty, but that’s just me.

At the end of the day, I know that this is just my opinion. I hope no one came to this rant expecting otherwise. I just wanted to make clear my emotions about this character. If you’ve made it to this point, thank you for hearing me out. Have a nice day.

(oh this is going to be sooooooo controversiallllll….)

#anon #Rosalina #rant #hoo boy i can smell the torches already #i'm so sorry

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myfriendpokey · 5 years

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GARBAGE DAY!

a bunch of scrappy shorter pieces to clean out my drafts folder for the new year!

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A videogame will tend towards exhausting every possible variation of a design space whether anyone wants it to or not.

Videogames and duration - if something is good it should continue being good however long you extend it. You don't really encounter the idea that something can be good for a little while and then be evil.

***

Works of art are "in conversation" with their audience, with materials, with history, with each other. The aim of an artwork is to start, or add to, "the conversation". "Conversation" sort of edges out the older tic whereby art "examines" or "explores" something, which always made me think of a big magnifying glass being propped up for the benefit of some eerily calm 1950s scientist. But now that sounds too chilly, and perhaps sort of sketchy in the power dynamics it implies. "Conversation" is much warmer, informal and more fluid - "conversation" is the assurance that any given power dynamic can be dissolved away in the warm glow of basic, mutual humanity. Let's talk it through! My door is always open! Whenever there's a complaint over labour conditions or harassment it's nearly de rigueur to also quote the wounded-sounding HR lackey, upset that people didn't talk to them about it before going public. Why would anybody deny the friendly, outstretched hand of the respected opponent and their entirely in-good-faith quibbling about word meanings, personality and tone? Why don't we have an honest conversation about the "honest conversation", that numbing discourse cloud sprayed out like formic acid to neutralize a threat, to melt any unsettling edges or contraries back into the familiar gloop of the private and the personal.

***

One of the pleasures of videogames is that of an infinitely repeatable, always identical procedure. Pressing the button makes something happen, and by pressing it again it will happen again in the same way. So there's a kind of abundance or excess built into the system - like partaking of a fruit which will never be depleted, and in the process taking on in your own actions something of that same infinity. You can temporarily identify with the self-identical, eternally reproducing action that you are performing. I think one of the difficulties of videogames is that as you get (slightly!) older, that immortal quality becomes more visibly alien, harder to align to your sense of self. That these mechanics act like black holes, able to absorb any amount of your life without ever being satiated, becomes a terrible curse rather than an unexpected gift. That endlessness now seems eerie and artificial, a horrible parody of life rather than the highest version of it.

The dadification of vgames has gone much remarked. But as well as a demographic shift I think this reflects a certain anxiety about the centrality of these immortal entities, these endless loops, within the culture. As reward for your fealty to the Mario brand you get even more Mario games, which by now you may not have time or energy to actually play. The VG dad (or even the buff, single pseudo-dads of the superhero movies) is eternally exhausted with the genre that he’s trapped in. We hear him groan and complain as he painfully slogs through the motions. The gratuitous loop is redeemed by the finite human suffering of the dad, as he manfully does what it takes to keep these things going forwards to the next generation, so that the next set of children may be able to actually take pleasure in them again. But the attempt to symbolically re-integrate these things into human life by casting them as a family drama never quite works: their ultimate indifference to that life shines through. A blind, eerie deathlessness is both their charm and their authority.

***

That saying that when all you have is a hammer everything else looks like a nail - similarly, when all you have is willpower, everything looks like an obstacle to be pounded into submission by that same willpower.

Laziness is a good thing in that it means stepping back from this idiot insatiability of the will. If you're lazy you have to pay more attention, because you're more aware of both your own limits and the limits of your material.

I think there can be value in suspending a formal problem rather than building an exhaustive system to solve it forever. That way it's still something you have to think about, something that still throws off and reroutes the normal workings of your awful private fantasy machine. Dropping text strings into the game as elements to spatially encounter is not ideal technically but does force you to be more responsive and exploratory with how you use that text. Robust systems can be cool, but can also really homogenize everything - now "text" is just the miscellaneous stuff within the all-purpose "textbox" at the bottom of the screen, cementing its role as filler content.

The funny thing about really systemic, open-world type games is that their very robustness tends to suffocate exprience before it happens. We know nothing will happen which will significantly impact this camera POV, this dialogue system.. anything can happen except for anything which would require a fundamental change to the underlying inventory system. But maybe the whole pleasure of the open world game is just being able to hold those experiences in suspense.

***

Mostly the characters voicing my own opinions in my videogames are explicitly malign and sinister - which is a corny device for me to vent without worrying as much about browbeating people with my opinions. But it's also a way of having those opinions without allowing them to overdetermine the rest of the game, or be fully in control over the more ambivalent and drifting work of "putting together different pieces on a screen to make interesting spaces". So in that sense my own ideas really are the enemies, and any plot role they serve in the game is a dramatisation of the effort to create a space where they lack controlling power.

***

RPG Maker is a collage machine, you get a set of pictures and start placing them around until they start to form some kind of charged and interesting space.

I think the collage aspect is a lot of what I enjoy about making these things, which is why games with more polished or consistent art styles frequently leave me cold. For me the greater the discrepancy between different objects on screen means a greater effect when they're combined.

How does gameplay etc tie in? For me gameplay can divert the interest but never truly capture it. For decades games have had the problem of effectively being able to train you to do something, but having no idea what that thing should be or why it would matter. They effectively move your attention around without being able to settle it because their inner logic is basically always the same ahistorical, mechanistic void. But this can be a good thing - the permanently restless and unsettled nature of videogame attention can't illuminate itself, but can do so to other things in passing.

Distraction becomes a way to examine surfaces, rather than being sucked into depths or settled to one fixed meaning. And the drift of unsettled consciousness is ultimately what animates game collages, the spaces that shift and react as attention plays across them, revealing or withholding. And so from this perspective, the answer to why I make videogames is: because I don't trust myself to look after an aquarium.

***

Design is managerial aesthetics - a mode of expertise framed as meta-expertise specifically because it scales up so well to systems of mass organisation and production. It's a universal discipline insofar as the task of removing any obstacles to the frictionless flow of attention and of capital is now also a universal chore. In this context a designer is like the MBA who can be dropped into any business to improve it, without ever having to know just what product they make – because the ultimate goal is always the same, the same tools can always be used.

The cutesy books about the design of everyday life and so forth exist in the same vein as the ones that tell us there's nothing wrong with marketing because ultimately isn't all human discourse and activity some form of marketing? Isn't everything "design"? The strange top-heaviness with which these things outgrow their host categories parallels the unstoppable expansion of executive salaries within the businesses themselves. The task of managing other people's labour becomes ever more grandoise, ineffable, cosmic and well-paid as that labour in turn is framed as a kind of undifferentiated slop which exists for the sake of being shaped by creatives.

***

tragedy / comedy:

Generalizing hugely I feel like tragedy is about an event or experience so powerful it changes everything - for the characters involved, for the people in that world, for the audience watching - while conversely comedy is the idea that no event or experience can change anything. Oedipus dies and there's a big announcement and everyone has to sit through the awkward two-minute silence before getting back to work, while trying not to fart or itch too noticeably, and the next day somebody's selling Oedipus commemorative pens which run out of ink five minutes after opening, and the pen cap gets lost and the cat starts playing with it.

In comedy the tragic can still happen, it’s just never strong enough to escape the constraints of the inert material universe which we find ourselves in – all that which remains so stubbornly intractable towards the higher instincts. I can talk about the dignity of man but there's still a risk that my pants will fall down or that someone will hit me with a ladder, causing my head to get stuck inside a bucket of paint, etc. Or my voice might be ridiculous or I might have a stutter (old comedy standbys!), or someone might hear part of my words out of context and assign them a different and unintended meaning. Comedy is consciousness imprisoned within a cumbersome matter which it can't completely do anything with, but also can't exist without.

Taken as a worldview, this sort of risks congealing into the kneejerk reactionary things-can-never-change, whatever-moment-of-human-history-i-was-reared-in-is-eternal-and-inviolate radio DJ / South Park mindset. And of course somebody's view of what constitutes a tragic, life-changing event depends greatly on whether it's happening to them or someone else. But as exaggeration, in its neurotic overemphasis of the inescapable material, i think this approach still has interest and use. Many of my favourite writers have a kind of comic understanding of consciousness: consciousness becomes a churning material process with its own independent momentum which has to be examined and accounted for as part of any real reckoning with the world. In this light comedy becomes a way to think about opacity and limitation, both in physical matter and in our own selves.

I think many people have made the point that vgames are generally comic, intentionally or unintentionally. The rhetoric around them still tends towards the tragic: make the choice which changes everything! Deal with the consequences, accept your fate! But in practice those moments feel less visible than the clumsy material layer of GUIs, inputs, mechanics and representations that contain and constrain them. The opacity of the black box is one inhibition: was that meant to happen? Was it scripted or a glitch? Maybe I should reload my save and try again. Another is the inertia of the various game systems and loops themselves - [x] character may have died but you still need to collect those chocobo racing feathers if you want the Gold Sword. The numbers in a videogame "want" to keep going up, whatever happens: there's an affordance there which exists independently to any merely human wants and needs, and so tends to act as a gravity well for distracted consciousness as it wanders around. When people talk about tragedy in videogames it's usually with the implicit rider that it's within a game, or set of game conventions, which have become naturalised enough to become invisible. Which also tends to mean the naturalisation of a form, of inputs, of technology, of distribution mechanisms and assumptions, which however arty we can get are still inherently tied to the tech industry. Every art game is to some extent an invitation to spend more time internalising the vocab of your windows computer.

I've mentioned that the materialism of comedy can tend towards unthinking reaction. But the insistence on certain limits inherent to the human body – requirements like clean water and clean air, food and shelter, actual bathroom breaks and not piss jugs and also not having to live six feet beneath a rising sea level - can be helpful at a point when all these things are regarded as negotiable impediments to the pursuit of future profit. Maybe it’s a good thing that some materials can still be so insistent about refusing to be absorbed into the will.

***

I think what I most enjoy about art is the sense of a game with moveable stakes: where you never quite know the value of what you're playing for, which now appears absolutely trivial, and now appears to stand in judgement of the whole world, etc. I think this is also the Adorno idea of the aesthetic as really the extra-aesthetic, that which can step outside or threaten to step outside the limits of the merely aesthetic. It's why "just make a good game / pop song / comic / etc" never quite works, in rhetoric or in practice: the really good pop song is never that which just gives the enjoyable three minutes of listening we might consciously assign to be its remit, it's what overflows or undercuts that category, that which however briefly seems at risk of stepping outside it and into the realm of everyday life.

I grew up on pop culture so I don't have to feel positively towards it. Who am I meant to be defending it from? The handful of surviving WASPs reared on Brahms who get the ostentatiously-fussy-culture-review posts at print newspapers looking to pick up a slightly higher quality of margarine advertisement? The best thing pop culture ever gave me was its own critique: that of containing artists and moments which couldn't be squared with what the rest of it was saying, which seemed to call the whole enterprise into question and in doing so broadened the sense of what was possible. Pop culture was never quite identified with itself, the value it has is in containing elements which make that self-identification impossible. So it always throws me off to see people celebrating "pop culture", like it's a self-produced totality, when that totality was only ever good for kicking.

Pop culture survives through a negativity it can never properly acknowledge.

[images: Tower of Druaga, Detana!! TwinBee, True Golf Classics: Wicked 18, Microsurgeon, Dark Edge]

#gamechat #criticism #vgames #garbage day

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sage-nebula · 6 years

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(do NOT reblog or I’ll delete the post and block you)

This past week I’ve really felt like I might be relapsing. I’ve been back on my nocturnal (i.e. normal for this hemisphere) sleep schedule for a while now, which leaves me constantly tired; I haven’t felt in the mood to eat anything, though I’ve been forcing myself to do so anyway at least; I’ve been finding it harder to think of myself as pretty or cute when I look in the mirror; my depression and anxiety have felt like they’re kicking up again despite the Lexapro, and the negative intrusive self-talk has gotten worse, to the point where I just blurted out, “I’m so stupid” one night for a simple mistake, and it took a moment before I corrected myself with, “No, I’m not stupid, I’m actually quite smart and intelligent, it just slipped my mind because I’m tired.”

This morning it was bad enough that I was actually fretting on my way to work about, what if the Lexapro is losing its effectiveness? I’m on a 10mg dosage now. We can still increase to 20mg, but I’m pretty sure that’s the limit. And even if it wasn’t, can it lose its effectiveness over a mere two months? Where does that leave me, if so? I don’t want it to lose its effectiveness. I want it to keep helping me. I need it to keep helping me.

All of that said, this evening I got a clue that my shark week is I think just starting (like this is the very very first day of it, not even the first full day), and when I realized that, my reaction was just, “Ah.” If that is the case, that . . . probably explains things, and also means that the Lexapro is likely not losing its effectiveness. That’s a relief.

But I still also have to remember that even if I relapse some, that doesn’t mean I’ve failed, or that it’s a permanent failure. If you’re climbing up a mountain, and you slip and fall back down part of the way, you can still climb back up. It will be painful, and hard, but so long as you’re alive---so long as I’m alive---I can do it. Relapses are a normal part of the recovery process, and recovery like what I have to go through is an ongoing journey without an end. I just have to keep climbing, and try not to feel too badly about myself during the periods when I slip and fall. I can climb back up, and get back to where I was, and I deserve to. I deserve to make and have that progress, and I don’t deserve to be hurt or treated badly, least of all by myself. I need to be in my own corner first and foremost, so my brain needs to start giving me consistent positive self-talk instead of negative. I need to keep working on that. I need to keep climbing.

Though I will say that certain recent events have had me thinking about my childhood and adolescence again, and the abuse I went through back then that left me with the C-PTSD I’m constantly trying to recover from now. And it’s little things from back then, too, like---there were really, really bad incidents, and some really, severely fucked up times I went through, and stories that are too personal or painful for me to share here (both because I don’t like thinking about them, but also because I don’t like to hand them over to others to use against me, as has happened in the past). But it’s also little things, like---I like to get physical copies of video games so that I can have the game cases lined up on my media shelf. I have the actual game cards in my Switch carrying case, so I can have them with me wherever I have my Switch, but I like having the cases on the shelf, and seeing them all lined up there. Counting them off, you know. And I was thinking about why I like this. I don’t think I’m a materialistic person, generally; I do want my house to look cool, but I’m not one of those people who, if I won the lottery, I’d by a sixty room mansion and fill it with pointless, but expensive, garbage. I’d keep my same place, my same car, all that. I don’t really want a life of luxury, I just want to live comfortably.

So I’m not overly materialistic, and I don’t value collecting things for the sake of collecting them . . . but I like seeing my cases lined up on the game shelf, and I’m just as excited to add more cases to that shelf as I am to play the new games as they come out. (Also, I wish that games like Celeste and Night in the Woods would get physical releases so I could add those cases to my shelf as well.) I was thinking about why this is, and I realized that it’s because I never had a lot of games in my youth. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve owned a lot of video game consoles in my life time, but for every console or handheld I had, I usually only had a handful of games. Like, I had six games for my N64 growing up. I think that back when the Gamecube was actually relevant, I had about seven games, and even then, over my lifetime I only got that number up to about twelve. And this isn’t a Dudley Dursley kind of temper tantrum competition game, wherein I whine about just not having enough games, because I did like and appreciate the games I had. But like, with the N64, I had those six games, and meanwhile my brother had over thirty to choose from. This was because I lived with my biological mother, whereas he lived with my dad and (step)mom, and our economic situations were very, very different. (Read: My biological mother was dirt poor and spent any money we did have, including the child support, on herself, whereas my brother had the middle class lifestyle with three parents and tons of extended relatives who doted on him and gave him anything he wanted.) And I never complained about this back then, but I remember feeling so impressed when I opened up his N64 cartridge case whenever I was at my dad’s house and saw all those games to choose from, whereas when I opened my own cartridge case (identical to his), it was . . . much emptier.

And then with the Gamecube (which I got later than everyone else because even though my dad sent me money to get one as a Christmas present, my biological mom took that money and spent it on herself), there was an extra level of messed up because my biological mom decided to run a scam with Wal-Mart for a while. Basically what she would do is she would buy things with a credit card, and then return them later to get cash money that she could then spend on necessities. (Why she didn’t just buy the necessities with the credit card instead of racking up credit card debt I don’t know. I stopped trying to figure out her thought processes a long time ago.) The reason why this is relevant to the story is because she decided the best way to do this was with video games. So when I was about thirteen, she told me to go to the games section and pick out a few games. I very excitedly ran over and picked some out, so happy I was getting to add some new ones to my library, and I remember specifically that Mario Kart: Double Dash was one of them, because I had wanted that for a very long time. We bought the games and went home. And when I went to go put Double Dash in to play it, she told me I couldn’t do that because we were going to return them. I was hurt and confused. I didn’t understand. And when I questioned her, she grew furious that I was back talking and arguing. I guess the one benefit is that I knew to choose games I wasn’t actually interested in the next time she used me to run the scam.

Anyway, this is all relevant because I wanted a bigger games library growing up, and I just didn’t have the opportunity to have it. Even after I moved out of her house, I never wanted to ask my parents for too much, not only because I felt the answer was likely to be “no,” but also because I was just grateful that Shiloh and I were away from my biological mother. And even after I started working, and especially after I moved out of my parents’ house and into my own apartment, I still didn’t have a lot of disposable income to spend on video games. Not only that, but I usually got new systems a couple years behind everyone else (with the 3DS being the first exception, but even then, I didn’t have a lot of disposable income at first so I couldn’t keep up with the library the way I wanted to), so trying to figure out which games to buy was a nightmare. The result of which being, although I helped form my university’s video game club back in my sophomore year (I was nineteen), I felt like the weak link of the officer squad. I loved video games, and I was pretty good at a lot of them, but I also was so inexperience compared with everyone else, who had way more games than I did.

But with the Switch, it’s different now. I got the Switch on launch day thanks to Christmas money allowing me to preorder it, and although I’m still supporting myself and still struggle bussing every month, the games I want are usually either a bit cheaper (such as Hollow Knight being only $15), or they’re spaced out enough so that I can afford them (+ I have credit cards I can use). Since I’ve had it since launch and I’ve been in this position since launch, I’ve been able to keep up with new releases. My library still isn’t huge (I have nine physical games, plus three digital that I love---and one of those digital games is getting a physical release in spring), but it’s growing, and I know I’ll add more games to it in the coming months. And I guess it’s important to me not because of materialism or anything like that, but because it’s symbolic that I’m at a place in my life now where I can grow this library, where I can do what I always wanted to, but never could as a kid. When I buy games myself, I know they’re mine, and no one can take them from me. And I’m here, in my own house, with my own media shelf (that I wallpapered with special starry paper I bought at Nijo Castle in Japan), and all of this---the house, the media shelf, the games---represent how far I’ve come, and how far I continue to go. And I know that’s weird, that I’m using a growing video game collection as a symbol of recovery because of rather small parts of my abusive childhood and adolescence (and again, I’m not saying those things were the worst I suffered, because they by far were not, but I’m not sharing the details of the worst things for personal reasons), but I’ve been thinking about it nonetheless and I think that’s how my brain has processed all this as I move through recovery.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for tonight. Reminder to NOT reblog this, or I’ll delete the post and block you, thanks.

#recovery is a weird and complicated thing #c-ptsd is a knotted mess to deal with #and anxiety disorders and depression don't help #but i'm trying and i know to keep trying and that's what matters most

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rutledge60hviid-blog · 5 years

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Lenovo Ideapad Y700 Assessment.

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Off uncovering the keys from deep space to offering your own self an amusing meerkat remodeling, there's bunches from AR enthusiasm to become had actually when embeded also the most ordinary of settings. All seven video games need to have Android TV help which would certainly create them all great Android TELEVISION activities. Similar to Modern Combat 5 brings the sense of a Personal Computer shooter to mobile phone, Vainglory performs a tough job from imitating the enjoyable as well as intercourse from a multiplayer online war field (MOBA) activity like Organization of Legends for Android. The video game features good graphics, straightforward commands, fun secrets, and an improvement unit to aid you obtain an edge. Although I just invested four times discovering a few of the highlights from Iceland, my short time in the Land from Fire as well as Ice possesses me convinced that this is actually the best location for novice solo tourists. 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Topping that off is actually Tormenter, an available globe journey video game that focuses on a college trainee. As well as the reason they can easily price on their own lower is considering that the providers that to begin with came up with a new feature, created enough to maintain R&D and also the preliminary high expenses. In a survey performed over 3 commutes, our experts discovered that from 60 people using earphones, 34 were utilizing the bundled EarPods that Apple gives - offered in comparison to many of those folks could certainly not have been actually using an iPhone, that is actually a higher variety compared to expected. There is actually additionally 3D Touch in the mix again - this is actually an identical system to that on the iPhone 6S, where the handset can easily identify the volume from pressure your hands is using on the screen.

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donewithjeon · 6 years

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Level Up

Characters: Seokjin x Reader

Word Count: 30,017

Genre: Fluff

Note: Sacrifices to accuracy have been made for the sake of entertainment. Please enjoy the shenanigans, buffoonery, and borderline crack.

“I like your keychain.”

The boy glanced over at you at the sound of your compliment, staring through his clear-rimmed oval glasses that seemed to magnify his dark brown eyes and the surprise he held in them. By the looks of it, your sudden speech had caught him off guard, because it took him a couple seconds to realize what you had just said. His gaze traveled to his backpack that was placed atop his desk where the item of your interest was hooked carefully onto one of the zipper pullers.

The keychain consisted of four metal charms, each unique in its design. The one positioned on the bottom was a bright, yellow square with a white punctuation mark in the middle that represented a certain question block you were very familiar with. The three charms above it were a variety of power-ups in the colorful shapes of two mushrooms and a flower, all from the same franchise as the first—the best franchise, you might add.

“Thanks,” your classmate finally responded, turning back to you with a tentative expression and an inquiry to match. “You like Mario?”

“I love Mario.”

Just like that, his hesitation disappeared and was soon replaced with pure excitement in the form of one of the widest smiles you had ever seen. Seriously, you were scared that his puffed-up cheeks would cramp up and stay that way forever.

“I’m Seokjin,” the boy joyfully introduced, pivoting his position to face you and no doubt continue the tantalizing conversation that you had initiated.

You two were merely students in elementary school, but even in that moment, you knew that it would be the start of a beautiful friendship. Any bond formed by the mutual love of a flamboyant fictional character was bound to be one that was unbreakable.

Kim Seokjin.

The Mario to your Luigi. The Zack to your Cody. Your other half, only because that was approximately how much of your food he stole from you on a daily basis.

Your best friend.

From that point on, you always took notice of him when he walked down the hall or entered the classroom. Honestly, it wasn’t too difficult—you could hear him.

A melodious ringing followed him around wherever he went, as if bells were announcing his arrival. It resembled a noise similar to a couple of crystal chalices clinking together in celebration or a pair of polished sabers clashing in heated battle. The pattern remained constant, seeming to always match up with the boy’s steps whether he was dragging his feet to get to his dreaded science class or picking up the pace to be the first one in line at the cafeteria. It didn’t take you long to figure out that the sound originated from the very keychain you had noticed during your first friendly exchange.

Seokjin kept the trinket attached for years, and even as he got new backpacks to replace the worn ones, he never failed to transfer it so that it became customary to hear him before you saw him. Whenever you detected the distinct and rhythmic tone of metal against metal, you knew who it was. It became your way of finding him if you ever lost him in a crowd.

That, and yelling “free food”.

Growing up in the same neighborhood, you two often pestered your parents��bless their souls—into visiting each other’s homes, whether it was to study or play games; although, if you were being completely honest, it was far more of the latter. If you were seen together, chances were that the two of you were seated in front of a TV with controllers in your hands. Okay, that might have been a bit of an exaggeration—you guys definitely spent time watching movies and cartoons, too. In that case, the only difference in the scene was the type of controller in your hand.

With those priorities, you were surprised either of you were able to make it past middle school—but somehow, you did.

“I want you to call me Jin from now on.”

Looking up from the assignment you were in the middle of completing—you were very proud of the level of concentration you were holding onto—you casted Seokjin a confused look across the dining room table where you two had chosen to splay your schoolwork onto for the day. Sure, teenagers were bound to go through awkward changes in high school, but you had never thought that Seokjin was going to be one of those kids who suddenly adopted some sort of alter ego in the form of a nickname.

“What? But why?”

“Because Seokjin sounds so…old-fashioned.”

A gust of air escaped your nostrils in an airy snort as you diverted your attention back down to your work to refrain from laughing at the trivial reason. “I think your name is fine.”

“I like Jin better, though.” You could almost hear him defiantly pout through his words.

“Well, I like Seokjin.”

There was a silence after you made that comment, and when you peeked up to see if he had already given up on his petty dispute, you saw that he was just indifferently staring down at his textbook, albeit his ears appeared a few shades redder than they usually were.

“I’m glad that’s settled then,” you hummed, taking his action, or lack thereof, as a sign of surrender.

“You’re really not going to call me Jin?” he asked again, but there was less assertiveness in his voice this time around.

“I’m going to call you by the name your mother gave you,” you replied with a cheeky smile. You weren’t sure if he caught it though, since he refused to look up from his work after that—probably hanging his head in bitter defeat.

Seokjin didn’t bring up the subject again after that day. You thought that maybe he had changed his mind after your minor persuasion, but after a while, you noticed that all of his new friends and even many of his old friends were starting to call him Jin. Perhaps his agenda to push his updated identity was more successful than you had initially assumed, but even so, it didn’t affect you much.

To you, he would always be Seokjin.

If you had to choose one word to describe your best friend, it would be dork. He was probably the biggest dork in the world, and you meant that in the sincerest, fondest way possible. To be honest, the main reason why you declined to call him by his new nickname was because you felt that his old-fashioned name suited him very well—he was seriously an old man at heart.

From the first moment you had met him, he had worn these clunky oval glasses for his bad eyesight that had looked like they belonged to his dad. He had switched frames a couple times, but each one seemed to look more antiquated and fatherly in nature than the predecessors. Your personal favorite was the last pair he had sported that had a dark rim going across only on the top half of the glasses, because it amused you to no end how it made him look like he had two sets of eyebrows.

Much to your dismay, those days were long gone, left behind with the memories of your lives before high school. However, even as Seokjin got rid of his glasses and replaced them with contact lenses, you knew that you would never be able to shake the image of the dorky little kid from your mind.

You were saddened after the fact that you weren’t able to take any photos of him in all those unfortunate glasses, but those thoughts promptly fled your mind one particular day when Seokjin’s mother decided to whip out his childhood photos during one of your routine visits. It was surely an embarrassing situation for Seokjin, much like it would have been for any other teenage boy whose bumtastic baby pictures were being shared with his friends, but you were too busy taking photos of everything and laughing at his misery to empathize. You even used one of the more ridiculous poses he had done as your phone wallpaper for a certain period of time just to have the satisfaction of messing with him.

It was a true testament of your friendship.

For the longest time, you always associated Seokjin with the images you had in your head of his past self. It was to the point where you absentmindedly thought that you were still taller than him, because to be fair, you had been in the early years of your friendship before his growth spurt. It probably wasn’t until more than halfway through high school that you realized he had sprouted, almost like he had eaten the red mushroom from Super Mario.

“When did you get so tall?”

“Hm?” Seokjin responded with a tilt of his head, pausing his devastating attack on his ice cream cone to ponder your question for a second. His eyes examined you for a second as if he was realizing the change in your heights for the first time as well. “I have no idea.” You smirked at his lackluster and unhelpful answer, shoving a spoonful of your ice cream from the cup in your hand in return.

Either both of you were painfully clueless and horrible at paying attention what was happening around you, or the lack of awareness was just because you two spent so much time together that any change was just too gradual and easy to miss.

“At least I know how you got so tall.” You dropped your spoon into your cup and reached over to jokingly jab the front of his tummy, your fingers grazing the cloth of his shirt before sinking into his soft flesh. “You never stop eating.”

“Rude,” he exclaimed, somewhere between appearing offended and glaring daggers at you.

“Hey, I never said it was a bad thing,” you swiftly rebuked, throwing your hand up at the accusation with a grin. “It’s actually pretty impressive.”

Not in the mood to argue, Seokjin resumed his task of finishing his dessert. It was something he always seemed to do before you so that he could steal a few bites from yours afterwards. You didn’t even know why you allowed such blasphemy to occur.

Oh, right—he was your best friend.

The two of you definitely had other friends throughout your grade school years, but the esteemed prefix of “best” remained solely with him.

You visited each other’s homes at least once a week, usually on Friday nights since that was when you guys watched movies together. Having emerged from elementary and middle school, you had to spend less and less time glued to the TV screen if you wanted to have any chance of building up a good work ethic for the future. While you did greatly reduce the amount of hours that went into fun and games, instead of going the extra mile and completely removing that component of your lives, Seokjin and you agreed upon a designated movie night for all your viewing pleasures. It soon became a weekly tradition, save for a couple times you settled on skipping the custom for the sake of demanding and crucial events in your life, such as college applications.

It was a mystery how you weren’t sick of each other by now, but when you both received acceptance letters from the same mutually-preferred university of choice, you were absolutely ecstatic. Going to college together and living the dormitory life meant that you two would be the closest you had ever been—literally.

And quite frankly, you couldn’t wait to wreak some havoc.

This now brings you to present time.

A new chapter of your life story begins with the turn of a page. The gateway to your future opens with a heavy and daunting creak. The place you will be spending the next four years in makes its grand appearance before your eyes, and the sights, smells, and everything in between all seem to shout one thing.

Welcome to college.

Seokjin’s parents were kind enough to let you hitch a ride with them, since they were already planning on personally driving their son up here anyway. Seoul isn’t too far from your hometown of Gwacheon, but you appreciate the efficiency of taking one car instead of two, even though stuffing your combined luggage in the cramped trunk probably took the most of your time. You swear that the extra weight caused the car to splutter with a struggle each time it attempted to accelerate, but nonetheless, you all made it without the car stalling on you, and that’s always a good start to the day.

You’ve been going through a whirlwind of emotions all week; the majority of what you’ve been feeling can be summed up as excitement, but a good chunk of it is also fear. You aren’t even moving that far from your parents, but this is the first time you’re going to be living away from them, and that thought alone frightens you just a smidge.

You’ll never admit it though, and you don’t think you’ll ever have to, because as you look over at Seokjin walking alongside you, matching your pace as you take the first steps through the campus together with bags at hand, you feel at ease knowing at least he is here with you.

The major you entered when you applied for this school is business, just like every other student on the face of this planet. As for Seokjin, he found a major under cosmetology, something you didn’t even know existed here until he told you about it. You have a sneaking suspicion that he only chose that major just so he can have the right to say that he’s in the “Department of Beauty”, but you aren’t one to judge. The point is that both of you are here now after suffering through your entrance exams, successfully clearing the first hurdle of your college lives.

Now comes the second hurdle: moving in.

After a brief but heated game of rock-paper-scissors, Seokjin decides to graciously help you move into your dorm room first. You are able to find your room with ease, but as you approach the door to unlock it, you can’t help but feel a certain amount of paranoia seep into your bones.

What if your roommate turns out to be a psychopath? What if she’s a kleptomaniac? What if she’s some kind of serial nudist who rejects putting on clothes when she’s in the privacy of her own dorm which, in turn, is your dorm?

Oh god, what if she snores?

You turn the handle before you can have any second thoughts or create some kind of monstrous predisposition of your roommate before you can even give her a chance to disappoint you. When the door swings open, you immediately see a figure standing inside by one of the two twin beds. At the sound of your entrance, the female perks up from her current task of organizing her belongings and walks forward to greet you with a warm smile straightaway.

“Hi! You must be the roommate,” she exclaims for the sake of welcoming you with the least bit of discomfort as possible.

“Yup, that’s me,” you anticlimactically say, extending your hand and your name as an introduction.

“I’m Soobin,” she replies, taking your hand in hers to give it a curt shake. Her hand is warm, which is a good sign—at least she’s not reptilian, not that you actually buy into that whole conspiracy.

“And I’m helping,” a voice from behind you butts in melodiously. Seokjin brushes past you carrying one of many boxes you need to jam into this space by today, walking over to the unoccupied wooden desk and placing it on top of the polished surface. Once that’s settled, he turns to your roommate and steps forward with his own hand outstretched and a proper greeting flowing past his smiling lips. “My name is Jin.”

Heart-eyes must exist in the real world, because there is no other explanation as to the look Soobin has when regarding your best friend. “Nice to meet you,” she responds timidly, shaking his hand in a feebler way than she did yours. Once the interaction is over, Seokjin heads straight for the door again to take care of the rest of the boxes. You’re not sure if he even noticed that he was being ogled—he sure doesn’t seem bothered by it. Maybe it’s just that you’re just being too observant?

“We’ll just be bringing my stuff in, so don’t mind us.” Your words snap Soobin out of the trance she was in, and she appears embarrassed to have been caught as she faces you with a sheepish smile.

“Of course! Let me know if you need any help,” she briskly offers, backing away from the entry so that she can give you more room to move in and out freely.

You have to say, you can think of about a million and one other things more pleasant than moving into a new place, but with a little elbow grease from your best friend—he’ll probably claim that he did all the work—all of your belongings are in without too much of a struggle.

Unfortunately, this is only half of the deal.

Once your bags and boxes are more or less in their appropriate places, you proceed to accompany Seokjin to his own dorm room to help him move in as well. The bad news is that he is staying in a different building than you are, making for a lovely stroll as you lug Seokjin’s things to his structure. The good news is that it seems as though his roommate hasn’t moved in yet, judging by the completely bare quarters you two walk into.

The room is identical to yours in layout and size. There are two twin beds on either side of the wall, and on the far end of the frame, there are two wooden desks with a few shelves that extend up against the wall. The space is in near-perfect symmetry, excluding the door immediately to the left of the entrance that leads to a personal bathroom. It’s small and minimal, much like the entire dormitory, but you’re not about to complain—you’re happy that you won’t have to submit yourself to the communal showers.

Who knows what horrors they hold?

“So, what do you think your roomie’s going to be like?” you question as you strain to drag one of Seokjin’s larger luggage carriers through the door.

“Maybe he won’t even show up?” he says, following in after you with his own hands full.

“Eh, I wouldn’t get your hopes up. He probably just has a later move-in date.”

Seokjin sighs woefully, either from releasing the large battering ram of a duffel bag onto his bed or reacting to your statement. “As long as he’s not the spawn of Satan, I’ll make it work.”

A smile grows on your face as you finish wheeling in his bag and set it off to the side. Seokjin is always the optimist, and it’s a trait that has rubbed off on you throughout the years, albeit not in the most conventional way.

“Even if he is, we can probably set up some kind of ritual to exorcise him. I’m sure it’ll be a nice bonding experience.”

Your best friend doesn’t even bother turning to acknowledge your ridiculous proposal, but you don’t blame him. Being close to you for so long, it’s almost a given that he isn’t swayed by your crazy antics or ideas anymore. Instead, he just drones a bored response and makes his way out the door again.

“Fun.”

What’s not fun is how long it takes for you two to finish moving Seokjin into his dorm. You don’t understand how he managed to bring so much stuff, and this is after you arduously convinced him not to bring his five million Mario figurines. You have no clue how he’s going to fit everything in this tiny room, but then again, that’s not your problem. You have your own room to worry about, and with that as an excuse, you wave goodbye to Seokjin, leaving him knee-deep in his own regret as you head back to deal with your mess you have yet to unpack.

Soobin is still organizing her side of the dorm when you return. You give her a quick smile and she gives you a kind one back, but the exchange is still marred by an air of awkwardness that you’re sure most first-time college roommates undergo in the beginning.

As you begin to work on unpacking your stuff though, you occasionally glimpse over at her just to try and get a read on her vibe some more. She seems like a sweet girl with almost an innocent aura to her—there are no signs of insanity or nudity yet—but at this point, you don’t really have enough information to have a solid first impression.

As if she could read your mind, you hear her voice break the silence with some small talk. “How did moving into the other dorm go?”

You look up from the plastic container you’re crouched over and see her gazing at you with a genuinely interested expression. You assume she’s talking about the trip you took to help Seokjin out, and you draw out a long, overdramatic breath thinking about his room again.

“I did the best that I could do, but he’s on his own now.”

Soobin lets out a light chuckle, and you feel the tension release a bit as you grin as well. “Jin, was it?” she asks, and you provide her with a nod in confirmation of the correct name. “Is he your…” It’s like you can see her mind working to connect the dots and run through all the options in order to decide which one she should pick to fill in the blank. “…boyfriend?”

“No,” you promptly refute, dragging out the vowel sound a little too long when you realize how rapidly you spit that response out. You didn’t even have time to really process the question, but when you do, you’re left wondering how you never once thought of the possibility that people you meet for the first time may have that kind of impression on your relationship.

“Oh no. He’s not your brother, is he?” she follows up, the beginnings of a horrified expression rising to etch her face at the recognition of potentially having made that mistake.

“God, no,” you retort with even more haste than the initial denial. That question was so appalling to you for no apparent reason, as if being related to Seokjin like that is a far more repulsive idea than the first. “He’s my best friend,” you add on before Soobin can dig herself into a bigger hole with her guessing game.

With that, she sighs in relief, already prepared to laugh off the mistake. “That totally would have been my third guess.” You give her a look that lets her know that you aren’t the slightest bit convinced, but soon enough, you find yourself laughing as the two of you spend the rest of the day cleaning the dorm and breaking the ice by sharing snacks brought from your respective homes.

You have a feeling that the two are going to get along just fine.

“A little to the left.” Seokjin’s hand moves according to your instruction with a swift stroke. “A little more.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, just hurry,” you huff impatiently. His expression is hesitant, but he concedes to your wishes anyway, enacting one final swipe that makes the goal in sight. “Now, release!” you nearly shout, and at that command, his hand slams down on the big red button.

In front of you, the prize claw machine drops its metal hook into the pile of plush toys. Seokjin and you watch diligently as the slinky device plunges down and lands on top of a fluffy, pink unicorn. The mechanical talons clamp over the fat, horny head of the mythical creature, but as the wire ascends back up in an attempt to pull it out of the pile, the toy barely budges before slipping out of the gangly grasp. It’s just as you expected from a claw that has the grip strength of someone who skips every single arm day in existence.

Seokjin groans openly at the display of failure while you only sigh, having anticipated this outcome. “Let’s try one more time,” he proclaims, reaching into his pocket to fish out some more coins to feed the greedy bastard of a game.

“No, thanks. This thing is a trap.” You straighten your back from the hunched position you were in from staring forcefully at the machine.

“You’re giving up, then?” The tone of his voice and the look in his eyes makes it obvious that he’s taunting you, but you’re not going to give into this toxic competition—not when the meager contents of your wallet is at stake.

“I’m quitting while I’m ahead,” you explain, remembering that the only other time you attempted this game ended with you going home with two new plush penguin pals—you doubt a miracle like that will happen again.

“Where’s the fun in that?”

You look off into the distance, feigning a deeply ponderous expression. “Having enough money for lunch sounds like fun to me.” It’s already too late though—Seokjin isn’t listening to you anymore.

“Just give me a few minutes,” he requests, taking the several coins he took out of his pocket and inserting one of them into the slot.

“I’ll give you five.”

With that ultimatum, you walk past your best friend to explore the rest of the arcade. This is your first excursion into the city after moving in yesterday, and you have to say that it’s going fairly well. It was definitely going better before Seokjin decided to stop at this arcade and blow his entire budget for the month, but you’re still enjoying the sights and sounds of the streets surrounding your campus. You don’t know how much free time you’ll have once classes start up, so you’re glad to be making the most out of your last moments of stress-free relaxation.

Five minutes must have passed by while you were busy admiring the flashing display of a sticker photo booth, because you feel someone tapping on your shoulder. When you spin around, Seokjin is standing there, and contrary to your previous prediction, he is not empty-handed.

“Here, this is for you.”

He prods the object forward, and it’s only when you lift your hands to accept it that you get a proper look at it.

“A llama?” Your voice rises in confusion as your eyebrow quirks up at the white, beady-eyed ball of fluff that is staring back at you.

“It’s an alpaca.”

“Weren’t you trying to get the unicorn?” Seokjin just shrugs as if that’ll answer your question. “So, you got this by mistake?”

“There are no mistakes, only happy accidents.”

You stare vacantly, refusing to give him a reaction as his face lights up with a smile too proud for what he just said. Apparently, playing the claw machine game is an art form. Thankfully, he changes the subject before you have a chance to acknowledge the unprompted Bob Ross quote.

“Did you want to take some sticker photos?” Seokjin motions to the bright machine behind you, but you just shake your head to decline.

“Maybe another day when I actually look good,” you reply, glancing down at the alpaca to pet its fleecy head. You spent the entirety of yesterday and this morning laboring to clean and organize your dorm, so it’s safe to say that you probably aren’t the most presentable human being at the moment.

“But you always look good.”

Your hand freezes on the plushy, and your eyes dart up to Seokjin who seems to be more interested in looking at the machine behind you rather than your face.

“Wow, a present and a compliment?” you exclaim with inflated astonishment. “What’s the catch?”

“There is no catch!” He finally flits his eyes to you, looking offended that you even accused him of having ulterior motives for his kindness. It gets a good laugh out of you as his cheeks puff up into a pout, and you lightly smack him on the chest with the alpaca’s head.

“Alright, alright,” you say in between your chuckles before calming down into a softer smile. “Thank you.” Seokjin returns your gesture with a grin of his own.

“But you are paying for lunch, right?”

It’s his turn to laugh as you stand and glower at him. You don’t know why you expected anything else. This is commonplace in your friendship, after all. It’s typical, but as Seokjin turns around to lead you out of the arcade, you look at the stuffed animal in your hands and feel a smile creep back up onto your face.

It’s half past noon and the first few classes of your first day of school are done and over with. You’re waiting under the shade of a tree in the campus courtyard after texting Seokjin to meet up for lunch. There are so many places to choose from around here, and you two established a pact to eat at every single one of them at least once. You just might have to break that pact and go grab food on your own if he doesn’t show up soon though—you’re starving.

Just then, a familiar noise reaches your ears.

It starts off as a distant ringing, but before it even comes closer, you turn to the direction of the source. Sure enough, you see Seokjin making his way across the paved path, and with each step he takes toward you, the metallic melody becomes clearer.

“Glad to see you survived,” you greet as you walk forward to meet him halfway down the courtyard.

“Don’t speak too soon. It’s still early in the day—and the school year,” he reminds you, successfully inciting a weary side-eye from you as you begin your journey to find sustenance. Your eyes trail behind him while you walk side-by-side, and while he’s carrying a new backpack you have never seen before, a glint of sunlight reflects off of the shiny surface of the object dangling from one of the zippers.

The Mario keychain.

It looks like this is one trinket he couldn’t bear to leave at home with the others. If you’re being honest, seeing it again—and hearing it, of course—gives you a strange sense of comfort, even though it hasn’t even been that long since your last encounter with it. You feel something stirring deep within you, like the keychain is evoking an emotion so raw, it can only be found in the pit of your soul.

Wait, maybe that’s your stomach growling.

“So, how’s the dorm coming along? Is it safe for me to stop by yet?” you ask, averting your eyes to pay attention to the walkway in front of you.

“Almost done. My roommate is still trying to clear up all of his boxes since he got here late. Should only take a day or two more.”

You nod a couple times in understanding, your mind traveling to Seokjin’s enigmatic roommate for just a second before you switch over to much more pressing topics, like whether you should eat beef or chicken for lunch.

Towards the end of welcome week is when you finally meet him: Min Yoongi.

Yoongi is a quiet fellow all the way from Daegu. You would comment on his accent, but that would require you to actually hold a conversation with him that lasts more than two words. He’s a computer science major, which explains the ghostly pale skin; he has a serious computer tan going on—must have been working on it all his life. His black hair is stark in comparison, yet strangely more well-kempt than you would anticipate it to be. There’s nothing else to say about him, because he doesn’t really say anything to you either.

Every time you walk into their dorm, he’s either out or tucked away at the desk on his side of the room with his headphones on, blocking out the world around him. He’s polite enough to mutter a “hey” each time you enter, but your visits become so frequent so quickly, his acknowledgment of your arrival turns into a simple head nod.

As ludicrous as it sounds, you’re the slightest bit disappointed that there isn’t going to be an exorcismal bonding experience in your future. He acts like such a pacifist most of the time, but alas, that doesn’t stop you from poking the bear every once in a while in hopes of riling it out of hibernation.

With how much time you spend in Seokjin’s dorm, you take it upon yourself to fulfill your duty as an honorary member of this household.

“Calcifer is so cute,” you casually comment, your eyes all but glued to the screen of the laptop in front of you that is currently playing Howl’s Moving Castle.

Movie night is still very much a tradition, one you adamantly refuse to break, even though improvisations had to be made due to the lack of a TV in the dorms. Seokjin’s laptop is placed on top of his desk, and you two are sitting comfortably on his bed in front of it. The lights are turned off, and the illumination of the LED screen filters through the room to create an atmosphere of being in your own miniature movie theater.

“He’s a fire demon,” Seokjin rebukes, like that detail will suddenly change your mind.

“So what? Demons can be cute.”

As if on cue, you hear the handle of the door jostle, and with a speedy rotation, the entry swings open to flood the room with light. The bulbs from the hallway radiantly shine behind the figure, leaving only a dark silhouette standing within the frame, but you can tell who it is right away by the lanky stature and the chicken boy legs.

Yoongi freezes in his spot upon entering, one hand still on the knob and another stopping on the way to flip the light switch. He has one foot in the room and the other behind him, and you reckon that the direction he will move towards will depend on what you say next.

“Hey Yoongles,” you greet nonchalantly, raising one hand up for him to see. “Do you want to join us?”

Before you can even finish that sentence, or more specifically right after you recite the terrific nickname you came up with on the fly and bestowed upon him, the door shuts again, with Yoongi on the other side. You detect the tapping of his footsteps as he walks away, probably heading right out of the building. You turn your head to look at Seokjin who does the same thing to you in unison after that brief guest appearance.

“He’s peachy.”

“He’s not that bad,” he defends half-heartedly before turning his attention back to the movie.

“As long as he doesn’t murder my best friend in his sleep, I’m all good.” Seokjin snorts at the idea, and you two resume your viewing of the fantastic movie without any more interruptions.

To ensure that both parties aren’t inconvenienced by the surprise again, Seokjin and you inform Yoongi of your movie night schedule and even get his approval—or maybe a better word for it is tolerance. Even so, the two of you are on the more fortunate side when it comes to the roommates you were given.

You have grown to be immensely grateful that Soobin is nothing like the fearsome foe you prematurely thought her up to be. Especially after the wild night at the freshmen housewarming party during welcome week—the party you two agreed never to speak of once it was over—you have to say that you two are practically blood sisters now. You’re glad that the dorm gods blessed you with someone as sane as her, and while you can’t confidently say the same for her, she seems highly accepting of you and all your quirks.

Plus, she doesn’t seem to mind your best friend each time he comes over.

Not including the embodiments of sunshine that are your roommates, you two also make a few other friends, including a certain psychology major by the name of Kim Namjoon.

Seokjin introduces you during your last term of the school year since they’re taking the same math class. Who knew that having your hopes and dreams crushed by Statistics could bring people together?

Namjoon is a fairly tall and fit guy with tan skin and dimples that come out of hiding whenever he smiles and occasionally when he speaks. His brown hair always seems well-coifed whenever you see him, but his most impressive feature is what’s inside that head of his.

“So, you’re saying you skipped a grade?” Namjoon nods at your question and you give him a look of amazement.

“He’s also here on a scholarship,” Seokjin tacks on, and you can almost see Namjoon smile nervously at you as you gape even further. “He’s a genius.”

“I’m really not,” he tries to humbly explain. “If anything, I’m just on the fast track to saying goodbye to my youth.”

Truer words have not been said. At that, you regain your composure and pat him on the back knowingly. “Welcome to the club.”

Rather than gloat about his intelligence like you’re sure many people in his position would, Namjoon likes to think of his situation as getting a head start. With his plans on eventually going to graduate school after this to earn his doctorate and become a psychiatrist, he’s definitely going to need it.

He also needs a little guidance when it comes to making light conversations with the people around him.

“Did you know that the majority of homicides are committed by the people closest to the victim?”

You halt in the middle of eating your meal to slowly look up at Namjoon who sits across from you with a faultless smile on his face. Seokjin doesn’t seem fazed by the random fact as he continues scarfing down his food without a care. You can only blame yourself for making him so immune throughout the years with your own strange behavior.

“Did you learn that in psych or something?”

“Yes and no,” he says, taking a sip from his soft drink. “We were learning about the mentality of serial killers, and I went off on a tangent with my own research.”

“Well, then—lay it on me,” you proclaim before taking a sizable bite out of your cheeseburger.

“Statistically speaking, you’re more likely to be killed by someone you know—like friends and family—than by a stranger. And you’re also more likely to be in your place of residence when it happens.”

“Makes sense,” you hum in understanding, as off topic as the spontaneous lesson was. Then, something clicks in your mind, and your lips morph into a sinister smile that you’re pretty sure is making Namjoon uncomfortable, but that’s the point. “Aren’t you glad we’re friends now?”

That sentence shuts him up for the rest of the meal, something that amuses even Seokjin. Thankfully, you don’t scare off the poor boy, but he does seem warier with the facts he throws around when he’s with you. Your next mission is to make him grow a funny bone for humor, because even though you made your joking taunt, you’re definitely glad he’s sticking around to keep you and Seokjin company.

Verily, it seems that your repertoire of friends has expanded quite a bit, and despite all odds, the first year of college ends without a single murder.

“Oh? Where’s Seokjin?”

Briefly scanning the dorm room, you don’t see any sign of your best friend as you pass through the threshold. Yoongi turns in his chair to regard you and your question with a lethargic stare and points a finger towards the foot of Seokjin’s bed. Following the direction of his gesture, you glance over to see a colorful piece of paper sitting on top of the mattress. When you walk over and pick it up, you are able to identify that it is a flyer of some sort for a club that is setting up their recruitment table near the main auditorium. You don’t care for all the extra information on the page, because the moment you see the words on the bottom, you already have your answer.

There will be free food!

“Of course,” you think out loud, placing the paper back down and turning to walk back into the hall again. “Thanks.” You wave farewell, but Yoongi is already back at it on his computer doing whatever it is he does. After closing the door on your way out, you pull your phone from your pocket to check on your food fanatic of a friend.

Welcome week is here again, which means that there are numerous events happening all around campus. This being your second year, Seokjin is probably using his prior knowledge to sniff out all the important stands with more speed than last year. You’re going to head on over to where Yoongi pointed you to, but you need to send a text and make sure you don’t begin running around on a wild goose chase just because Seokjin catches word of complimentary cupcakes on the other side of campus. You’re so focused on your phone screen as you pace down the corridor of the dormitory, you don’t notice that someone is turning the corner to go the opposite way until he nearly runs into you.

“Oops, my bad,” you apologize, snapping your head up from the distracting device and taking a step backwards to give him space to pass you. You stop in your tracks when your eyes land on the person in front of you.

The guy appears to have lilac hair, but you can’t see most if it because it’s hidden under the obnoxiously red crab hat he’s wearing that is equipped with plush legs and claws protruding from the sides. His face is exposed through the circular cut-out in the front, and he is beaming so splendidly, you can’t tell if you’re being blinded by his smile or his headpiece.

“No problem!” he brushes off cheerfully. The guy walks past you, or more like skips past you, and your eyes can’t help but follow his bouncing figure until he disappears into the room across from Seokjin’s.

Wow. Freshmen are getting weirder every year.

Seeing the eccentric garb does manage to get you thinking about Halloween. Even though it’s only the beginning of September, you stand by the notion that it’s never too early to get into the spirit of the holiday; it’s especially true this year, because you have an exciting event to look forward to.

The Halloween costume party.

Last year during this time, you weren’t able to attend the celebration due to an unfortunate circumstance by the name of Kim Seokjin. He had gotten the flu from a particularly snot-infested classmate a few days prior to that weekend, and being the excellent, irreplaceable friend that you are, you decided against going to the celebration without him. Instead of partying it up with the numerous Jokers and Harley Quinns that flooded the costume scene that year, you stayed at Seokjin’s dorm to keep him and his sniffling nose company. You ultimately nursed him back to health, but not before getting sick along with him and regretting your life choices for the rest of the term.

You were surprised that Yoongi didn’t get sick, especially since you thought his brittle exterior would resonate with his immunity as well. Then again, he did lay down some ground rules the moment Seokjin starting showing symptoms, including a temporarily set dress code of a medical mask within the dorm. It seriously felt like you were walking into a quarantine zone each time you visited.

Nevertheless, as fun as that was, you are relieved to see that everyone is in tip-top shape with Halloween right around the corner.

Seokjin and you decide a few weeks ahead of time that since you’re going to the party together, you might as well think of costume ideas together. After a couple good suggestions and a load of bad ones—you don’t know why anyone would want to go as ketchup and mustard bottles—Seokjin insists a rehash of the outfits you two wore one Halloween as children. You comply without argument, partially because they’re very simple costumes to put together. The larger part of the reason is because you just want to let Seokjin have his fun, since he was just as disappointed as you were about his sickness preventing him from turning up last year. If anything, his eagerness for this year’s party is through the roof to make up for it, and with how easily you two manage to get your costumes ready, you can’t wait for the event.

So, who are Seokjin and you dressed as? Why, none other than the world-famous Italian plumbers themselves: Mario and Luigi!

You agreed to let Seokjin dress as Mario while you took the role of the lesser brother, because you’re just the gift that keeps on giving. The denim overalls, long-sleeve shirt, and comically big hat aren’t really the epitome of sexy, but they’re super comfortable and good for shielding yourself from the cold temperature of the late-October night. Now you can look at all the other girls and boys who choose the sexy route rather than the fully-clothed route and laugh at their sniveling misery—okay, that’s probably going a little too far.

Hey, you’re just getting into the spirit of Halloween.

Maybe your overflowing anticipation has something to do with it, but soon enough, the fateful, frightful night is right in front of you before you know it.

“Yo.”

Both Seokjin and you turn your heads towards the speaker of the curt greeting and see Namjoon walking up to you, donning his questionable costume. According to what he texted you earlier today, he’s supposed to be Dr. Victor Frankenstein, but the get-up leaves much to be desired. He’s wearing a long, white lab coat that you’re pretty sure he’s reusing from his chemistry class and vintage, round sunglasses that you think are supposed to simulate the circular goggles you often see mad scientists wearing. Never minding the fact that he’s wearing sunglasses at night—this is Halloween after all, so you guess anything goes—there’s not really a special feature that sets him apart from an ordinary, boring scientist.

When you asked Namjoon why he didn’t choose a more recognizable or spooky character—like Frankenstein’s monster, for example, since he does have the height for it—his answer was a very formal defense of his selection that almost turned into a makeshift British Literature lecture, explaining that “Dr. Frankenstein is more of a monster than his creation”.

Honestly, he should have dressed up as a vampire with how well he sucks the life out of everything.

“Are you guys supposed to be a couple?” Namjoon asks once he walks up to you, eyes darting between you and Seokjin as if he’s seeing the two of you together for the first time. You fake a gasp, successfully drawing his undivided attention onto you.

“Are you suggesting an incestuous relationship between the world’s most beloved brothers, doctor?”

Your hand is unnecessarily resting on your chest to simulate being flabbergasted. He returns to you a dumbfounded expression, his mouth slightly agape but with nothing coming out. You’re certain that you’ve successfully planted an image in his mind that he’s desperately trying to eradicate from existence.

“Thanks for ruining my childhood,” you hear Seokjin speak up in disgust beside you. You turn your head and offer him a wicked smile.

“You’re always welcome.”

Moving on from incest, the three of you make your way across campus towards the building where the party is being held. The music is loud enough for you to hear the place before you can even see it, but when you do, the outdoor scenery isn’t all that exciting, save for a few stragglers staggering around the front of the building.

The inside, however, is a completely different story—the entire atmosphere is amplified tenfold. The lights inside have been dimmed and replaced with rotating LED bulbs that bathe the darkness in colorful crystal ball effects. The speakers are blaring a loud, thumping tune that you can barely register over the numbing sensation of your brain vibrating in your skull.

There is a wide range of costumed individuals scattered all throughout the area; you see everything from the latest trending superheroes and villains to memes from hell that have taken the form of walking pickles and dancing hotdogs.

Without another thought, your feet lead you straight to the refreshments zone, and likewise, Seokjin splits off to the other end of the room with Namjoon at his heels where you are able to catch a glimpse of snack trays. There are no words exchanged between you two as you go your separate ways through the crowd, but there doesn’t need to be.

You are both on a mission.

Besides, it shouldn’t be that difficult to find each other again. This place isn’t vast enough to get lost, and you’re wearing matching costumes, for crying out loud.

Well, what you forget to take into consideration is the devil’s juice that makes its way into your hand the majority of the night, housed in a plastic solo cup that shines as red as the lord of the underworld himself. Accordingly, the contents burn your insides and pump fire through your veins, making you feel like you’re truly roasting in the eternal flames of damnation.

Note to self: never utter the words “surprise me” to someone mixing the drinks at a college party ever again.

After consuming a good number of mystery cocktails and swaying with the crowd in a way that sort of resembles dancing, you realize that your ability to find Seokjin has dwindled significantly.

Oh well—not like it’ll keep you from trying.

As you aimlessly roam around a less populated part of the room in hunt for even a glimpse of Mario, you suddenly spot someone facing away from you with bright red atop his head. That must be him—you knew you would be able to see the vibrant Mario hat from a mile away. He’s standing at the mouth of a hallway that branches away from the main room where you remember noting that the bathroom is located in. Miraculously, you manage to walk up behind him, and as you tap on his shoulder, you feel a swell of pride for completing your search.

Too bad it’s not Seokjin.

What you thought was a hat isn’t a hat but crimson hair—bold, luscious, healthy, vivacious locks of gorgeous hair that sweep and bounce whimsically when the person swings his head to look at who beckoned him.

Wow, so beautiful.

A low chuckle rises from the guy that is barely audible enough to detect over the ongoing music. “Thank you.”

“Wha?” you question ever so eloquently, staring at the way the lights are rebounding off of his silky smooth strands. Seriously, what conditioner does he use?

“Thanks for the compliment.”

You freeze at the words, and your mind reels back to do a double take. Oh god, did you actually say the “beautiful” comment out loud? It was already ridiculously creepy the way it sounded in your mind, so you can’t imagine how much of a mess it was coming out of your mouth.

Luigi, please forgive me for soiling your holy image by portraying you as a thirsty weirdo, at least more than the internet does already.

“I mean, I like your hair,” you blurt out in an attempt to salvage the dipping conversation. That’s when your attention drops down to look at the face of the person you’re talking to, finally making contact with his brown orbs just in time to see him shoot you a boxy grin that—wait a minute.

“Wait a minute,” you slur, vocalizing your inner monologue once again. “Wasn’t your hair purple before?”

The boy’s face lights up in surprise before he nods in confirmation. “Yeah! How did you kno—”

His speech cuts off, or is it you who cut him off? Either way, he stops talking.

Actually, you have no recollection of what happens after that moment. The last thing you remember is his eyes growing wide, so wide that you wonder how a human can have disco lights as eyeballs with the way the shifting lights twinkle off of the glossy surface area.

To be honest, you’re glad the memory is lost somewhere in the oblivion of your mind—your brain is probably repressing it to save you from mentally reliving the horrors of what you said and did in that momentary blind spot of your night.

The next thing you remember is walking out the door and feeling the cool breeze hit your face, and strangely enough, the top of your head.

“Where’s my Luigi hat?” you ask drowsily to no one in particular, reaching an arm up to verify that it is indeed gone. Thankfully, a deep voice speaks up beside you to answer your query.

“Trust me, I don’t think you want it back.”

With your lips poised in a pout, you turn to the speaker who appears to have one of your arms draped over his shoulder, providing support as the two of you walk across the concrete towards a safer section of soft grass. Even in your drunken stupor, you can comprehend that it’s the stranger with the purple-turned-red hair helping you out in your shameful time of need.

What an angel.

The guy’s shoulders shudder a bit under the weight of your arm, and at first you think it’s because of the cold, but then you notice that he’s laughing. You probably made a fool of yourself, yet again.

“Actually, the complete opposite.”

You’re confused by the meaning behind his words, until your eyes trail down to look at his costume. The outfit consists of red combat boots, black leather pants, a black t-shirt that has been tucked in, and a stylish leather jacket that is the same scorching scarlet as his hair and the plastic cup that started your descent into madness. Your eyes are able to focus just enough to see the miniature red horns from a headband perched atop his head that is camouflaged within the fiery field of hair. You can’t help but laugh at the irony when you understand what he means.

He’s dressed as the devil.

“What’s a better way to break the ice between acquaintances than a little humiliation, right?” you plead Soobin for approval once she wakes you—the sober, very hungover you—the next morning.

“Whatever helps you sleep at night,” she says with loving callous while patting your back like a parent does to a sick child—that’s basically what you were reduced to last night.

You did your best to relay the eventful party to her in excruciating detail, or at least the parts you still remember. Seokjin actually did well to fill in a few of the gaps for her when he escorted you back to your room last night, most of the information which she was more than willing to recount back to you.

Your red-haired rescuer was able to do what you couldn’t and found Seokjin at the party; he was probably motivated by the fact that you kept calling out that you lost your Mario. After making sure to take you off of the kind stranger’s hands with a thanks, Seokjin basically delivered you back to your dorm where a responsible Soobin was getting ready to go to bed after listening to her better judgment, unlike you, and moderating herself that night.

All in all, you were returned unscathed—well, your hat was a sad but necessary sacrifice.

The human torch who helped you through the deplorable events that occurred apparently found the entire situation hilarious. Good for him for finding humor in your pain and shame. At least it looks like you made a new friend? You just hope that the cost was worth it.

Kim Taehyung is never going to let you live that night down for as long as you breathe.

“Nooo!”

The devastated cry comes from both you and Seokjin in perfect unison as you watch another character meet a disastrous demise in the movie you picked out for the night: Train to Busan. You were prepared for some thrilling zombie action, but you weren’t ready for this rollercoaster of emotions when you suggested this film. Nonetheless, you are loving every aspect of it so far.

Well, almost every aspect.

“I am going to enjoy watching that guy die so much,” you venomously comment, referring to the character who caused the heartbreaking scene that is playing before you on the laptop screen.

“How are you so sure he’s going to die?”

“Because if he doesn’t, I’m going to kill him myself.”

Seokjin hums in agreement before you two return your attention to the movie. There’s a great deal of irritated yelling throughout the rest of the storyline, but once the ending credits start rolling and all your frustrations have been let out, an interesting conversation spawns from the concept of the movie.

“Face it. You would probably be the first one to die if we ever had a zombie apocalypse,” you tease, leaning back onto the wall to make yourself more comfortable on Seokjin’s bed. Your best friend throws you a dirty look from your right.

“And what about you?” he asks accusingly.

“I’m a pretty decent runner when I need to be.”

“You can’t outrun a zombie.”

“I don’t need to,” you calmly clarify, an impish smile curling the corners of your lips. “I just need to run faster than you.”

“Gee, thanks,” he protests loudly at your dishonorable hypothetical action. “You better hope you run faster than me, because I’m going to come back with a vengeance to get you as a zombie.”

“I’d love to see you try,” you respond smugly. You reach over to pat him on the shoulder but he recoils dramatically, leaning away with an angry pout.

“You’re the worst.”

You simply shrug and give him a despicable smile.

“That may be so, but at least I’ll still be alive.”

Emergency Gong Cha run.

Eyeing the text that pops up on your phone, you heave a sigh and lift yourself up from your seat, hearing a few concerning cracks from your back as you do so. Ignoring your body’s delightful reminder that you’re only getting older, you walk towards your closet to change out of your comfortable but unsuitable clothes for your outing. You don’t care that it’s dark out and that you’re abandoning your reading assignment on your desk right now.

If Seokjin wants to call you out for a spontaneous snack, you’re not going to complain.

“I’m going to Gong Cha,” you announce to your roommate who is at her own desk staring intently at the screen of her laptop. “Do you want anything?”

“Nah, I’m good,” she replies, glancing over to you for a brief smile before returning to what you assume are her studies—either that or she’s extremely invested in watching videos about ancient cooling systems.

Once you have your real people clothes on, you head on down to the nearest Gong Cha, which takes no more than five minutes. Outside of the entrance, you see Seokjin already standing there, waiting for you arrive. When he finally sees you drawing nearer, you raise your hand to give him a brisk wave.

“What’s with the sudden boba?” you ask when you stop in front of him.

“I have a paper due at midnight, so I need sugar and caffeine.”

“And why am I here?” You toss him a follow-up question as he proceeds to open the glass door for you to enter.

“Because you want free boba,” he states matter-of-factly.

“You know me so well.”

The two of you go up to the register, and as promised, Seokjin pays for your drink; you make sure to get the large size even though you’ll probably be running to the bathroom by the time you’re done with it. It’s totally worth it, though.

Bribery is a fairly common occurrence with your relationship. You would say that you have a healthy amount of it and that it’s pretty harmless, unlike the other B word that you only save for special occasions.

Special occasions like when Seokjin threatens to unleash confidential information about your embarrassing past to your new friends—chiefly, the one incident that involves a bicycle, an old man, and a cabbage.

Fortunately, two can play at this game.

“I don’t think you want to wage war with me,” you inform Seokjin in a composed manner against the dumb move he’s supposedly going to make. “I still have your baby photos.”

“You’re lying,” he promptly accuses, but you give him a stern shake of your head. “How is that even possible?”

“I transferred them from my old phone to my laptop.”

He looks exasperated only for a second before leaning back in his chair in a carefree manner. “It’s okay. I was cute as a baby.”

“Not in the photo I have.”

You meet his admonishing glare with a sly smile that only grows as you hear the word slip past his lips.

“This is blackmail.”

There it is—the blasted B word.

“I’d like to think of it as leverage.”

Much to your relief, and probably everyone else’s, not all of your interactions are so malicious in nature. Friendship is all about give and take, and you are a master of being thoughtful, if you do say so yourself.

This brings you to the third B word: birthdays.

You could argue that it belongs with the first B word, but truthfully, you revel in going shopping for birthday presents for your best friend. It’s especially fun when you decide to do it just before a big exam when you should be studying instead, just like right now.

Most of your shopping, whether for clothes or gifts, is done with Soobin or Seokjin, but the former is busy crying over her latest research report, and you very much can’t bring the latter along to buy his own present—there would be absolutely no surprise in that.

Looks like you’ll just have to resort to the next best option.

“What about this?”

“Yuck, noona. I thought you had better taste than that.”

You narrow your eyes at Taehyung as you lower the jacket in your hand to shove it back where you got it from. It has been about 30 minutes since you two started browsing the mall, but you are already severely regretting your decision to bring him along as your shopping buddy. You sincerely thought that his input would be helpful, since he is majoring in fashion design and all, but the only thing he’s helping you do right now is raising your blood pressure.

“This one is good,” Taehyung declares, lifting up a dress shirt with a distinctive motif on the collar that you recognize right away.

“That’s the fourth Gucci item you’ve shown me in a row.”

“So?”

“So,” you draw out, trying hard not to grit your teeth. “We’re shopping for Seokjin, not you.”

His lips pucker into an exaggerated frown as he places the shirt back onto the rack. You ignore his childish antics and continue scanning the articles of clothing in front of you.

“This?” you call out again, pulling a nice denim jacket out of the row it’s in and bracing yourself for another insulting comment about your fashion sense.

“Nope, the fit is all wrong.”

You raise your eyebrow as you glance over at the tag that’s staring right at you. “What do you mean? It’s his size.” Taehyung just shakes his head, clicking his tongue in disapproval.

“It doesn’t matter. That man is built like a Dorito. His shoulders will never fit into that.”

“His shoulders?”

“Don’t tell me you’ve never noticed his shoulders before? They’re broader than the color spectrum of this hideous shirt.” His left arm pops up on cue, and the t-shirt he is holding has a peculiar design that you’re pretty sure is supposed to be a holographic alien.

“I can’t say that I have,” you admit the truth, slowly putting the denim jacket back while contemplating what your friend just said. Taehyung sighs profoundly, putting the shirt in his hands back where it belongs, too.

“You’re hopeless, noona.”

And there’s that insult, coupled with the supposedly polite pronoun that might as well not be there, since it doesn’t soften the blow one bit.

Where did you go wrong? He seemed like such a sweet boy when you first met him. Maybe you should have taken his Halloween costume more seriously, since it was obviously a fair warning. At least his red hair has been yet again replaced, this time going black with green highlights, so you don’t have to be reminded about that night each time to lay eyes on the little devil.

At the rate you’re going now, you’re never going to find a decent present.

No. That’s the mindset of a loser, which you are definitely not. You refuse to give up so easily. You’re going to stick it out until the bitter end, even if you have to keep looking all day with Taehyung the critic by your side.

Luckily, the universe cuts you some slack today.

An enormous gasp overwhelms you as you feast your eyes on what is in front of you—the reaction is probably a little overdramatic, but you couldn’t care less. Taehyung immediately perks up from the variety of jeans he’s looking through and heads towards you, not even bothering to ask what you found. You unhook the white t-shirt from its rack and hold it up in front of you to admire in all its glory.

“This is perfect.”

You feel Taehyung come up behind you, and you only say that because he literally props his chin on your shoulder to examine the item in your hands.

“Really? Isn’t that a little too childish?”

“Have you met Seokjin?” you ask, flabbergasted at the notion.

“Touché,” he agrees without needing much time for thought. “I think he’ll love it.”

Your fingers wrap around the dangling tag so you can take a closer look, and you see more digits than you were hoping for. “For this price, he better.”

Taehyung merely shrugs, lifting his head off of your shoulder. “That’s the price you pay for fashion.”

And it’s a price you’re willing to pay to get out of here, except it doesn’t quite work out that way. It takes you at least three more hours after purchasing the shirt to return back to your dorm, because your fashionista friend insisted on getting the most out of the trip by covering the rest of the mall.

Another note to self: never go shopping with Taehyung.

“Wake up.”

“Huh?” You open your eyes at the sound of the voice and find yourself in a dark room. In any other case, you would be worried, but you’re safe inside Seokjin’s dorm, sitting on his bed with your back against wall for support. Standing next to the desk is Seokjin himself, and judging by the closed laptop on the table, he seems to be putting it away after finishing tonight’s movie.

“I can’t believe you fell asleep during The Godfather,” he speaks up again, turning to look at your sleepy form in disapproval.

You sit forward and straighten yourself out, feeling a slight crick in your neck from your head having lulled to the side for what you can only assume to be over two hours. The Godfather is such a long movie. You raise your arms up into the air to stretch it out, and the blanket that was on top of you slides off to the side—oddly enough, you don’t even remember wrapping yourself in one before you basically blacked out.

“It was so boring,” you murmur, eyelids already starting to shut again in fatigue. You blame the research report you stayed up all night yesterday to finish. Sure, you could have worked on it earlier, but what can you say?

You like to live on the edge.

“You’re barely awake right now, so I’ll forgive you for that disrespectful language,” he says, walking up next to the bed. “Now, come on.” He prods you on the arm to get up, but all you do is sway at the tap as your eyes remain closed.

“Can’t I just sleep here?” you whine, waiting for the approval so you can just fall over and catch some Zs.

“I don’t think Yoongi will appreciate that.”

“Hmph,” you grunt in protest, but you know what he said is true. While Seokjin’s roommate is out of your hair during movie nights, he will come back sooner or later, and it better be to a you-free zone if you want to stay on his good side—if that even exists. Either way, you really shouldn’t overstay your welcome.

“Here.”

You open your eyes with great difficulty at the proclamation and you see Seokjin crouching down on the floor near the bed with his back facing you.

“Where?” you question, not exactly sure what he’s referring to—that’s probably because you’re already getting lured back into the arms of sleep.

“Get on. I’ll take you back to your dorm.”

Rather than a request, his words sound more imploring. You feel slightly ashamed that you’re so useless when you’re half-asleep, but you’re also just shameless enough not to let this offer slide. You’re not about to reject his kind gesture, especially not when he’s already in the inviting position for you to latch on like a koala.

“Don’t blame me for your back problems in the future,” you mumble as you push the sheets away to crawl forward, accepting right away just in case he changes his mind.

Slipping your arms over his shoulders, you curl them loosely around the front of his neck. He rises once you rest yourself on his back, and he gets a good grasp of your thighs as you pull your legs forward. Doing the good old hop to secure your position and make sure you won’t slip, he begins his trek out of the room and to your own abode.

The area is fairly peaceful during this time of the night; there’s no special event going on this weekend, so most of the students are either out taking the city by storm or bundled up in their rooms recuperating from the storm of a school week that destroyed them. You appreciate the quiet, or as much as you can get in a place like this, but tonight, the footsteps of Seokjin carrying you to your room sound much heavier to your ears than any pounding bass of a party tune.

“I’m sorry,” you speak up, unable to last the rest of the walk without saying something. Your eyes are still closed, but your mind is too noisy for you to comfortably float back into dreamland.

“You’re still awake?” he asks, probably having expected you to knock out cold during the free ride home. “It’s fine. The Godfather isn’t for everyone. We can watch a more recent movie next time.”

“No, it’s not just that,” you interrupt, a strange sense overwhelming you like a chill from the night air. Tightening your hold on Seokjin, you try to bring yourself closer to him for warmth, although you’re pretty sure that you can’t get any closer than you already are. “I’m sorry you have to walk me back like this.”

“Like I said, it’s fine,” he repeats with not a single drop of malice in his voice. “This isn’t my first rodeo.” You don’t even have time to register whether or not that was a joke about the piggyback ride before he continues. “You’re actually the most awake out of all the times I’ve done this, so I’d say that’s an improvement.”

You take a moment to try and rack your brain for any of the previous instances of this happening, but you’re sure that there’s a reason those are not present in your memory.

“Wow, why are you even friends with me?” you joke, not really expecting an answer to your rhetorical question, but Seokjin doesn’t leave it alone.

“I ask myself that every single day.”

“Huh, glad you agree,” you grumble, drawing a good chuckle from your carrier that shakes his shoulders just a tad. He settles back down and the atmosphere returns to being still, but just when you think that the conversation is over, he speaks up again.

“I guess you’re not too bad to be around when you’re conscious.”

“Why, thank you. You speak too highly of me,” you say sarcastically, contemplating whether or not you should take advantage of your position and put him in a chokehold.

“And it’s pretty cute how you drool in your sleep,” he adds on unexpectedly.

“Hey! I don’t drool,” you defend straightaway. You may not be the most sophisticated lady on campus, but you will not stand for this slander on your sleeping habits.

“Whatever you say,” he teases, the intonation of his voice rising in an obvious show of mild mockery.

The conversation does end there until he drops you off at your room. There, you two exchange a word of thanks and farewells before he leaves you to your own devices. You enter your room as courteously as possible, making sure not to wake Soobin who braved the all-nighter with you to finish her own project. You don’t have to be too cautious of making noise, because the first and last place you head to for the night is your bed.

It doesn’t take long for you to drift off to sleep once again, but this time, a sentence Seokjin said on your way over here is stuck on repeat in your mind. Specifically, one word echoes on a loop like a lullaby, making you float into a content state of relaxation and bliss.

Cute.

The end of the second school year is approaching before you know it, and you’re surprised that even after the interesting events that happened, all of you are making it through the year without any casualties. You can’t vouch for property damage though, because Namjoon has broken a couple of Seokjin’s sunglasses and even a door knob of a classroom…and also one of the legs of his dorm bed—but you digress.

Okay, now that you think about it, Seokjin did sprain his finger for a few weeks, but that wasn’t anyone’s fault but his own. Only he would manage to hurt himself while trying to bestow a punishment on your wrist as part of a bet since you lost a game of Mario Kart against him.

Only he would manage to lose even when he won.

Other than that minor incident that involved your forearms of steel, you have to say that the school year ending on a reasonably good note.

You are getting along with Soobin extremely well, and as far as roommates go, she’s the best—not to mention only—one you’ve had so far. She’s a keeper alright—it was written in stone from the moment you woke up after that freshman housewarming party to see that she picked up some hangover soup for you. So, you two established that you will room together for the following years as well. Neither of you were willing to go through the lottery again and risk obtaining a disagreeable roommate.

Seokjin also made the same pact with Yoongi, believe it or not. You can’t fathom the reason, but he told you that they just matched well together. With how different they are, the only thing you are certain that they share is human DNA.

Well, that and another thing.

Standing in front of Seokjin’s door, you rap your knuckles on the wooden panel before reaching for the handle to walk into the room. You two have plans this evening to go eat at a new restaurant a few blocks from here, so you know that he’s expecting you to bust in at any moment—hence, the unlocked door.

You step into the dorm and courteously close the door after you. When you turn back around, you are faced with a horrifying sight that nearly makes you jump out of your skin.

“Holy sh—oh, it’s just you.”

Yoongi is staring indifferently at your startled self from his usual position at his desk, but in this instance, he has on a white towel wrapped around his head and what looks like a face sheet mask used for skin care. The latter of the two prevents him from talking or welcoming you with any semblance of emotion, not that he does that anyway. You’re used to seeing people with face masks on—you often utilize them before you go to sleep to keep your skin nice and hydrated—but you have never seen the one Yoongi has on at this moment. It’s a metallic silver rather than the normal white cotton, making him appear like he has a layer of foil on his face.

“What’s up?” Seokjin greets as he walks out of the bathroom located off to the side.

“Nothing. It just looks like your roommate decided to skin the Tin Man and wear his face.”

Yoongi looks at you ever unamused, but of course, the mask makes everything so much more entertaining to you.

“Don’t make him laugh,” Seokjin chastises, passing by to walk over to his side of the room.

“I don’t think he’s capable of laughter.”

“He said his skin was acting up so I let him use one of my face masks.”

“Sharing is caring, I guess.” At this point, Yoongi has already spun back around to return his attention back to his laptop screen, happy to ignore whatever exchange that follows. Diverting your own attention, you gaze towards Seokjin who is by his bed now. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yeah, just give me a second.”

He turns away from you to gather his belongings from atop his desk for the dinner outing, and as you stare at his back, you’re suddenly hit in the face with a resounding, accentuated word.

Dorito.

Dear lord almighty, Taehyung was right. With Seokjin’s broad back in full view in front of you, it’s like you’re seeing for the first time how wide his shoulders are in comparison to his slim waist. Was he always like this? How have you never noticed this before? This experience reminds you of the instance when you suddenly noticed how much he grew during high school, except this time, you’re dealing with a phenomenon you can only attribute to his body filling out to take the shape of a real man.

You don’t know how you feel about this revelation or how you’re supposed to feel, but one thing is for certain.

You’ll never look at Doritos the same way again.

Your third year of college starts off just like the last two, except now that you have gotten into the groove, you have grown as comfortable as can be with everything around you. Perhaps you’re a little too comfortable, because you remain assured in your outlook that everything will stay more or less the same, just like it always has. You predict that the months will most likely carry on without any major disturbances, but like Seokjin likes to say, you shouldn’t speak too soon.

Anything can happen.

Well, anything except you learning your lesson when it comes to the annual housewarming party.

“Can you walk by yourself?”

You know it’s an excellent end to the night when someone has to ask you that. Hey, at least you’re conscious enough to comprehend the question this year—and you’re pretty sure you’ll remember this in the morning. Probably.

“Of course, I can walk by myself,” you chastise a little too loudly, the vestiges of liquid confidence rushing through your veins as you wave off the speaker of that ridiculous inquiry.

Seokjin is the speaker in front of you, warily eyeing your form as you lift yourself up from the bench outside of the venue you somehow found your way to. You stare down at the ground as it shifts the slightest to try and throw you off balance, but you get up on your own two feet without so much as a hiccup.

“See!” you exclaim, looking back up to see Seokjin standing at a closer distance than you expected. His arms are up as if to make a barrier around you in case you fall, which is completely unnecessary because you’re perfectly fine. You don’t want him to have to carry you back to your room like all the other times he told you about—you can handle this all on your own.

“You’re standing,” he states, not convinced by the proof of your adept balance. In response, you lazily shove your hand onto his chest to get him to move away before taking a couple steps forward and starting a slow march down the left side of the pathway.

“And now I’m walking,” you proclaim happily, even surprising yourself with how little you seem to be tipping and swaying.

“You’re going the wrong way.”

“You don’t know that.”

You hear a sigh from behind before footsteps come up next to you to match your pace. Not a moment later, you feel something warm slip into your hand before it pulls you gently in the opposite direction, changing your course. Glancing over at the perpetrator, you see Seokjin walking beside you, and when you lower your gaze, you see his hand intertwined with yours, leading you to where you need to be going. You can’t help but let out a giggle at the display, and he tilts his head to give you a strange look when you tighten your hold to let the heat from his hand seep into your skin.

“It’s like we’re kids again,” you say with a snicker, recalling the times in elementary school when you had to hold hands with your classmates and friends before crossing the street.

“Well, one of us is.”

You admit that Seokjin is not really wrong, since alcohol basically does have the tendency to reduce fully grown adults back to infancy by taking away their motor and speech skills.

“How come you’re not drunk?” Your head lulls a tiny bit to the side as you examine how your best friend seems to be not at all inebriated.

“Because someone needs to make sure you get home, and it’s not going to be you,” he casually elucidates as his reason for being completely fine.

Your legs keep moving despite your mind being left behind with the words he just said. The fact that he just told you that the reason he doesn’t drink to his heart’s content is because he wants to get you back to your dorm safely makes you feel giddy in a way that you didn’t think was possible. There’s a buzzing within you and a sense of safety just knowing that someone is there for you even when you make horrible decisions, although the rapid heartbeat could just be the residual excitement from the party.

“Why are you laughing like that?” Seokjin suddenly asks, pulling you out of your thoughts and making you aware that you were giggling like a schoolgirl again. “It’s creepy.”

“Thank you.”

“I don’t think being creepy is something to be proud of.”

“No,” you interject earnestly, dropping your attention to the ground to watch your feet try to match Seokjin’s wider stride. “Thank you for taking care of me,” you say a bit quieter this time. A few seconds of silence pass as if he’s thinking of the right thing to say before he responds with an equally soft voice.

“You know I always will.”

You’re not sure if it’s because you’re still floating in the sea of intoxication, but those words take a strong hold on you. It makes you think of how many other times he has been by your side to take care of you; the number has to be too high to count, because even on the nights that showcase your worst decision-making skills, last year’s Halloween party and the year prior’s housewarming party are just to name a few, you always end up in Seokjin’s capable hands as he does everything but tuck you into bed—that job belongs to Soobin.

It’s not that Seokjin shuns drinking, because you know from experience that he could drink most people under the table. Your heart swells at the thought that he is regulating himself in order to make sure you can have fun without having to worry about ending up in a ditch somewhere, and it could be just the alcohol speaking, but the realization that he just made what sounds like a promise to be your designated guardian makes you feel like the luckiest irresponsible girl alive.

“Hey, I think I’m sobering up,” you suddenly say with probably a little too much wide-eyed seriousness, but it makes Seokjin laugh, so in turn, you smile as well.

“You keep telling yourself that.”

The trek to your dorm doesn’t take too much longer to complete. Actually, it feels like it took a total of about ten seconds by the time you walk up to the door of your room. The corridors of the building are fairly empty due to the inhabitants either being asleep or still out having the time of their college lives.

Seokjin guides you down the hallway, passing by a few scattered empty cups and a room with a lucky sock on the doorknob before you two stop in front of your own door.

“Thanks, again,” you repeat once more, turning to grant him a sluggish smile.

“Don’t mention it.”

As you two stand there, he meets your eyes for a prolonged moment, as if waiting for something to happen. All of a sudden, a strong urge rises from within you, and you waver towards Seokjin for a split second before you stop yourself right away.

“You should leave before I throw up on you.”

Seokjin wears a bleary expression, as he always does with you, but he isn’t shocked since this isn’t the first experience he had with your nonsense—you can promise that it certainly won’t be the last, either. He murmurs a terse goodbye before spinning on his heel to walk back down the hall you came from.

It’s only in that moment that you feel a hollow breeze drift across your palm, and the steady realization hits you that he didn’t let go of your hand until just now.

It’s a few weeks into the school year when one of the first signs of change appears to you in the form of a text. You and your friends are finalizing plans to grab lunch together during the weekend at one of your favorite fried chicken joints, and Namjoon comes out of the blue to throw you a curve ball.

Is it alright if I bring someone?

Your eyebrow raises at the unforeseen words on the screen for only a split second before you recover and type out your answer—or question.

Ooh, a girlfriend?

You add on a couple winky and kissy faces after the message as an extra measure to shower him with annoyance only a friend would have the honor of receiving. A response promptly follows your jesting gesture.

No, he is a male.

Without missing a beat, your fingers work to concoct another text.

Oooooh, a boyfriend??

Of course, you don’t forget to tack on the unnecessarily obnoxious emoticons along with it. You only have to wait a few seconds before Namjoon’s reply flies in swifter than ever.

NO. JESUS CHRIST. He’s just a kid I tutor.

Reading the reply, you tilt your head in confusion. Namjoon bringing a kid he tutors to lunch with the grown-ups—that’s certainly not something you expected to happen anytime soon. But hey, you don’t mind kids at all, and fried chicken can be enjoyed by people of all ages. You’re not going to decline, so you tap out your stamp of approval and send it off.

Sure! The little dude can tag along.

Spoiler alert: he is not little.

Namjoon failed to mention that the “kid” he invited is a full-fledged college freshman. From first glance, he isn’t anything close to being a kid, and there’s nothing little about him. He is 178cm of pure muscle and doe-eyed wonder, and his name is Jeon Jungkook.

“So, what’s your major?” you bring up in an attempt to break the ice.

He has been sitting quietly next to Namjoon on the other side of the table for a while now, just staring at the plate and utensils in front of him with a look that you can only describe as the one people have when they realize that they forgot to turn off the stove at home. Maybe that’s just his default resting face, but since you’re all waiting for your food to come out, you figure that you might as well get to know the guy.

“Graphic design.” His voice is a tad soft, but he seems very attentive to your conversational efforts, so at least you have something to work with.

“That’s cool,” you hum, nodding your head at the answer. Perhaps this was a bad topic to start off with, since you have absolutely no input in that field whatsoever. You also don’t want to ask him follow-ups regarding his future career and all that jazz; you don’t want to give the poor freshman crippling anxiety when you hardly even know him. Deciding to switch it up, you divulge your second question of this improvised interrogation. “You have any hobbies?”

“Oh no,” you hear Namjoon whisper all of a sudden—and that’s the only thing you hear from him.

Apparently, you just opened Pandora’s box. Everything from video games to rock climbing spews from him like a fountain of passion, and it would have most likely been overwhelming to most, but since you started this conversation, it’s only right you continue to guzzle the interests down. You can’t find it in your heart to end it though, because as much as it feels like a barrage of information, you actually feel yourself bonding with him, especially after learning that he uses the same perfume as you—yes, perfume.

The commotion is only halted by the chicken arriving—food always calls for everyone’s full attention.

“If only he was this passionate about schoolwork,” Namjoon laments with a sigh once all the food has been placed on the table before you. He wears a look of defeat that you can only assume means that he has dealt with this plenty of times before, and judging by the sheepish and downcast smile that rests on Jungkook’s face, you can also assume that he has heard this nagging equally as many times.

Taking note of this, you give Namjoon a frown. “Not everyone was born for the books like you, Joonie,” you coo. You reach over with your fork to stab the largest piece of chicken you can find before turning to Jungkook with a grin and placing it on his plate. “I think you’ll be just fine.”

The smile Jungkook gives you makes you realize why Namjoon called him a kid. He’s beaming like a child on Christmas morning, and you see a glimpse of his distinct front teeth, ones you swear you saw at a pet store once, before he immediately goes to chomp down on the offering you just gave him.

Feeling a disturbance in the atmosphere on your left, you turn your head to look at what it is, and you see Seokjin staring you down from next to you, although you can argue that it’s borderline glaring. You blink a couple times at him, waiting for something to be said. Instead, he averts his eyes without a word, so you do the same, brushing past how weird that exchange was.

Is he upset that you gave away the biggest piece of chicken to the new guy? You know that Seokjin is a man who takes his food seriously, but you think it was a nice gesture on your part, so whatever.

There’s plenty more where it came from, but you have to act fast.

Much to your surprise, you hit it off exceedingly well with Jungkook. Thus, your circle of friends extended even further. Well, it’s only really by one. The kid doesn’t really have any other friends, it seems. Maybe that’s why he begins joining your group activities and gatherings and even your group chat on KakaoTalk after the initial meeting you all had. He has also become particularly keen on texting you to go out to eat and whatnot, but you don’t blame him—you knew your striking good looks and charming personality would get you attention one day.

It’s either that, or you’re the only one willing to humor him on his constant outings.

You don’t mind keeping him company, and in fact, you quite enjoy hanging out with the little dude. It reminds you of how carefree you were back when you were just a freshman. Or when you were a sophomore. Or you know, when you were procrastinating your writing assignment just last week.

Yes, the good old days.

Speaking of days, today is one, and some time before noon, you take it upon yourself to go on a leisurely stroll to Seokjin’s dorm. When you arrive at the door, you knock a suitable amount before turning the knob to walk right in. The knock wasn’t absolutely necessary since you texted Seokjin earlier asking if you could come over, a message to which he replied back by telling you to let yourself in since the door will be unlocked.

“I bear gifts,” you call out in a singsong voice after you close the door behind you. You stand by the entryway with a carrier tray of two drinks and a brown paper bag only to see that no one is in here.

“Bathroom,” you hear a voice come from, you guessed it, the bathroom.

You make a noise of acknowledgment and make a beeline towards Seokjin’s desk. You carefully place the iced coffee and breakfast burritos on the tabletop before plucking one of the former items out of its cardboard transporter. Usually, one of these is for Yoongi since you like giving him peace offerings—it’s the least you can do for imposing on what is ultimately his dorm as well—but he doesn’t seem to be anywhere in sight. Unless Seokjin and Yoongi are bathroom buddies, you don’t think he’s going to be in anytime soon.

Regardless, you place the Americano on top of Yoongi’s desk just in case he proves you wrong. Having done that, you return to Seokjin’s side of the room and make yourself comfortable on his chair, something you’re a pro at by now since this place has become like your second home.

Bored already by the silence, you whip out your trusty phone to check for any notifications. There’s a text message from Soobin that goes something along the lines of “I’m going to eat so much at K-BBQ tonight”, and you reply with a flurry of meat emoticons that you’re sure she’s going to decipher to be you sharing her excitement.

When you exit out of that conversation, you see a few more new texts waiting to be read, so you take the time to go through them and send out your responses.

At Seokjin’s.

You expertly type out your last message before you hear a strangled cry come from the bathroom that interrupts your mobile mojo. The door swings open, and Seokjin begins stomping furiously towards you with one hand hovering beside his head.

“Did you drop your phone in the toilet again?” you ask as he comes to a halt in front of you.

“No!” he gripes in agony. “What is this?!”

With that yell, he practically shoves his head right up in your grill, coming so close to your face that you have to scoot backwards on the rolling chair to avoid going cross-eyed. When you focus on what’s being presented, you observe that his fingers are held in a pincer grip, and between his index finger and thumb is a silver strand that stands out from the black locks.

“It’s a gray hair,” you retort nonchalantly.

Seokjin bellows like a tormented whale and spins around in a theatrical motion to fall face-first onto his bed, his body bouncing from the impact on the mattress.

“I can’t believe I have gray hairs already.” His distressed voice is muffled by the sheets, but you’re still able to discern his speech.

“Come on, it’s just one. It’s probably from stress or something.” Your words make Seokjin all but wail into his bedspread, and the only thing you can do is sigh at the juvenile display.

Just then, a knock interrupts the quarterlife crisis, and the door pops open not a second later to reveal a beaming Jungkook.

“Hey noona!” he greets cheerfully when he sees your face, and you lift your hand up to give him a simple wave as he walks in and shuts the door. His line of sight darts over to where Seokjin is splayed over his mattress, and it only takes one look for him to recognize that he has walked into the middle of something. “What’s wrong with him?”

“He found a gray hair.” Yet another muffled cry is howled into the blanket. “Please tell him that he’s not getting old,” you implore, turning to Jungkook for help.

“You’re not getting old, hyung.” Seokjin lifts his head up to acknowledge Jungkook’s attempt at comforting him, but the thanks on the tip of his tongue doesn’t have a chance to be formed into existence. “You already are old.”

Seokjin flings a pillow across the room at Jungkook, but he dodges it skillfully with a rowdy snicker. When the laughter dies down, Jungkook turns back to you with the remainder of his mischief resting as a candid smile on his face.

“Are you ready to go?”

You’re about to answer Jungkook’s question, but Seokjin beats you to the punch.

“Where are you two going?”

“Kookie asked me to go bowling with him,” you state, getting up from your spot to stretch out your back—thankfully, no cracks erupt from it this time. “You wanna come, too?”

“No, thanks.”

There’s that subtle glare again from the chicken restaurant, except this time, it’s done much more openly. Your eyebrows crease as you frown at the unwarranted hostility. “You can always dye your hair if it bothers you that much.”

“Yeah, whatever.” He drops his head back onto the bed, and you watch his hair jump up ever so slightly before falling back into place.

Ignoring the offhand rejoinder, your eyes wander over to the untouched drink on Yoongi’s desk and take a few steps towards it. “Hey, Kookie. Want some coffee?” Your hand reaches out to grab it in anticipation for the answer he will most likely give.

“Sure!”

As you walk the cup over to him, Jungkook starts animatedly singing the chorus of Americano by 10cm, only shutting up once he relieves you of the cup to take a long sip from the straw. It breaks your heart to think that this kid would have probably been holed up in his room playing Overwatch for 12 hours straight if he didn’t have such an awesome friend like you.

“Oh, right.” You suddenly remember your brief texting conversation with Soobin. “Are we still on for tonight?” you ask, turning to direct the question at Seokjin. “Did you check with Namjoon?”

“Yeah.”

His face isn’t visible since it’s still buried in his bedsheets, but you definitely heard that half-baked answer. “That’s good. Also, I left you a breakfast burrito on the table.”

“Thanks.”

Seokjin doesn’t move a muscle from his position, and it only makes you frown deeper. Usually, he’s all over that and probably would have inhaled the food by now. You never thought he would get so worked up and upset over such a miniscule thing such as a gray hair. You would do something to try and drag him out of his sorry state, but Jungkook is already walking out the door and holding it open for you to leave as well.

“I’ll see you later, then,” you mumble before you step out into the hallway, allowing Jungkook to holler his own farewell over you.

“Bye, hyung!”

You don’t have anything to say about the bowling experience other than you will get your revenge. It may not be in the same activity, nor do you think it’ll be anything in the sports category if you’re being realistic, but you will reign victorious one of these days.

You will win over Jungkook even if it’s the last thing you do.

Composing yourself from your not-so-friendly competition, you can definitely concur that you worked up an appetite. It’s the late afternoon by the time you’re done, so Jungkook and you decide to head back over to your respective dorms to change and get ready for dinner. Jungkook is actually the one who suggests this, although you have no idea why the change of clothes is necessary, especially since he’ll probably sweat through them again regardless. Maybe he wants to switch his current plain t-shirt for his other plain t-shirt, or maybe the other fifty.

You should really ask Taehyung to spruce up the boy’s wardrobe when he has the chance. The kid can probably benefit from having a fashion-savvy friend. Plus, you’re sure Taehyung will be up for the challenge.

Once both of you are freshened up and ready to go, you accompany each other on the walk that lasts several blocks to get to your destination. You check your phone on the way and see that Seokjin hasn’t tried contacting you since the you left. You try not to think too much of it though, since he did confirm that he was going to show up tonight.

Unsurprisingly, Jungkook and you are the first ones there, followed closely by Namjoon who greets you with his usual single syllable “yo”. A few more people begin to show up for the gathering whom you only really recognize to be from Namjoon and Taehyung’s circles of friends. You all loiter around the front of the barbecue place, not being able to be seated until at least half your party is present since the size is so large. To reach that minimum, you just need one more person to arrive.

“Is that…Jin?” Namjoon cautiously speaks up while squinting in a direction of the sidewalk you are on. Turning around to observe the street, you see a handful of people walking toward you, but as you scan the heads, none of them seem familiar.

“Where? I don’t see him.”

“No way…” you hear Jungkook say with disbelief under his breath next to you.

“What?” you ask impatiently, obviously not being able to follow what’s happening.

You search among the pedestrians again, craning your head to get a better look behind a man whose broad shoulders are closing in and doing a damn good job of blocking the view of anyone who is behind him.

Wait, broad shoulders.

The moment your eyes lock onto the man in realization, they nearly pop out of their sockets at the spectacle. It is certainly your best friend, but his countenance is almost unrecognizable. He appears more like the human embodiment of a Ken doll the closer he gets, showing off his newly minted blond hair.

“Hey,” Seokjin hails when he stops in front of the group with a lackadaisical wave and a tightlipped grin. Everyone else seems to be too speechless to speak, so you take the opportunity to do it first.

“You know, when I said ‘dye your hair’, I meant dark brown or something, not freaking platinum blond.”

“You don’t like it?” His lips curve down to turn into a frown, and his eyebrows crease in worry.

“No, no. It’s looks great,” you assure, only speaking the truth. You don’t know what else to say as you stare absorbedly at his fresh appearance. His forehead is exposed by his fringe being styled up and away from it in a windswept but elaborate manner, and the sides of his hair have been buzzed short in what can only be defined as the perfect undercut. Someone should give this hairdresser an award for the best cut and color to ever exist.

You feel kind of dumbstruck, unable to tear your eyes away from the golden mane. It’s like he’s a blindingly radiant lamp and you’re a bug who doesn’t care that you’re flying straight into your electric death.

“Alright! Let’s go in,” one of Namjoon’s friends calls out from behind you, pulling your attention back to your surroundings and making you realize that you were zoning out.

You have known your best friend for almost your entire life, but gazing at the man in front of you conjures a strange sensation that you can’t explain, mostly because you’ve never experienced anything like it before. The look in his eyes administers an altered vibe as well, and while it’s not quite strange enough for you to feel uncomfortable, it does somehow feel like you’re standing in front of a different person than the one you met as a child.

The expression on Soobin’s face when she arrives is that of a changed person, as well. It’s like her interest in Seokjin has suddenly been rekindled, and you can practically feel attraction being transmitted from her like radio waves even as she sits on the other side of the table from you and him. The twinkle in her eye that you recall seeing on the first day you all met is now replaced with an ember, and strangely enough, you feel the beginnings of one burning within you too, except yours is in the pit of your stomach.

It’s probably just your hunger again.

The side dishes are brought out to the table before the meat for the K-BBQ does, as usual, and you promptly begin to stuff your face with the steamed egg in hopes of getting your mind off of whatever it is you’re trying to avoid thinking of.

A few minutes later, the orders arrive, and a few more minutes later, Taehyung finally arrives—fashionably late, if you will. The grilling process has already started without him, but the first thing he does before he takes his seat is walk up behind Seokjin’s chair and place a hand on his shoulder in a prideful manner.

“Alright! You were able to get a walk-in!”

Seokjin detects your confused expression you’re not exactly attempting to hide, and he explains Taehyung’s outburst. “I asked him where he got his hair dyed.”

You instantly swing your head up to gawk at Taehyung accusingly. “You suggested this to him?”

“Yup! My salon is known to be great at dyeing hair,” he boasts, stepping off to the side to plop onto the empty seat next to Seokjin’s.

“Unbelievable.”

“I know right? It looks amazing, hyung!”

Taehyung’s not wrong—you’ll give him that much.

You feel sort of guilty for sneaking glances at Seokjin while you’re all eating, but not enough that it stops you from doing so. It fascinates you too much how he seems like a brand new person, and you’re not just talking about his hair. His entire aura feels different in an indescribable way, but you hardly think that it’s something that can be done overnight, or in this case, approximately four hours.

You have a feeling that things have been different for a while now—you just couldn’t see it until it was flashing in your face like neon lights.

“I’m telling you, put the apple slices in the bowl first and soak it with milk. Then, add the cereal on top. It’ll change your life.”

Your face sours at Jungkook’s vivacious attempt at persuading you to join his blasphemous cult of people who pour their milk before their cereal. You have no idea how the apples got invited into the equation, but you will not be swayed nor converted.

“My life doesn’t need to be changed for the worse, thanks,” you dismiss as the two of you reach the end of the campus courtyard and enter the building you’ve been heading towards. It’s lunchtime now, so almost everyone is sauntering around with plans to fill their bellies, just like you.

“Suit yourself,” Jungkook says with a shrug, shoving his hands into his pockets as you continue on down the hallway. He looks like he wants to say something else, but his expression suddenly changes as something makes him crinkle his eyebrows. “What is that?”

“What is what?”

“That noise,” he specifies. You concentrate your ears to pick up on anything peculiar, but all you hear is a certain familiar tone traveling through the corridors. “It’s like someone’s trying really hard to wipe glass, but there aren’t even windows in here.”

“Oh, that’s definitely Seokjin,” you state with no doubt in your mind. If there is one sound that is as recognizable as the ringing of his keychain, it’s his laugh.

Sure enough, when you two turn the corner, you see your best friend halfway down the path with Namjoon. They both have outstanding smiles on their faces as if they just heard the best joke of their lives, except that can’t be possible because you weren’t there to tell it. Now that you set your sights on Seokjin, it’s safe to say that after a week has passed since the big change, his blond hair is has become the third distinct feature you can use to find him if you ever lose him in a crowd.

Jungkook and you steadily approach the boisterous pair, but when you draw near, you swear you see Seokjin’s smile start to disappear from his face at your appearance.

“Hey guys!” you call out to announce your presence, although it’s only half-necessary at this point. “Ready for some tacos?”

“You know it,” Namjoon replies with zest, doing well at maintaining his dimpled smile unlike some people.

“Actually, I have to bail today,” Seokjin speaks up as if reading your mind in the worst way. “I have other plans.”

The sudden news makes you furrow your brows with disappointment. “What could be more important than Taco Tuesday?”

“Soobin asked me to go to this new café with her.”

“Oh,” you voice, feeling your disappointment grow even more. “Okay.”

Seokjin’s attention flicks over to Jungkook for a split second before he looks back at you. “I’m sure you guys will be fine without me for one day.”

“Yeah, yeah. Go have fun on your date,” you drone as a wisecrack, but somehow, you don’t feel like laughing. You don’t know whether Seokjin is ignoring the comment you made or silently acknowledging the title you bestowed upon the meeting with his lack of denial, but either way, he just moves on from it and bids his farewell to the group.

“I’ll see you guys later.”

As you watch him turn around to go on his merry way down to the other end of the hall, your eyes and ears are drawn to the keychain on his backpack. It still creates the ever familiar clinking as it gets jostled from side to side with the fast-paced steps Seokjin takes.

It’s another strange manifestation, listening to the melody fade away rather than crescendo like it usually does. You realize that you never really paid attention to it when he left, because he was always advancing to meet you or already beside you. Somehow, each ring feels like a jab today, even as the sound drifts away due to the distance Seokjin is putting between you two.

Until it disappears.

You don’t understand where this all this spite is coming from. You have absolutely no reasonable excuse to be feeling this way. Despite the confusion with the occasional shifts in mood he has when he’s around you recently, Seokjin and you are on more than good terms—excellent terms, even. As for Soobin, she has not done a single thing to get on your bad side since you met her. You don’t know what’s so bad about Seokjin befriending your roommate, especially since you’re technically hanging out with Seokjin’s friends in a similar fashion. So, what the problem can possibly be is beyond your recognition.

Oh well, it’s nothing some good tacos can’t fix.

“Hey there!” Your roommate’s voice reaches your eardrums as she walks into your shared dorm with a white box in her hand and a content smile on her face.

“Hey,” you reply naturally from your desk, turning away from your work to give her your full attention. “How was the café?”

“It was super fun! And the food was delicious.” Soobin’s expression does nothing to hide the happiness bubbling out of her. “We should go together sometime! I think you’ll like it,” she suggests in a way that would disarm anyone from harboring any sort of ill will towards her. “I also brought you back a cake!”

And there goes any remnants of resentment you held today.

“Oh,” you say, feeling more foolish by the second when your unreasonable anger dissipates to reveal just how petty you were being. She hands you the container holding what you assume is holding a little slice of heaven, and you stare at it guiltily. “You really didn’t have to.”

“Don’t worry. It was Jin who paid for it.” Just like that, the gnawing feeling is back. “He paid for the entire meal too, even though I told him I would be totally fine with splitting the check.”

Soobin proceeds to drop off her things on her desk to begin unwinding from the outing—it’ll probably be hard to do considering that you can practically feel the ecstatic energy being emitted off of her. There’s probably nothing you can say right now to knock her off the cloud she’s on, so you just listen in silence.

“He’s such a gentleman,” she croons, spinning on her heel and falling back to take a seat on her bed with a hearty spring. “I mean, I know I don’t need to tell you, though. You probably know that already.” There’s not a single hint of enmity behind her words, yet they still fell like a poison specifically made for you, because the instant they leave her lips to meet your ears, there’s a stinging sensation that just refuses to go away.

“Yeah, I guess I do.”

Thinking back to the moments leading to your first encounter with Soobin, you remember that the most pressing worries you were concerned about were whether your roommate would be a serial killer or a thief. Your mind went so far to think of all the highly unlikely scenarios, but you never bothered to conjure up the questions that are starting to take form now.

What if Soobin falls for your best friend?

But then you realize that there’s a second question burning in the back of your mind, one that haunts you more than the last and even more than you’re willing to admit.

What if he falls for her, too?

The sound of unsteady, labored breathing pierces through the thick air in sharp exhales. Jungkook is in front of you, the curves of his muscles on display as they tense up with each movement he makes.

“Come on! You can do better than this.”

At the taunting phrases you throw at him, you see a smirk appear at the corner of his mouth before he works to pick up the pace. His exposed biceps ripple under the new speed in which he takes charge, and the fluid motion becomes even stronger than you anticipated—up and down, back and forth.

“Almost there!” you yell when you see him start to tremble. He’s so close to breaking—it’s obvious by his appearance and the way his face scrunches up with the strained effort to keep it up—but his athleticism and stamina continues to impress you.

Still, every man has his limits, and Jungkook soon reaches his. With a final, heavy pump, he lets out a sound similar to a growl, one so primal, it takes you by surprise. Shortly thereafter, he releases himself, collapsing to roll over onto his back, his chest rising and falling at an accelerated speed as he attempts to catch his breath. His skin is covered in a glistening sheen of sweat from the strenuous activity he just partook in, and it causes his dark hair to stick to his forehead in untidy clusters.

“Eh, not bad,” you voice out, making sure to sound as unenthusiastic as possible.

“How many was that?” he asks, turning to look at you while wiping the moisture from his neck with the back of his equally sweaty hand.

“I don’t know. I lost count.”

“Are you serious?” he cries out in exhaustion, throwing his arms out to his sides so that they land with light thuds on the mat below him.

“Don’t blame me. You’re the one who suddenly decided to show off.”

“I’m not showing off,” Jungkook defends, rising to a seated position and locking eyes with you. “I’m warming up.”

“Right,” you draw out in an unconvinced tone.

Diverting your attention from Mr. Macho, you take some of this down time to take in your immediate surroundings.

You don’t know what you did to get in this position, but here you are, watching Jeon Jungkook do push-ups on a Wednesday evening. All the others around you have already scattered, moving as far away from your corner of the gym as possible; your motivational cheering and Jungkook’s caveman yodel probably did well to scare them off.

“Why did you even agree to come?” Jungkook unexpectedly brings up. You’re about to spew a witty comeback, but when you tilt your head to look at him, he seems genuinely curious as to your reason. He mostly likely noticed your lack of excitement and desire to be here, not that it’s difficult at all to perceive.

“I’m wondering the same thing.”

“You could have said no.”

Jungkook extends his arm to the side to grasp his water bottle before unscrewing the cap. You merely give him a shrug and a bored expression. “It’s not like I had anything else to do.” The sentence comes out of your mouth a little more malevolent than you were intending.

The truth of the matter is, you got out of your last class of the day and was met with two texts: one from Jungkook asking on a whim if you were up for a workout session and another from Seokjin giving you a heads up that he’ll be out eating dinner with Soobin for the next few hours. Not that you don’t enjoy spending your hump day getting sweaty and swole, but you can’t help but have a reemergence of that resentment that seems to be following you around these past several weeks.

It’s fine—you didn’t even want to be invited, especially to something that involves food. You would have been the third wheel, anyway. It’s totally cool.

“You can bail if you want.”

Jungkook rips you out of your rage-induced reverie, and when you focus back on him, the concerned look on his face makes your heart clench just the slightest—like, the tiniest, near-undetectable amount.

“Nah, don’t sweat it,” you break the tension with a joke. It successfully wipes the concern from his face as it’s replaced with an icy stare with not even a chuckle in sight. Ignoring his absence of a good sense of humor, you continue on. “What better way to spend some free time after school than with my favorite freshman?”

“Do you even know other freshmen?” he accuses, raising his eyebrow.

“That’s beside the point,” you retort, waving your hand casually to move on from the topic. That must have been good enough of an answer to Jungkook, because he doesn’t argue about it.

“Alright then,” he speaks up, tossing his half-empty bottle to the side and gesturing to the empty spot on the mat in front of you with a smile. “Your turn.”

Ah yes, this is so much better than dinner.

“Hey, you—whoa.” Soobin stops mid-greeting when she gets a good look at you walking into the dorm. You didn’t expect her to be back so soon, but then again, you didn’t expect to spend two hours at the gym—that’s two hours too many. “You look like you just went through hell.”

“Close,” you grumble, slinking towards your closet so you can get out of your workout clothes and into some pajamas. You’re going to jump into the shower as soon as possible and then probably order a pizza right after, because if there’s ever a time that you need one, it’s now.

“I hope it was worth missing out on the heaven that is curry rice,” Soobin jests with a chuckle, but the sentence makes you abruptly halt what you’re doing and turn around to shoot her a confused frown.

“What do you mean?”

“It’s a shame you had plans already. I was hoping you would come eat with us, but Jin told me you were busy—and I can see that you definitely were.” She ends her speech with another light laugh, motioning to your post-workout, disheveled appearance, but you aren’t paying attention to that part of her sentence—it’s the information that came before that causes your mind to go completely blank.

What she’s telling you doesn’t make sense. You accepted Jungkook’s request to go to the gym after you read Seokjin’s text saying that he had his own plans, and last time you checked, there was no invitation being extended on his part.

“Right, I was busy,” you swiftly agree in order to avoid the disquiet that the truth will bring out, especially since Soobin is already starting to tilt her head in concern for your funny reaction. Technically, you were busy, so it’s not like you’re telling a complete lie. You’re not so sure that the same can be said for your supposed best friend.

Why would he tell Soobin you couldn’t join them without even checking with you first? First he bails out on a group taco trip, and now he’s purposely leaving you out of the equation. You’re having a hard time understanding the logic and justification behind what’s going on, but based on the hints you’ve gathered until now, you can at least figure out what’s it is that he’s doing.

Seokjin is avoiding you.

“Is Namjoon coming?”

Sitting at Seokjin’s desk, you mentally go down your list of friends who are joining you to get drinks tonight. Your best friend is sitting on the opposite side of the room in Yoongi’s chair, something you consider either a brave or dumb move.

“Nope. He has midterms next week.”

“That’s an awfully long time to avoid drinking.”

“Trust me, it’s in the best interest for all of us. Last time we decided to go for drinks before a big exam, he wouldn’t stop going on about the effects of alcohol on our brains and how we’re killing off all the neurons or whatever.”

“Sounds fun,” you grunt sarcastically.

“Very,” he says with equal sarcasm. “It’s always a great night when you get kicked out of a bar because your friend won’t stop drunkenly screaming ‘We’re all murderers!’ at the top of his lungs.”

“Don’t invite Namjoon—got it.”

Just then, the unthinkable happens—there’s an awkward pause.

You don’t think you’ve ever witnessed one between you two in the past, probably because it never occurred before, but the following seconds of silence feels off. Maybe it’s just you and your restless thoughts refusing to leave you alone about your conversation with Soobin last week. You haven’t felt the need to mention it to Seokjin yet, because to be honest, you’re waiting for him to come clean and tell you what’s going on. So far, he’s been acting like his normal self, minus the occasional weird expressions you find him having when you’re around.

Not letting your thoughts wander any further, you blurt out the first thing that pops into your mind just to get past the tension. “What about Yoongi?”

Seokjin raises an eyebrow. “You’re joking, right?”

“Right, right. Hermit Min.” You nod knowingly and look off into the distance, trying to think of something else to follow that up. Thankfully, there’s no need to wring your brain, because Seokjin beats you to it.

“Did you invite Jungkook?”

“Oh, yeah. Let me check if he replied yet.” You fish out your phone from your pocket and wake the screen. Instantly, you feel so much more comfortable sitting in the quiet with the device in your hands—you have never felt more in tune with your Millennial roots.

Lo and behold, you see that you do indeed have a notification from him. When you unlock your phone to read the text, the chat opens up to the entirety of your screen being filled with rows of party emojis that range from flames to clinking beer mugs.

It’s such a wonder how you two became well-matched friends—a true mystery that might never be solved.

You snort at the message, half amused at the thought of him taking the time to rigorously type all of these out and half impressed at how he always manages to have so much energy. Honestly, you’re still in recovery mode after the makeshift training session he made you writhe through.

Never again.

“Yup, he’s coming. He seems pretty stoked about it,” you convey to Seokjin with a smile, pulling up the keyboard on your screen to reply with your own barrage of inappropriate emojis. You’re too busy clicking away at your phone, you don’t realize that Seokjin has gotten up from his seat until you hear the dorm room entry open.

“I’ll be back,” he announces austerely. You don’t even have time to ask him where he’s going before the door shuts behind him a little too hastily, leaving you to stare at the spot where he was just standing not a second ago.

You now sit alone in the motionless room, hearing Seokjin’s footsteps fade away into the distance until there’s nothing left for your ears to latch onto but your own breathing. It immediately makes you want to take back your thoughts from earlier.

This silence is far more unbearable.

The campus is bustling with activity today, and each section of the school seems to be coming alive for the current fair. Some clubs and businesses have set up their booths in different areas to both promote and recruit for their causes, whatever they may be.

You aren’t particularly keen on talking to strangers, especially ones who badger you to take their brochure or sign their petition when all you want to do is get to the other side of the courtyard so you can grab some grub to satiate the beast in your belly. There is a handful of people on the right side of the expanse beckoning for the attention of apathetic passersby, but one establishment’s method of advertisement catches your eye.

There’s an individual in a large mascot suit of a bunny rabbit dancing around and handing out flyers for a new café that has opened recently. You wonder for a split second if it’s the café that Seokjin and Soobin went to, but you decide not a second later that you aren’t going to care enough to check. Instead, you’re going to stare pitifully at the floppy, furry fellow and ponder about the poor sap who got roped into wearing that costume in this weather.

Being as smooth and casual as you can, you change the trajectory of the path you are walking so you don’t have to pretend to care enough to take a flyer, one that will most likely end up in the trash or stuffed in the back of your binder. You think you’re being clever with this maneuver, but for some reason, the space between you and the mascot doesn’t seem to shrink.

In fact, you think you see the bunny coming closer. Oh god, it’s actually coming toward you.

The costumed individual is literally skipping to you like you have a giant target on your back, and you swear that the giant, plastic eyes are honing in on you like you’re a helpless prey. It’s a terrifying sight in its own regard, but you’re not about to let some dude or dudette in a fat suit intimidate you.

As soon as the mascot stops next to you, the clumsy paw reaches out and shoves a flyer into your personal space. You stop in your tracks and stare down the rabbit in its dark, beady eyes before taking the paper from its hand.

“Thanks,” you sternly state with a nod.

You attempt to resume your saunter out of the promotional bazaar, but as soon as you take a step forward, the bunny sidesteps in front of you, blocking your way. You raise your eyebrow and step to the side again, giving it the benefit of the doubt that it maybe misread the direction you were going, but nope.

The stranger mirrors your movement and sidesteps so that the stupid suit is right in front of you again, gawking at you like nobody’s business. Taking a small step back and crossing your arms, you size up the mascot, wondering if you are really going to allow yourself to have some kind of Mexican standoff with the fluffy bastard.

“I took your damn flyer. What do you want—a carrot?”

You think you can hear a chortle emerge from the person within that barely escapes the confines of the costume.

“Relax, it’s just me.”

Jungkook. That’s his voice alright, even though the multiple layers of cotton and polyester. It’s just like him to be messing with you, too. You should have figured it out earlier.

“Wow, Jungkook,” you croon. “Finally decided to embrace your true nature, I see.”

“Shut up. I’m only doing this because they’re paying me.”

Ah, the wonderful things a college student will do for minimum wage.

“And how’s that working out for you?” you tease, the corner of your lip curving up into a smirk.

“I’m sweating in places I didn’t even know I could sweat,” he says, wiggling the tiniest bit in an itchy manner to showcase his discomfort.

“Yeah, I didn’t need to know that. Thanks.” Your face wrinkles in disgust, not wanting to hear any more of that. “How long do you need to keep this up?”

“Until all the flyers have been handed out.”

“Well then,” you start to say, trying to hide the shrewd smile that’s starting to make its way onto your face. “Better hop to it.”

You had no idea that the stationary face of an animal suit could look so done with your shit, but you can practically feel the waves of disappointment emanating from Jungkook through the bug-eyed bunny. Without another word, he turns around and purposely drags his feet as he returns to his post to continue doing his job.

Whatever. At least the coast is clear now.

You continue on your voyage to find food, but as you walk away, a conclusion pops into your mind; it’s so automatic, you don’t even give it a second thought about how it so easily was your first.

You’re sure Seokjin would have laughed at your joke.

“Can I ask you something?”

At the sentence, you spin around in your chair to give Soobin the undivided attention she deserves. The two of you have been studying at your respective desks for some time now, so you welcome the unwarranted break, no matter how short it may be. It feels like you haven’t really been talking much these days either, especially when taking into consideration that you two live together.

“Shoot.”

“What is Jin like?”

Your eyebrows crease at the unusual question, although you don’t know if you were expecting her to talk about any other topic given the recent circumstances.

“What do you mean? You’ve known him for more than two years. You two hang out all the time now.” You try your best not to sound upset, especially with the last part. You know she means well, but sometimes it’s hard to argue rationale with your emotional self.

“I know…and I know we’ve been spending more time together, but I feel like I don’t really know him, you know?” You nod your head diligently to the plethora of “know” missiles she chucked into one sentence to show that you do indeed know. “I just thought, who better than to ask his best friend?”

Soobin’s smile is sincere, albeit a bit shy for even bringing something like this up. You can tell she really is interested in Seokjin. It’s clearer than the ketchup stain that was on Namjoon’s shirt earlier today. You purse your lips in contemplation, but ultimately decide to help her with her curiosity.

“Where to start…” you think aloud, digging through the years of knowledge you have of your best friend. Soobin is looking at you with expectant eyes, so rather than wait, you begin listing off things about him in the order they come into your mind.

“First of all, he’s a very sore loser, but he’s an even worse winner, so unless you want him to hold that one table hockey win over your head for the rest of eternity, I suggest you never play games with him.” You undertake an annoyed look, and she stifles a laugh just as you were hoping. “Oh, I’m sure you know this one—he laughs way too much at his own jokes. But he does have a laugh that makes other people laugh, so he manages to get away with it.” This time, Soobin lets out the laugh she was holding back, and gives her input of “very true” to agree with your remark.

You go on to pick something that Soobin may not know about, just so you aren’t repeating knowledge she already possesses. “His favorite movie is The Matrix. It’s great and all, but it starts to get old when he makes you rewatch it with him a couple times a year even though there are a billion new movies out that he hasn’t seen yet,” you grumble. This is starting morph into some kind of roasting session for Seokjin, but you are on fire, so you’re going to roll with it.

“He also has the biggest appetite in the world, so always expect him to steal some of your food when he’s given the chance,” you continue, stating the obvious from experience chronicling back to even your first year of friendship. “The secret to repelling him is to know what kind of food he dislikes and ordering that when you can. That’s why I always get extra pepperoni on my pizza, because he absolutely hates it.” You smile deviously for a second, but then your mind turns an unexpected corner. “I guess there is an upside to him eating so much though. He likes to make bets and tell you that you owe him food and whatnot, but when you go out to eat, he ends up paying for it most of the time. I still don’t know why he does that.”

Your lips tug down into a confused frown at the thought. Thinking back to a specific example, even after your arcade adventure during your first excursion around Seoul, Seokjin went ahead to pay for lunch even though he had joked about how it was your turn to take care of the bill that day.

“Well, I guess I do know why. Seokjin’s a big softie, and he always has been. He’ll pay for your food, walk you home, give you stupid stuffed animals as gifts for no reason, and all while acting like it’s just a standard thing for anyone to do—that’s just how he is. He can act childish sometimes but when it really comes down to it…he’ll always take care of you.”

The last part almost gets stuck in your throat, but you successfully finish the sentence as a wave of realization washes over you like you’re being doused with an ice bucket.

You miss him.

Is it even possible to miss someone who is so close to you almost every day?

Your mind wanders to an instance from the beginning of the week, feeling the need to put you through that embarrassing moment yet again. You were sitting on one of the benches outside of the library during the afternoon, peacefully consuming your sandwich before your next class began, but then you heard it.

Metallic ringing.

Your heart leapt more than you are willing to admit, but when your head shot up to peer towards the person exiting the front doors of the library, you saw that it was a stranger whom you had never seen before, donning his dangling ring of keys on his belt loop. In a similar fashion, your heart dropped right back down with such force, you almost felt the thud of chagrin resonating through your chest.

Apparently, it is very possible to miss someone who is only a walking-distance away, because even though he may be physically close, you feel like you haven’t seen him—the real him—in a long time.

A forlorn expression has made its way onto your face, one that you don’t realize you’re donning until you perceive the prolonged hush that befell the room as a result of the sudden break in your speech. You’ve been staring at a blank spot on the floor for who knows how long, because when your eyes snap up to land on your roommate, she’s watching you with a gentle gaze—a knowing gaze.

“Ahem,” you make a sound somewhere in between a cough and clearing your throat, unable to think of a better way to move past the abrupt ending you had. “I think you get the gist.��

A pensive smile graces Soobin’s lips as if she got the answer she was looking for.

“Yeah, I do.”

After the spontaneous discourse on Seokjin’s character, you put the moment out of your mind for the sake of focusing on your studies, but while the conversation has found its end, the effects of it are only beginning to bloom.

“Here you go!” you cheerily exclaim as you enter your dorm one evening. Soobin perks up from her position on the bed at the sight of the paper bag in your hands.

“Yay! You’re the best.” She pushes her textbook off of her lap and reaches out her arms to accept the take-out order of churros she asked you to bring back.

Soobin decided to be a good student and spend her time studying, so you ended up going to the dessert shop with just Taehyung and Jungkook. Those two are quite the handful already, especially when Taehyung, flashing the world with his new dusty silver hair, dedicates the majority of the meeting trying to convince Jungkook to let the older boy dye his hair. It was an eventful session filled with bickering and near approval, but you still felt like something was missing.

“It sucks that you and Seokjin couldn’t make it. These are so much better fresh.”

You begin to cast off your belongings onto your bed to wind down from the long junket. The hint of disenchantment is probably apparent in your tone of voice no matter how much you try to hide it. You have no right to complain though—you just had amazing food and went to one of your favorite dessert shops after dinner.

“Oh, Jin didn’t go either?”

You hesitate, pausing in the middle of shedding your jacket to regard her with a curious peek. “Yeah…I thought he was with you?”

She vigorously shakes her head, her hands busily opening the paper bag in her lap. “Nope. My butt has been glued to this bed for the past five hours.”

“Huh,” you grunt, not knowing what reaction to give. You leave it at that though, because Soobin soon shifts her focus to savoring the churros in front of her.

Something must have happened on that day she asked you about Seokjin, because after taking off on your mild rant, Soobin stopped extending those solo invitations towards him to hang out. It’s like the past few months didn’t happen at all, like she just turned off the target locking system that her heart eyes had on your best friend for the longest time. After a few more weeks pass, you notice that she only meets with him now whenever you all have gatherings as a group.

You think this will mean that things are going to go back to the way they were with you and Seokjin, but you’re mistaken.

It’s not that Seokjin specifically told you he was with Soobin during your churro escapade, but you just assumed that was the case since it usually was whenever he mentioned having other plans. It’s worrying enough that he isn’t telling you what’s going on, but it’s even more so since he doesn’t have a reason to be blowing off your Taco Tuesdays anymore since Soobin isn’t stealing him away.

Wait a minute. What are you even saying? Seokjin isn’t being stolen away—you don’t own him.

While that is indeed true, it still doesn’t stop the fact that you feel protective over him. Like a mother lion defending her young cub. Or like Seokjin when you accidentally knock over a Mario figurine from his desk. Both ferociously loyal in making sure nothing goes amiss, and now you find yourself in the same category as them.

The only explanation for this phenomenon you are experiencing is habit, you suppose.

10 years together with a person will do that to you.

Emergency Gong Cha run.

The text comes as a surprise, but at the same time, it’s not. It feels like such a long period has gone by since the last time Seokjin was the initiator of the conversation, especially considering that the two of you have been preoccupied with schoolwork and have had less and less time to study together since none of your classes coincided.

You take a couple minutes to think over the message. You’re currently alone in your dorm room—Soobin is spending the evening at the library studying with some of her classmates—and as entertaining as it sounds to lock yourself up and drown in your assignment and the anguish that goes along with it, you think you’ll take up Seokjin’s offer.

Make it Baskin Robbins and you’ve got a deal.

You send your reply and wait for either denial or confirmation; thankfully, it’s the latter that comes right away.

Fine by me.

There’s no need for any more pleasantries. Once you deem yourself presentable to go out in public, you leave your room—and that asshole of a worksheet packet—and head to the nearest Baskin Robbins right outside the campus.

As you walk up to the front of the ice cream shop, you can already distinguish a familiar figure standing by the entrance. If the view of his stature and the impressive width of his shoulders isn’t enough of a clue—you blame Taehyung for planting that wretched Dorito into your mind—his platinum blond hair is surely a dead giveaway. Seokjin recently touched up his roots, another event you blame Taehyung for, so he still has the freshly-polished look about him.

Seokjin’s wingspan is hidden under a black leather jacket that is blending well into the darkening night, but as you get closer, you see that he is wearing a shirt that is doing the complete opposite of blending in.

Super Moschino.

The white graphic t-shirt is hard to miss with the quirky design of a soaring Raccoon Mario below the equally flagrant text. You feel a smile instantaneously appear on your face, but it’s not because of how ridiculous the scheme of the shirt is.

It’s the gift you got Seokjin for his birthday last year.

The satisfaction you felt when you first presented the article of clothing to him faintly returns as you remember the amount of enthusiasm he showed when receiving the gift. You also feel a peculiar comfort in knowing that he’s still putting it to good use. Not too long has even passed since that time, yet it feels like so much longer ago—so far away.

“What’s the occasion this time?”

Your speech causes Seokjin to glance up from his phone as you stop in front of him, and like a reflex, he slides the device into his jacket pocket as a respectful effort now that you’re here.

“Does there need to be an occasion for ice cream?”

“You have a point,” you agree, watching him open the door so that you both can go in and get what you’re here for—except, you have a feeling that it’s not the only reason you’re here.

Choosing an ice cream flavor isn’t difficult at all—what is difficult is turning away from the display to see that Seokjin is already paying for both of your orders without thinking twice about it. You never looked too much into it in the past, but ever since speaking with Soobin, the kind gesture seems harder for you to process. Something even more difficult than that is the battle of silence you find yourself in when you sit down with your triple scoop cup—go big or go home—in front of Seokjin at one of the vacant tables.

“So, what’s the real reason?” you feel the need to ask again, staring down your best friend across from you. He isn’t exhibiting the usual behavior of scarfing down his ice cream, and you know that it’s something to worry about when Kim Seokjin gives his frozen delight enough time to melt.

“Since when did we start needing a reason to hang out?” he mutters in a lower voice than normal, his eyes remaining on the cup of the creamy dessert he is now jabbing mercilessly with his spoon.

“Since you stopped wanting to.” The words come out of your mouth before you can halt yourself, and even hearing it out loud rather than inside your mind leaves a hollow ache in the pit of your chest.

“That’s not true.”

You wait for an explanation or something to continue his thoughts, but that’s all he says—and there’s that awkward silence again. It’s such a peculiar tension, as if both of you want to say something, but at the same time, you’re hoping and expecting the other to speak up first. You’re just stuck in this conversational limbo, stuffing your faces to busy your otherwise still mouths, not that you’re at all opposed to the second part.

Trying to find a distraction for your eyes as well, you take a look around to see if you can find anything interesting—you do, but it’s not necessarily a good thing.

There are two girls sitting a few tables to your right, and while they’re trying their best to hide their excited chattering, the staring is shamelessly blatant. Of course, they’re admiring the visuals of your best friend who still seems to be sitting in his seat, oblivious to the extra attention.

Did their mothers not teach them manners? Maybe they should take a picture—it’ll last much longer, especially since they don’t look like they’re going to grow the balls to approach Seokjin anytime soon. For a fraction of a second, one of the girls locks eyes with you, but the fleeting moment passes like it didn’t even happen, and the two of them continue gossiping like the tramps that they are. They better be glad that you’re not Medusa, although that certainly would have made a better story than the one of you silently brooding in your seat, mushing your ice cream into a disfigured blob with your spoon.

This shouldn’t bother you as much as it’s doing right now. Seokjin is definitely a handsome guy—anyone with eyes can tell you that much. He has often gotten double-takes while out in public, and you even remember laughing on the sidelines when girls came up to ask him for his number on good days. Never have you felt this annoyance towards the situation before, and you don’t know why you’re starting to do so now.

No, you do know. As foreign as the feeling is, you can comprehend exactly where the venom is coming from.

You just don’t want to admit it.

“Hey, since tomorrow’s Friday, do you want to—”

“No.”

Jungkook scowls at your answer, giving you a disgruntled look like you just kicked his puppy, not that he even has one. He has joined you for lunch today—a healthy serving of kimchi fried rice with a not-so-healthy blanket of melted cheese on top of it—so instead of your trusty bench, you two are seated across from each other at a small table at the campus cafeteria.

“You didn’t even hear what I had to say.”

“I don’t need to,” you say with an indifferent shrug. “I have plans tomorrow night.”

“Really? What are you doing?”

“Movie night at the dorm.” A smile appears on Jungkook’s face that disturbingly resembles that of a pervert as he wriggles his eyebrows at you. “What?” you blurt out in an attempt to get him to stop before people around you see that expression and run for the hills screaming.

“Netflix and chill?”

Your hand immediately shoots forward to reach in for the titty twister at that inappropriate comment. Unfortunately, your hand barely misses the chance to grab his stubby nub before he recoils back and blocks your attack with a hearty laugh.

“Okay, okay!” he exclaims through his snickers when you shift in preparation to go for his other side. At that wave of the white flag, you retreat with just a stern look—for now. “You were a lot nicer when I first met you.”

You nearly laugh at the irony of his words and how they remind you of the similar sentiment you had when Taehyung started giving you sass. Perhaps it’s just what happens when you become closer friends with someone: the savage beast is given the freedom to roam.

“That was before you tried to murder me at the gym earlier this year.” Death by burpees—what a way to go. Your muscles are aching just thinking about it. “But to answer your question, no. I’m just hanging out with Seokjin.”

To your relief, your regular movie nights with your best friend still carried on, except for the past couple of months, you two have been going to an actual theater instead of staying in like you always did. It was nice to watch everything on the big screen rather than the tiny laptop that Seokjin owns, but it just didn’t feel the same without the liberty to make thoughtless comments to each other that lead to random debates throughout the movie. Sure, you could probably do that in public too, but last time you checked, talking in a movie theater is still looked down upon.

Jungkook hums in response to your clarification, but the tone sounds more like a question than an answer.

“What now?”

“Nothing,” he quips oh-so-inconspicuously with a grin he’s obviously trying to hide. “I knew you two weren’t fighting.”

You furrow your eyebrows at something you would have never thought to hear. “Who said we were fighting?”

“Namjoon hyung,” he exposes right away. You can only hope for his sake that Jungkook’s not carelessly revealing some kind of secret discussion they had. “He put it in different terms, of course. He mentioned that you and Seokjin were both having your own internal battles or whatever—something about Nietzsche. I’m just paraphrasing here. I wasn’t really paying attention, but hey, turns out I didn’t need to!”

Staring blankly at Jungkook, you don’t know whether to criticize him for his short attention span or to commend him for even remembering the name of that philosopher Namjoon was no doubt talking about—you can hear him spitting out quotes in your mind like you were actually there.

While you do appreciate the faith Jungkook has in you and your friendship with Seokjin, the other side of the story is what bothers you. Internal battles? You don’t think you’ve had enough of those to really say it’s something you noticed about your behavior. Were you really having them? You decline to believe so.

Wait, isn’t that what you’re doing right now?

You can’t believe Namjoon read you that easily. At least you know that he’ll make a good psychiatrist in the future. Still, you didn’t even realize that things have changed so much that other people are taking note of your current situation. Maybe Namjoon is really just that good, or maybe Seokjin confided in him about something that led to him holding that opinion. The second option seems highly unlikely, though.

You can’t imagine what the problem would be. Why would he feel the need to do that? Are you missing something? Is there something wrong between you two that you don’t know about? There can’t possibly be…right?

“Okay, what’s going on?”

You lean forward to pause the movie that’s currently playing on Seokjin’s laptop before plopping back into your usual spot on the bed. You’re about a quarter of the way through Inception—it’s a recommendation from Yoongi, apparently—and by now, you two should have exchanged witty remarks or gone on a tangent about how confused you still are about the opening scene, but tonight, things are uncharacteristically quiet. Seokjin has been sitting in his spot next to you, almost not even moving as he stares at the screen like a mannequin.

It’s suffocating, not to mention unsettling.

“What do you mean?” he asks innocently, eyes still glued to the screen that is now just showing a frozen frame of Leonardo DiCaprio’s mid-blink face. You, on the other hand, shift your position to turn and get a better look at him without having to continuously crane your head.

“You’re acting really weird lately.”

“No, I’m not,” he retorts in a childish manner.

“Yes, you are,” you say in a similar fashion, negating to lose this silly game.

“How would you know? You’re always off on your dates with Jungkook.”

You almost choke on your spit at the accusation. That is not the comeback you were expecting, and it takes you a moment to confirm that your ears aren’t deceiving you.

“Dates?” you sputter, the only thing stopping you from completely laughing off the claim being Seokjin’s calm and somber countenance. You know you threw that word out as a joke with him last time, but he seems wholly serious with the way he’s using it as retaliation. “That’s why you’ve been acting this way?” He doesn’t answer, so you just assume that you’re correct. “The kid’s nice and all, but please. I feel like I’m babysitting him half the time and making sure he doesn’t stay out too late and spend all his money at a PC room like before.”

You wait for a reaction to your explanation, but Seokjin doesn’t even flinch.

A good second goes by as you think about if you’re willing and petty enough to open the can of worms that Seokjin so kindly placed in front of you, but of course the answer is going to be hell yes. You’ve just about had it with these past few months of feeling like your best friend is slipping away from you, so if you have a chance of reeling him back in to sort things out, you’re going to take it, even if it means hooking him where the sun don’t shine.

“If anything, you’re the one avoiding me these days, like all those times you went off on your own ‘dates’ with Soobin,” you make sure to put an emphasis on that vile noun, hoping that he realizes just how ridiculous it sounds. “And you’re upset that I’m spending too much time with Jungkook?”

There’s no answer.

At this point, you can feel your insides start to simmer, as if everything you wanted to say is threatening to spill out. You hate that you’re getting worked up, but you’re not about to take this lying down when Seokjin clearly feels that you two have a problem. He voiced his woes, and now you will too.

“You think I don’t notice when your mood suddenly drops when I’m around? Or how you’d rather do anything else you can think of, including lying, than come to group gatherings when I’m involved? You don’t tell me anything anymore and I feel like—” You stop yourself in that moment, because you realize that this bubbling within you isn’t anger but something far more dangerous. Seokjin remains ever soundless, but his expression is wavering in a way that reassures you your best friend has not been replaced by a robot, contrary to your opinion. Taking in a shaky breath, you steel yourself to continue on with the same fervor, because you refuse to weaken your argument with tears. “Was it something I did? Because if I did something wrong, you need to let me know. I’m not a goddamn mind reader and—”

“I think I’m in love with you.”

Your heart leaps in your chest as you’re cut off by Seokjin in the middle of your makeshift rant. All the heat that was building up within you dissipates in an instant, and you’re left on the opposite side of the spectrum, completely frozen in place. This is the second time in the last five minutes where you feel like your ears are tricking you.

“What?” You manage to sputter out through your confusion and shock, mentally slapping yourself for the Neanderthal-like response even though you’re sober.

“I said,” Seokjin starts again, a look of determination washing over him as he takes a moment to inhale before turning to look you straight in the eyes—no more avoidance. “I’m in love with you.”

The second time is more resounding than the first, especially without the hesitant “I think” at the beginning of the sentence. You, on the other hand, think you feel your heart that leapt up earlier drop with a devastating crash, but when the pattern continues on this way, you realize that it’s your hammering heartbeat that’s causing such a ruckus throughout your entire body. You can feel your face begin to flush, and the reason might be because you’re pretty sure you stopped breathing.

Your first instinct is to make a joke, to let humor take the wheel because you’re not confident that the next thing that will come out of your mouth will not make you sound like a pathetic fool. One look at Seokjin changes your mind though, because with the way that he’s staring at you with such a keen and hopeful gaze, you can see in him the boy you grew up with.

The boy you grew to love.

“You have a horrible way of showing it…” you grumble disapprovingly as loud as your voice allows you to. The truth is, you’re going through an internal struggle of not knowing whether you want to laugh or cry at the relief you feel at his confession.

At this, Seokjin remains motionless for a second, but as you watch him with a hopeful gaze of your own, it gives him the confidence he needs to make his next move. He leans forward, steadily closing the already insignificant gap between you two, and like a magnet, you’re drawn towards him as well. Just when you think you can’t get any closer, your lips finally meet. Your eyes flutter close at the tender touch, and the feelings of bliss swirl within you at the long-awaited, chaste kiss.

The moment feels all-too-brief before Seokjin pulls away, and when you open your eyes again, you see that he is still inches away from you, gazing deeply as if he just found the answer to a question he has been agonizingly withholding for longer than you can imagine.

“How about now?” he asks, voice barely above a whisper as his breath tickles your lips in a way that ignites the residual tingling you feel from the contact. Your mouth only curls up into a smile that you can’t help but display, the expression spawning from pure elation that mirrors exactly how you are feeling.

“It’s a start.”

Seokjin’s mouth part the slightest to prepare for a response, but you quickly capture it with your own once again. You haven’t responded to his confession yet, per se, but judging by the way he’s smiling against your lips as you pull him closer to you with your hands running through his hair, you’re pretty sure he knows how you feel.

Like a ribbon unraveling, you feel a pressure release both around you and inside of you. It’s like something had a grasp on the essence of your very being this entire time, something you didn’t even realize you were holding in for so long.

The truth is, you were afraid.

You were afraid of the way your feelings for your best friend were developing, especially when he only seemed to be keen on pushing you away. There was no way you could have known the reason for his actions, so you hardened yourself and subdued those pesky emotions, crushing the flower within you to keep it from ever seeing the light of day.

But not anymore.

Now, you’re letting that flower bloom, releasing it from the painful grip you had seized it with. Your feelings finally have a chance to flourish and come to life in the most splendid way possible, and this newfound wonder is leading you to come to terms with a fact that you should have admitted long ago.

You love him, too.

Kim Seokjin.

The peanut butter to your jelly. The punchline to your setup. Your other half, because no matter how far you two wander, you always make it back together.

Your boyfriend.

“So, Mario and Luigi turned out to be Mario and Peach all this time.”

Namjoon’s quip is one of many that your friends have taken to throwing out every chance that they got. Ever since Seokjin and you broke the news of your relationship to the others, teasing the two of you about it has turned into their favorite pastime. You don’t mind all the extra attention it one bit—in fact, some of their jokes are pretty hilarious, if you do say so yourself. You’re honestly just glad that everything seems to have settled down, and there are no cold shoulders or awkward silences between the lot of you anymore.

“Yeah, but the question is, which one of you is Peach?”

Jungkook nearly gets chased down for that comment by none other than your amiable boyfriend, all while cackling like a lunatic who is far too proud of his own joke—you swear, Seokjin is really starting to rub off on the kid.

Still, out of all your friends’ ridiculous reactions to your updated relationship status, Yoongi’s has to be your favorite.

You didn’t even have to tell him upfront, really. You just stopped by the dorm the day after your memorable movie night, and Seokjin opened the door for you when you arrived. The two of you shared a kiss as a greeting, one that was a little too long to be called a peck, before he stepped over to the side to let you in.

It was in that moment that your view of the room was unobscured, and sitting at his desk was Yoongi. You knew he would be there, but you didn’t know why you felt so nervous when you saw him. His taciturn gaze locked with yours in an instant, leaving you feeling the sudden need to explain the romantic gesture you probably defiled his eyes with, but there was apparently no need. Yoongi’s expression persisted ever the same—you don’t remember a time it hasn’t—but in a turn of events, he was the first to speak up, the single word creating a larger impact than any “hey” or “bye” he had ever uttered to you.

“Finally.”

It’s a short while after Seokjin and you start dating when you are met with your first loss in the relationship: his blond hair.

It is time to say goodbye to the short-lived, bleached locks and go back to black once again. It’s not that the golden tone isn’t stunning, because it most certainly is, but Seokjin mentioned multiple times that the upkeep is just too much of a pain both in his wallet and his schedule—and also his scalp. He deems it too much work for something he admits was a drastic action, very nonchalantly adding that it was also done with the partial intent to garner your attention.

As much as that confession makes you appreciate the color change even more, in the end, it doesn’t matter whether he has black, blond, or even pink hair.

You’ll still love him the same.

There is one thing that manages stick with Seokjin though, and that’s his trusty keychain.

You grew extremely fond of the metallic clinking when you became friends, but you feel even more so now that you two are going steady. You can sense your heart swell whenever it graces your eardrums, and your anticipation crescendos along with the harmonious sound when it comes closer, holding the promise of your approaching boyfriend. When you’re with him, it essentially becomes the background music of your daily life, and you really couldn’t ask for a better one.

Only after you two graduate from the university and Seokjin gets a job for a company in the city does he finally stop carrying the Mario charm around. It’s probably for the best; it doesn’t make professional sense to attach it to his work bag, so naturally, it made a home in his new apartment’s bedroom closet along with his old backpacks and knickknacks, soon to be forgotten and collecting dust.

The world does feel a bit emptier without the ringing you have grown so accustomed to hearing. Anyone in their right mind would be glad that the constant noise is gone—your friends have filed their complaints over the years about the annoyance it brought them—but you actually miss it.

To you, that keychain represents the past, all the memories of your youth that have been cultivated into evoking heartwarming nostalgia. For some time, you can really sense that missing slice of your life, but after more thought, you realize something. While you do long to hear the bells that signal Seokjin’s nearing presence again, there is no need for you to know when he’s approaching anymore.

He never left you.

Kim Seokjin.

The Ron to your Hermione. The Ross to your Rachel. Your other half, because you can’t imagine spending your life with anyone else.

Your husband.

It was no surprise to anyone when you two decided to live together after graduation, and it seemed like it was only a surprise to you when he proposed a few months after that—your friends, being in on Seokjin’s plan, were poised with congrats and slaps on the back, the second one you very much could have done without.

Your own belongings were stored inside the closet of your shared apartment right next to Seokjin’s things, at least the items that you knew you weren’t going to be looking for anytime soon. In the passing nine months, the stockpile became bigger as the vacant space became smaller, with more things being packed into the corners of your dwelling to make room for new objects and furniture.

And soon, a new life.

The journey wasn’t as smooth as you hoped it would be, but you knew that being a first-time parent was not an easy feat in the slightest, especially in those first few months of being thrown into those new shoes and landing face-first in the gravel.

You remember waking up in the middle of a particular night during the second month after the birth of your precious daughter. You were positive that the crying that tore you out of your slumber was just coming from the baby, but when you were conscious enough to comprehend what was going on, you discovered that Seokjin was sitting in the room with your baby in his arms, wailing almost comically in a way that competed with your daughter’s vocal outcries.

Needless to say, you took over so that he could get some rest.

It was fascinating and just a little scary how quickly the years flew by after that. Before you knew it, you looked around at your surroundings and found yourself living a completely changed life.

Gone were the days of drunkenly puking in front of beautiful strangers or getting up at the ungodly hours of the night to go eat boba and ice cream. No more radical hair-dyeing experiences or playing Mario Party until the sun came up. Past-you would have written this off as an extremely boring way to live, but then again, past-you also thought that six shots of tequila was a good idea as well. Nevertheless, while these habits of yours were unfortunate sacrifices indeed, they were necessary and more importantly, completely worth it.

Between your husband and your daughter, you wouldn’t trade your two bundles of joy for anything in the world.

Incidentally, there was still one aspect of your past that remained a tradition: movie nights. It was difficult to maintain for the longest time, since you two had to switch from watching movies to watching your kid for the majority of the nights, but you still made it work. You couldn’t find it in you to let it go, and you don’t think you’ll want to anytime soon, even as you make way for new customs that will soon be entering your life.

Just like today.

Lifting the thermal carafe above your ceramic mug, you carefully pour yourself some freshly-brewed coffee to start off the special morning. The kitchen is still and soundless other than the click of the pot as you place it back down in its heated holder, but it doesn’t stay that way for long.

It takes you by surprise, like you’re experiencing déjà vu, but the distinct sound you thought you would never hear again reaches your ears.

The bells of nostalgia.

Abandoning your cup on the counter, you step out into the living room to determine the source of this welcomed disturbance. You are not disappointed when you see your daughter waddling down and out of the hallway with the biggest grin on her face, the straps of her colorful, almost painfully vibrant backpack standing out against her gray knit sweater.

Your heart feels like it could burst from all the exuberant emotions that bombard your existence, and nothing else in the room matters anymore for all of your attention becomes fixated on her. She spots you as you walk up to her and takes it upon herself to waddle a little faster in order to reach you. When she does, she attempts to give you a great, big hug, but it doesn’t quite hit the mark she was planning—hey, at least your knees are able to enjoy the hug.

“Ready for school?” you ask cheerfully when she releases your legs. Kneeling down to get on eye-level with her, you watch her excitedly nod her head in confirmation before making a second attempt at the hug by throwing her arms around your neck. You respond in the only way you see fit by peppering the side of her face with affectionate kisses. A flourish of giggles erupts as she pulls back, obviously being overpowered by your smooching prowess.

God, you’re glad no one can see you right now and the puddle that you’ve been melted into. You probably look like a doofus, because you definitely feel like your smile is stretching way farther than humanly possible, right up to the tips of your ears.

“Did you make sure you have everything?” You stand back up to gain your composure, and you notice her socks in all its red and yellow glory, flaunting the cartoon design of Iron Man’s face on the fabric—no doubt a gift from Jungkook. “Oh, don’t forget your shoes!” you chime in a singsong manner.

At that, your daughter spins around gleefully, and it’s in that moment that your eyes land on the very familiar metal charm dangling from her backpack. In an instant, she’s zipping out of the room towards the shoe shelf by the front entrance to retrieve her footwear like you mentioned. Her entire bag goes crazy with shuffling and clinking as she barely dodges Seokjin who is making an emergence from the same hallway that she came from.

“Whoa there!” Seokjin laughs, his eyes following the back of your prancing daughter for a second before he sets his gaze on you. He’s wearing the white dress shirt he usually does for work, and his dark hair is styled neatly in a way that really makes you appreciate just how mature he has become.

“You still have that Mario keychain?” you instantly question when the thought of maturity enters your mind. Your lip quirks up in curiosity at your run-in with the blast from the past attached to your child’s backpack.

“Of course. I always have it,” he answers matter-of-factly, a proud grin on his face.

“But why? It’s so old now.”

Sure, Super Mario is a timeless franchise, but he could have very well picked from the countless new trinkets and toys your daughter received as gifts—it’s one of the perks of having friends with the same mental age as your five-year-old, you suppose.

Walking up to stand in front of you, Seokjin curls his arms around your waist to pull you close. You comply without a drop of reluctance, your own arms sliding up to curl over his shoulders.

“Because I’m thankful for it. It’s important to me.” You shoot him a confused look, wondering how a dime-a-dozen keychain could possibly hold that much significance. As if reading your mind, he goes on to explain his reasoning. “I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t have it when I was younger. It’s what brought you into my life.” Seokjin’s features soften along with his voice, and you feel the weight of his words resonate through you as you stare into his heartfelt gaze. “Something as lucky as that deserves to be handed down, don’t you think? Who knows, maybe it’ll work for her like it worked for me.”

It takes you a moment to process the depth of that revelation. So that’s why he has been holding onto it all this time? Not because of a childish preference for the charm that you always assumed it was but because of sentimental value? No matter how many years passed or how many bags he cycled through, he kept the keychain because of its connection to you.

Leaning forward into Seokjin’s arms, you plant a short but sweet kiss on his lips, savoring the blossoming warmth the contact conjures from your heart before pulling away to murmur the only words you feel are apt to express your utter contentment.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too,” he replies without missing a beat.

And you’ve never felt happier.

Suddenly, you hear the flurry of clinks return as your daughter emerges from her adventure to find her sneakers. Admirably, they are on both of her feet, each shoe managing to dress its matching foot, and even the Velcro straps are secured beautifully in place.

They grow up so fast.

“Let’s go, princess.” Seokjin calls out to her in adoration, and she speedily races to his side to take his much larger hand in hers. She proceeds to eagerly pull on her father’s hand, turning him around to lead him towards the front door, an action he can only succumb to with an outflow of laughter.

In all of your experiences with first days of school throughout your life, you can wholeheartedly say that your child’s first day beats all of the others in terms of how nervous you feel. You’d be lying if you said that you were completely cool and collected about this. It’s the first time she’ll really be apart from you after years of staying strictly by your side, and while she seems ready to take on the day, you’re not sure if you are.

The worries begin to swirl around in your mind, but before they can develop any further, the maudlin melody of the old keychain is brought to your attention again. The sound lulls you in, and your eyes lock onto the shapes of the trinket hanging from the backpack before taking a step back to fully appreciate the image you see before you.

Seokjin’s shoulders are impressive as they have always been, especially from the clear view of his back you have, and his stature dwarfs the child trotting beside him, her uniquely colorful backpack only being outshined by the dancing and singing keychain attached to it.

Hearing this ringing now that you’re really taking in this picture, you notice that it sounds different. It no longer represents the past memories and years you have lived. No, there’s a new tone with the way it’s chiming, and that’s because it now holds your hope for the future. Your legacy until now has been engraved in that item, but for your daughter, her journey is only beginning.

That was the intention Seokjin had when passing on the lucky charm, much like a torch or a family heirloom. It is no longer a token of nostalgia, but a promise to create even more memories, not just for you and him, but for your daughter as well. This sentiment replaces all the worry that previously clouded your mind, wiping the slate clean, and you’re left with a growing state of bliss and the realization of another promise that things will be alright—you have your loved ones by your side, after all.

And as long as you’re together, you can smile.

#a mixture of korean and american college life #with hints of halloween and birthday antics #bts scenarios #jin scenarios #jin x reader #seokjin scenarios #seokjin x reader #seokjin #jin #bts #bts scenario #jin scenario #seokjin scenario #bts fanfiction #bts fanfic

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theseventhhex · 6 years

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Men I Trust Interview

Emma, Dragos & Jessy

Photo by Mathieu Rompré

Men I Trust is Dragos, Emma, Jessy, Mathieu and Alexis. Founded in 2014, Men I Trust is an indie band from Montreal, Canada that loves to form smooth sounds, calm melodies and simple rhythms that relax, but make your right foot tap and your chin bounce on the beats. They record, mix, master and shoot their music videos. Establishing a unique identity and distinct ability with their alluring style, Men I Trust are sure to capture an abundance of further admirers, equipped with infectious soundscapes and a deliriously addictive musical style… We talk to band member Dragos about storytelling, maintaining creative control and blue cheese…

TSH: What would you say are the main components that allow Men I Trust to have such a unified band chemistry?

Dragos: We do indeed have a unified band chemistry! Besides our friendship and shared common interests, it also has to do with the fact that we do everything ourselves. It allows us to be consistent aesthetically speaking and independent release-wise.

TSH: When it comes to the infectious melodies you guys conjure up, are you normally gravitating towards certain styles and genres?

Dragos: We try to write chord progressions and melodies that convey a sense of story and that are lyrical. We use rhythm to keep it interesting and forward-moving and use smooth sounds because that’s what we prefer. The resulting songs always tend to sound like us, even when we mingle with different genres.

TSH: Emma’s previously mentioned having to abandon oneself it in order to be creative – is getting out of one’s comfort zone beneficial to creativity?

Dragos: It’s more about abandoning the extra-musical doubts that we sometimes have when writing a song. It’s more productive when considering everything musically, because the questions are easier to answer and because we allow ourselves more liberties than otherwise.

TSH: You and Jessy have known each other since the fourth year of high school, do you feel there is an instinctual bond when it comes to music for you both?

Dragos: Definitely! We know and understand each other very well. It is very rare that we disagree on something musically. It’s lots of fun!

TSH: What sort of motivations do you draw on to pen a track like ‘I Hope To Be Around’?

Dragos: Chord progression wise and melody wise, it’s about creating a sense of storytelling. Again, the rhythm keeps it bouncy and moving forward. Text wise, we talk about a common theme we have in about 80% of our songs. It’s about finding ourselves and then striving to overcome one’s own limits and oriented point of view, i.e. one’s desire to grasp the reality wholly. It is important to us that our lyrics convey positive values or ideas that we truly believe in like the awe-inspiring beauty of nature and humans.

TSH: Moreover, what was the process like in layering and fleshing out the excellent ‘Tailwhip’?

Dragos: 'Tailwhip' started with the bass line. The song drives a youthful energy from the groovy rhythms that Jessy is so good at pulling-off. We used fast paced childhood videos and naïve leads to put emphasis on that energy. The lyrics are accordingly light-hearted: we’re talking about our move back to Montreal. Seeing us as adults and as children makes the video very personal while being very groovy at the same time. For the first time, we showcased ourselves playing our instruments, so this was kind of an introduction for us.

TSH: Speaking of ‘Tailwhip’, it must have been so cool to have the song as 2017’s number one track of the year on Gorilla vs. Bear?

Dragos: That’s crazy! We are fans of so many bands that are in that top 100 list and Gorilla vs. Bear are always on point with their picks. Being number one was a huge surprise. It made us really proud.

TSH: How satisfactory is it for you to see yours and Jessy’s sounds be complimented so well with Emma’s captivating vocal range when you guys work together in the studio and jam?

Dragos: The blend with Emma’s voice, our lyrics, rhythms and chord progressions, couldn’t be better suited for what we are going for. Her vocal performance keeps everything light, enjoyable and stylistically on point. Emma is also a great person to hang out with. She is really funny and primed like the karate kid.

TSH: Being a composer and photographer outside of music, what have you been gravitating towards regarding both fields in recent times?

Dragos: The visual and ideal aspects are really important for the band. We think that when you like a certain artform like music, it’s hard not to be at least interested in all of them. Before starting the band, Emma studied art and I studied philosophy. We also have a knack for photography and videography. We really like Terrence Malick and David Lynch. It’s funny because our video for ‘You Deserve This’ got compared a lot to Twin Peaks, before we got to binge watch the two seasons last year. Some ideas in our lyrics are inspired by the ancient Greeks, John Stuart Mill and Goethe. The last three years, I’ve mainly read science articles, so that also shows up in our songs.

TSH: How vital has it been for Men I Trust to have creative control of the band and to stream and distribute your music accordingly?

Dragos: Our independent status came to be by necessity more than by choice. When we started the band, we were interested in being part of a record label. We thought being signed sounded cool. We felt like all the serious bands were signed on a label. However, when we released our first album, our music sounded “too experimental” and labels didn’t see any “commercial potential” to our songs. We then started reading about distribution and more generally on how to manage a band. After doing everything once, it’s easier and more time-efficient to repeat everything again for each release, so we kind of got used to doing everything on our own. Now, that our music is starting to get more attention we literally get spammed by labels and PR companies, but we don’t see the utility to give away part of our music ownership in exchange for services that we are able to do ourselves. On our websites, we ask that labels and PR companies do not contact us, but people still try to reach us or they simply don’t read. It’s really fun for us to be in control of everything and we take great pride in doing so. Everything is super fast, straightforward and aesthetically more personal and consistent this way. We stay in direct contact with the people that like and support us. To sum it up, we aren’t closed to the idea of working with a team, it’s just that our band is still pretty easy and fun to manage by ourselves, so we don’t see the need to sign anything in the near future.

TSH: Are you still very much into video games?

Dragos: Yes! We’re fans of Space Engine, Civilization, Starcraft, The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, Diablo II, Golden Eye & Mario Kart!

TSH: When Men I Trust are on tour, what brings about most laughter and joy between the three of you?

Dragos: When we are on tour, we are 4! We bring our drummer Mathieu with us. I don’t know if it is because we are musicians, but we constantly have never ending running gags about silly sounds and voices. We like to imagine or imitate silly voices. It’s impossible for us not to laugh whenever we hear a technical problem like cracking sounds, exaggeratedly off-pitch music or feedbacks. It’s silly and really first-degree humour, but it makes us giggle! Every one is always playing a persona with silly voices. We took it to another level where the more something is being repeated consistently, the more we find it funny. Maybe we’ve become a bit crazy for being exposed together this long.

TSH: Does Emma still have a craving for blue cheese, as well as hopes to own a pig?

Dragos: Haha! Blue cheese is her absolute favourite thing in the world. Seriously, she asked for blue cheese for Christmas when she was 14-15. She also bought a stuffed pig, because she cannot own one while being on the road. It’s a great pillow and it also reminds her not to eat them.

TSH: Speaking of food, what sort of cuisines does the band really relish?

Dragos: We’re all vegetarian… most of the time. We’re breakfast, sandwich and Asian cuisine fans. Add beer and coffee and repeat.

TSH: Amidst so much bedlam in the world, how do you like to attain a positive headspace?

Dragos: Art and nature!

TSH: Finally, as Men I Trust ventures ahead, what are the keys aspects that you hope to maintain and stay true to?

Dragos: Always doing what we love. We seek timeless beauty and do everything with care. These are things that both satisfy us and what we aspire to have.

Men I Trust - “Tailwhip”

I HOPE TO BE AROUND

#Interview #Men I Trust

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keegames · 6 years

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Sonic Forces Review: Chains of Future Past

Ah, Sonic Forces. To many, it’s the OTHER Sonic game to come out this year. A few previous articles have mentioned my history with the series, and I promised a review of this game, so without further ado, here goes.

Sonic Forces is an odd little game, in that it seems it was made to please all types of Sonic fans. The core of the gameplay of both Modern Sonic and your custom character (more on that later) is the tried-and-true racing-platfomer-hybrid first used in 3D Sonic by Sonic Unleashed and then adapted into Sonic Colors and Sonic Generations. However, it also features levels starring Classic Sonic similarly to Generations, and it has a few levels based on Genesis Sonic zones (though with more changes to their aesthetics than Generations; more on that later). It also features an attempt at a more serious (some would say “edgy”) story, similar to that of the Sonic Adventure games, and a create-a-character feature sure to appeal to the series’s more imaginative fans. The premise of the main plot is even similar to the SatAM show and the early Archie comics. Unfortunately, it would be a lie to say that all these discrete elements come together strongly. Still, despite its flaws, there’s a lot of fun to be had in Sonic Forces. Hopefully this lengthy write-up gives you a better idea of the game’s pros and cons.

Gameplay

Sonic Forces features four gameplay styles that the player is shuffled between across its various stages (30 main stages/boss fights, plus 13 or 14 short secret levels that are entirely 2D platform challenges based on singular level gimmicks). Unlike other Sonic games that feature multiple gameplay styles, however, three of the four styles control relatively similarly with a single core mechanic differentiating them (or, in the case of “tag team,” not differentiating them).

Let’s start with Modern Sonic. Modern Sonic, in terms of abilities, is most similar to his Colors incarnation, featuring a double jump and a boost that is only filled by either collecting Wisp Capsules or destroying enemies. His levels swap between 3D and 2D smoothly. Unlike Colors, he can perform the Quick Step (a short shift to the left or the right) at any point with the shoulder buttons, though like Colors, a few context-sensitive sections have him do this with a push of the joystick to the left or right as well. He also has the stomp and slide moves. Strangely, his drift ability is completely absent, which you may miss in a few parts of Metropolitan Highway, but generally won’t worry about otherwise. Like the previous games of this style, Sonic takes turns kind of wider than you’d expect from most 3D platformer characters, but it’s managing his momentum and movement in that way that makes this style unique and interesting. Set aside the assumptions put in place by Super Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot, and you’ll be well on your way to mastering the game and blazing across the land.

Now, the custom character. You can choose your character’s gender, animal species, a few different head styles, eyes (shape and color), colors, voice, and victory pose. These options are relatively basic, which fits because Sonic characters don’t have much body variety anyway. Each species also has a special ability, but these are generally minor (wolf attracts nearby rings, rabbit has longer invincibility when hit, bird has a small double jump, etc.) You can still make some goofy looking faces with the right eyes, but the real meat of the customization is in clothing. Doing just about anything in the game will unlock more and more clothing pieces, from shirts to pants to jackets to capes to hats to glasses to shoes to kneepads to monocles to masks and more. There’s tons of this stuff and you can make some ridiculous creations. It’s actually one of the most fun things in the game.

The custom character’s basic controls are basically identical to Modern Sonic, though they lack a double jump unless you make a bird. Notably, however, they lack the boost, meaning that, though you still get moving at good speeds, you won’t quite be running over everything in your path. The custom character’s main form of attack outside of homing attacks is your equipped Wispon (Wisp weapon). Each of these serves two purposes: a regular attack that you can do at any time, and a special ability that you can perform when you pick up the corresponding Wisp. There are a variety of attacks and abilities, but they’re not all created equal by a long shot. For example, the Burst Wispon gives you a flamethrower that you can hold to torch enemies in front of you. This is one of the best ones due to not affecting your movement; you can run and jump freely while spraying fire, so you don’t lose momentum. Comparatively, the Lightning Wispon is an electric whip that forces you to either stop or move forward awkwardly while swinging (though its arc is pretty wide), and the Cube Wispon forces you to stop completely and attack twice to actually destroy enemies since its first swing traps them in cubes. (Destroying cubed enemies gives you extra rings, though, so at least it can get you more points than other Wispons.) Generally, you’ll find yourself annoyed by Wispons that stop your movement. One notable Wispon is the Drill, which gives you a powerful, super-fast charging attack that you keep your momentum from afterwards. It’s perfect for speedrunning.

The Wispon abilities that are activated from the item also vary. Burst lets you do a series of jumps until its meter runs out, Lightning allows you to dash along trails of rings and enemies, Drill grinds you across the ground and up walls, Asteroid makes you invincible for a period of time, etc. Some of these are good for finding alternate paths and hidden Red Rings throughout levels, while others are mostly utilities for making your life easier. Custom character levels are usually similar in layout and feel to Modern Sonic ones, apart from the changes made to make Wispons relevant.

Classic Sonic is the third character, and easily the worst. His levels are fully 2D, and on a basic level, he works like he would in Mania, right down to him having his Drop Dash. However, he just feels WRONG. Jump momentum is screwy, momentum when not rolling doesn’t work right, and he just generally feels like a brick with Sonic’s moves. Even without Sonic Mania’s release this year, he’d seem kind of off; with it, he’s just embarrassing. That said, his levels are designed competently apart from his final level, Iron Fortress, which is a giant pain in the ass, thanks to a forced autoscrolling section full of death pits. Classic Sonic is absolutely the worst part of Forces, and hopefully SEGA decides to re-hire the Mania team to appeal to Sonic nostalgia rather than trying and failing to make this sloppy gameplay style work. (Forces was in development before Mania, so it was likely too late to cut him out by time Mania started, so I give a slight pass in that sense.)

The fourth type of stage isn’t technically a new character; rather, it is Tag Team stages, where you control both Modern Sonic and your custom character at the same time. Controlling two characters at once is done very simply, as you are essentially controlling one character with both sets of abilities. There are the least of these stages compared to other characters. One notable thing about them is that there are very few 2D sections, with only one that lasts more than a few seconds. They also feature a “Double Boost” mechanic, where at certain pre-determined points you’re asked to mash a button, and after a few seconds, Sonic and your custom character rocket forward for a certain amount of time, running over enemies and gathering rings. It’s basically just a scripted sequence where you can rack up points, but it’s amusing to see your own creation as Sonic’s new best friend as the game’s cheesy vocal theme plays and you run over tons of enemies.

Notably, the game no longer has lives; you are instead awarded a bigger score bonus at the end of levels for dying less. Since previous 3D Sonic games already hurt your ranks for dying mid-level, having to spend lives to restart at checkpoints or retry levels would be a waste anyway. I’m not one to say that lives should be completely eliminated from games (and in fact I think Sonic Mania was better for having them, despite some complaints I’ve heard), but in this case they wouldn’t add to the experience in any meaningful way.

Level Design

Though level design is technically part of gameplay, it’s important enough in Sonic especially to need its own section. Since Modern Sonic, custom character, and Tag Team levels mostly hit the same design beats, I can talk about their design relatively interchangeably.

With pre-release footage, people were worried that levels were too short and too linear, with little to no shortcuts or things to do beyond blasting forward for a little bit. I can confirm, however, that the levels showcased pre-release are generally some of the least interesting, for whatever reason. Many of the levels have cool shortcuts and paths taken through either well timed jumps, sidesteps, homing attacks, or Wispon ability usage. Like previous Sonic games in this style, there’s more platforming in 2D than 3D, but generally rocketing your way through these levels, optimizing your performance, and finding the paths to take to collect all the Red Rings (there are five hidden in each level) is a lot of fun, with a single consistent caveat.

Many of the levels in Sonic Forces feel too short. This is less of a criticism of the actual time spent in each level, and more of a criticism of their pacing. Each level, consistently, feels sort of like two thirds of a level; each one seems like it should have a third section that brings together all the mechanics and layout techniques the level introduced and fully bring them to their conclusion. Instead, each time you get to where you think you’re about to reach that, the level ends instead. The thing that makes this especially sad is that what’s there tends to be a LOT of fun. You’ll be ripping through cool, interesting landscapes and you’ll wish you could do it more than you end up doing. As much fun as I ended up having with this game, I couldn’t help but feel a little short-changed from time to time.

Classic Sonic’s level design generally feels like a simplification of design you’d find in Sonic the Hedgehog 2; there’s nothing super special about it but it’s not bad either, apart from the aforementioned Iron Fortress. You’ll be more bothered by his actual control than with the levels.

The game also has its share of boss fights for each character, which range from “inoffensive” to “moderately fun,” though they’re never the best part of the game. The custom character probably has the best time with them, because using the Wispons to attack is more fun than homing attacking repeatedly, and some of them you can really speed up the fights with the right abilities. Unlike some other 3D Sonic games, they never really get frustrating, so I guess that’s a plus.

Graphics

Sonic Forces looks pretty nice. It varies by level, however. Forces’s take on Green Hill wasn’t quite as nice as Generations’s; it used more simple geometric shapes and less interesting foliage. Some of the other levels are much nicer looking, such as the Mystic Forest, Death Egg, Metropolis, and Empire Fortress stages. Many of the levels also have tons of action in the backgrounds, including giant robots, bombing runs, and in the case of the Empire Fortress stages, an all-out war. The lighting looks pretty nice, and the game runs at a rock-solid 60 frames per second on the PS4 version that I played. It won’t necessarily wow you, but it’s a game that looks pretty good.

Sound and Music

The game’s voice acting is cartoony and goofy, like you’d expect from a game about talking animals. Most of the levels have dialogue during them that advances the plot and describes action. There is an option to turn off all the in-level dialogue, which is useful when you’re replaying stages.

The music is pretty good, though not quite the series’s best. Each character has their own musical style in their levels. Modern Sonic generally has a mixture of guitars and synths in his levels. The compositions are cool, fast-paced, and sometimes kind of dramatic, but the lead synth in a lot of them isn’t quite idea. I still like a lot of the music, but I can understand it bothering you. The custom character has music characterized mostly by synths, other electronic instruments, and vocals. The lyrics are kinda cheesy, with the songs being about destiny, winning the fight, and other goofy things. You might find yourself singing along if you don’t take yourself seriously. Classic Sonic music actually uses Sega Genesis-styled instruments, though strangely enough it doesn’t sound like the kind you’d hear in a Genesis Sonic game. I can’t quite place the game I would hear these sounds in, though. A few are catchy and fun, but the others are pretty forgettable. Tag team stages have music similar to the custom character’s stages, but without lyrics (with the exception of one stage that reprises the game’s main hard rock vocal theme). They’re generally pretty forgettable.

Story

I can’t tell if Sonic Forces is taking itself seriously or if it’s being tongue-in-cheek about the series’s previous brushes with serious storytelling, but either way it’s pretty hilarious. Hearing goofy cartoon animals talk about the seriousness of war never stops being funny, whether intentionally or not. The story is always cheesy, going from an overly edgy cheesiness at the beginning to a more wholesome cheesiness near the end, where speeches about the power of friendship walk right out of your favorite anime into the dialogue. One notable bit of contrast is that, even in the serious parts of the story early on, Sonic himself is never particularly serious. He’s always chattering away and making wisecracks, which actually ends up being very entertaining due to everything else around him. If you only let yourself enjoy things that are legitimately good, you’ll probably be irritated, but anyone who can let themselves go and laugh at a B-movie atmosphere will have a lot of fun watching the cutscenes.

Replay Value

The game’s main story clocks in at only 4-ish hours over its 30 main stages/boss fights, but it doesn’t seem like it should really be any longer. It’s not particularly difficult to beat, either. There’s a good amount of replay value: like previous 3D Sonic games, you’re ranked on your score at the end of levels, so getting S ranks on every stage is one way to get a good amount of time from the game. Each stage also has five Red Rings to find, giving you a reason to revisit levels and find all the different paths. Once you’ve collected all the Red Rings in a stage, a set of Number Rings will appear, which have to be collected in order from 5 to 1 descending. And once you’ve collected all of those, a set of Silver Moon Rings will appear in a level, which must all be collected in a short period of time. Red Rings are the only of these collectibles that unlock extra levels; the others are purely for satisfaction, avatar items, and Trophies/Achievements. The extra levels aren’t particularly meaty; they’re purely 2D platforming challenges with either Modern Sonic or the custom character that are focused around singular gimmicks that don’t appear in the rest of the game. They’re fun enough, I guess, but they don’t really take advantage of what makes this kind of Sonic game special. Finally, the game has leaderboards for level times, though unsurprisingly they seem to be hacked to hell and back on the PC version. Since getting the best times in levels takes a lot of clever optimization, it can be a lot of fun to do your absolute best. If you’re not driven to better yourself, though, then Sonic Forces loses a lot of appeal, as a single playthrough will be over pretty quickly.

Conclusion

At its best, Sonic Forces is a fast-paced, fun action platformer where you’ll be blazing through cool environments and feeling the flow as you nail all your homing attacks, boosts, Wispon moves, quick steps, and slides. At its worst, you’ll be wondering why Sonic Team bothered to bring back Classic Sonic at all. Sonic Forces also doesn’t have much to offer in the way of exploration, nor is its main story all that long, so if you don’t like optimizing your performance then you’ll find yourself uninterested pretty quickly. Still, if you like the feeling of nailing every movement, Sonic Forces is a lot of fun, even if the levels feel like they should be a bit more fleshed out. If you already dislike the boost gameplay from Unleashed, Colors, and Generations, Forces won’t change your mind. If you enjoyed those games, or if you just have an open mind, most of this game can be a solid piece of entertainment. Plus, there’s a special joy that comes from dressing your cartoon animal up in completely ridiculous outfits. As a budget title (launching at $40), there’s a good amount of fun to be had in Sonic Forces, despite its issues. Hopefully Sonic Team takes the right lessons from this game and sticks to the fast-paced boost gameplay they’ve been building on and look to the future while leaving the imitations and celebrations of the series’s early days to the fine folks who made Sonic Mania.

Buy if:

you already like “Boost Sonic”

you enjoy optimizing your performance in short, action-packed challenges

you can stomach a couple of irritating bits

you enjoy chuckling at goofy, cheesy writing

Avoid if:

you’re looking for a solid Classic Sonic experience

you prefer longer games or exploration in your platformers

you’re not used to adjusting to controls that feel different from the genre standard

cheesy things irritate you

#video games #sonic the hedgehog #video game review #sonic forces #review

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easy-win-games-blog · 6 years

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SAINT’S ROW – WHERE TO GO?

So, I’ve been playing a lot of Grand Theft Auto lately (namely GTA 3 for my last post) and it’s got me wondering: what’s happening with the Saint’s Row series?

As a die hard GTA fan I have a weird relationship with Saint’s; I inherently see them as mechanically inferior knock-offs of a staple of the medium, but at the same time I appreciate them and enjoy them as a way to tide myself over until the next GTA, which is where they evidently thrive. They’re undoubtedly fun and do a great job at emphasising player agency, creativity and fulfilling power fantasies as opposed to attempting to mirror real life with 1:1 physics and photorealistic graphics.

If you’re not super familiar with the Saint’s Row series, it’s basically the best Grand Theft Auto-like out there, with the major difference being that you get to create your own protagonist. Developed by Volition and published by THQ, the first two games took concepts directly from GTA (largely in a good way) with a focus on cartoony gags and violence; a way for Volition to make the most of their game engine, which has always been decidedly less graphically and mechanically impressive as Rockstar’s in-house engine. From Saint’s Row: The Third the series doubled-down on its whacky aesthetics, meta humour and ridiculous sexual innuendo, adding more layers of fucked with each release.

It’s important to note that the Saint’s Row series has always prospered in the absence of Grand Theft Auto, with each game coming out either just before the release of a brand-spanking-new GTA or in the middle of a GTA drought. Critically, it’s had a great run. From Saint’s 1 in 2006 to 4 in 2013, the series was a consistent critical and commercial hits, likely as a result of the release window of each game. The fifth game in the series, however — Saint’s Row: Gat Out Of Hell (2015) — slumped big time in comparison to its peers, largely for its continued re-use of old assets and mechanics and its disinteresting yet over-the-top narrative.

But that’s it for the Saint’s series so far. Agents Of Mayhem — a futuristic MOBA set in Seoul, South Korea with stringent narrative ties to the Saint’s Row series — released last year to critical meh-ness. But other than that there’s been no word on the Saint’s series itself since 2015. It seems strange to me that a series which has largely been a success would go away for so long without any word on its prospective future. I can safely imagine the Saint’s will make a return at some point in the future, but you would think that as Grand Theft Auto V’s decline has finally begun and GTA 6 is likely to be three to five years away right now would be the perfect time to release another fun stop-gap.

Even with an open-world behemoth like Red Dead Redemption 2 on the way, something in this vein definitely stands a chance at success. Saint’s has its own very unique flavour and dedicated fanbase.

It’s tricky, though. It makes sense to release a new Saint’s Row game, but how would you do it? Saint’s Row IV was fun, but with Gat Out Of Hell not doing so well I would argue that it to be risky to commit once again to far-fetched superhero fantasies. I also think doing this for a third time would paint Saint’s Row into a corner.

I also don’t think they could go completely serious, because that just wouldn’t be Saint’s Row, but to portray realistic street gangs in a silly and cartoonish way might border on being straight-up offensive.

So, where to?

I think the Saint’s have to go international. For three games the series has been stuck in the American city of Steelport, but imagine a fish-out-of-water scenario set in London, Paris or Tokyo. The humour comes from the balls-out swagger of the Third Street Saints, or just you (the Boss) clashing with a straight-laced and wholly different culture. Picture Dead Rising meets Sleeping Dogs, with a dash of Sunset Overdrive.

The elements of the Saint’s series that have never really agreed with me are the side-characters, who are often one-note cartoons with a gimmick and no true personality. In Saint’s 3 there’s a pimp who only talks in auto-tune. Real funny… I say do away with this shit and take a British approach to humour: make your protagonist the butt of the joke instead of the protagonist making everyone else look dumb. In a city like Tokyo you can indulge those sexual elements of Saint’s Row in a more subdued way, while also making a statement on America, its influence over the world and how it is seen by other countries.

Get fucked, Shaundi, you pot-smoking hippie stereotype.

Go away, Pierce, you absolute nothing of a man.

Hit the bricks… whoever else is left.

Japan’s rich cultural identity would make for an insane playground, with crazy shit like Godzilla, Samurai, the Yakuza, anime and the representation of more meta pop cultural phenomena in video games, like Pokemon, Mario and Metal Gear Solid.

“Boss! We’ve got to destroy the ‘Hard Cog’ before it launches its payload all over Downtown Tokyo!”

I would personally play the shit out of a good GTA-like set in Tokyo (since Rockstar have declared their disinterest in using the city as a setting, citing its street layout and infrastructure) with a funny narrative, cool combat and high level of personalisation.

Hell, expand upon the personalisation. Make it a fully formed street crime RPG instead of just a character creator. Game development is that easy, right?

If I stop to think about it though… I guess a lot of this stuff has already kind of been done by the Yakuza series…

Nah, fuck that. Crank it up to 69 and blaze up some sushi rolls, it’s time to get culturally insensitive up in this GTA-clone. I know I started by suggesting that it be set in London or Paris as well, but is just too perfect to pass up!

Either way, I think you understand what I’m getting at. Saint’s Row is a good franchise. A successful franchise. I think it’s high time for another instalment, along with a breath of fresh air for the franchise as a whole.

This series can go anywhere and do anything. I think it’s time they embraced that.

What do you think? Are you a fan of the Saint’s Row franchise? And if so, where do you reckon it should go? Hit me up in the DM’s, or through Twitter or Facebook and let me know where your head’s at.

- Article & illustration brewed in-house -

#saints row #tokyo #japan #video games #future #editorial #london #paris #grand theft auto

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