The V1 Read-A-Thon

Ohm · #61

(Original post by Blastinus)

Blastinus read the posting style of Uriel Hunter.
God grant me wisdom to discern the
Method of this weirdo's madness
He said.

Spoiler!

Right, that was a thing. So what did I actually think of Uriel? Well, he was ridiculous, over-the-top, and yet another strange V1 gimmick. But the way he played his act to the hilt is almost charming. Like, kiri666yama had an idea in mind when they wrote this guy, and Uriel never deviated from it. Was it silly? Oh, darn right it was, but it was the kind of silly that's incredible and fun to read. I would recommend that everyone read through the saga of Uriel the Witch Hunter, just because it's the best kind of stupid and nobody should miss out.

Ohm · #62

(Original post by Aura)

Callum Hadley was a strange character. His profile declares that he still has imaginary friends at 16 years old and has difficulty distinguishing between fiction and reality. Apparently this came from his nanny, who taught him to use his imagination during playtime. This seems a little flimsy of an excuse, but I'll chalk that up to this being v1 and logic not applying to anything yet.

On the island, Callum's story largely revolves around a girl named Beth who doesn't exist. He also occasionally meets up with Skip, a long-time imaginary friend of his who often acts like a jerk. Honestly, Beth comes up so frequently in Callum's story that it becomes rather repetitive. And when you also take into account that she isn't even real, then it comes off as constant, pointless derailment.

When he's not going on about Beth though, Callum is pretty decent. He's a nice guy who doesn't want to hurt anyone. He tries to play the protector, but his delusional nature gets in the way of that, and he gets himself into a few awkward situations. However, he does manage to find a few successes while trying to play hero, successfully helping to fend off Cillian Crowe and Shinya Motomura. However, his obsession with Beth never leaves, and it directly leads to his death when he leaves a group to run off alone. And since, as previously stated, Beth doesn't actually exist, it makes him come off like a fool for doing so.

Also, there's the matter of the death scene itself. Callum is killed off in a needlessly grotesque manner by Johnny Lamika, who goes by "Dread". The posts are not overly long, but the nature of the kill itself is disgusting and off-putting and it completely turned me off of Callum at the last minute.

Callum was decent for the most part, having decent writing and lacking many grammar or mechanical errors. However, his death completely ruins the reading experience, and I cannot recommend him in good faith because of it. Just consider him another one of those characters who could have been all right, but was dashed at the last minute by an awful, unpleasant death.

Another character, if you please.

Ohm · #63

(Original post by Kermit)

Rip naoji gets doorcapitated

He's pretty okay I guess. His only surviving post is his inactivedeath, and it's decent if not over the top.

Another!

Ohm · #64

(Original post by Blastinus)

You might remember Wednesday Garci as the character who spontaneously became the sole target of Chi Masumi's focus. And indeed, aside from a story of parental abuse, Chi is all there is to Wednesday's profile as well. Let's plot the course of Wednesday's story up until the two of them come together.

As it turns out, Uriel's writing style was not intended to be stylistic. It's just how the handler writes. Well, I'm not doing it again, so let's just proceed as normal. She wakes up on the beach, does the usual pre-game checklist of gathering weapon, flashbacking to Danya's briefing, and pondering her next move, and leaves. She refers to Chi as her sugar pie, which you'll notice any time she talks about her, which is all the time. For whatever reason, Wednesday "snickers" a lot, even when it's kind of inappropriate. For instance:

Chi Masumi. The girl I would die for.
Wednesday lowered her staff and looked at blaine when tears started to flow.
I just hope she's ok, the girl snickered .

What exactly is funny about that?

So far as her interaction with Blaine goes, it's a case of "Hi, have you seen Chi?" Sort of the reverse of Chi's deal where it's "Hi, have you seen Wednesday?" I won't say that the two characters are carbon copies of one another, but speaking as a guy who wrote a character who depended entirely on another character, this is a serious pitfall that you can fall into. Anyway, Wednesday falls out of the posting order and Blaine moves on to greater things, so when she pops back in, it'd be awkward to do so, so...next thread!

Wednesday goes to the showers and describes the removal of her clothes in excruciating detail. And yeah, wouldn't you know it, but a guy walks in on her trying to take a shower. Oh, the embarrassment. They share some light pleasantries as she gets dressed, and then she leaves.

Last thread, and it's Chi time! Let the love-making commence! I went over this with Chi already, so let's just skip to the killer ballerina. Elijah Rice shoots Chi from offscreen, and then Wednesday goes inactive while trying to charge him down, so Kaishi just has Rice spray her with bullets.

I can't really say that I got a picture of Wednesday's character, other than her mutual attraction to her significant other. It's not a bad way to establish a quest for your character, but you've got to have more going under the hood than just that, because what if the character gets rolled? What do you do with your character then? I learned that the hard way myself, so I'd caution others against this kind of story arc.

One more!

Ohm · #65

(Original post by Kermit)

oh boy i'm just getting all the inactive kills, aren't I. This is grand!

Ai Kurosawa is a premade player. Everyone bullies her and she almost killed a kid and she's Japanese.

TLDR; Ai doesn't get anything from her own perspective and gets murderkilled by a terrorist in an inactive fodder kill.

also

This is why the audience is given vomit bags, my dears. SOTF brand plastic and paper bags for all occasions.

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Ohm · #66

(Original post by Blastinus)

Neville Eden is a kid with a Yorkshire accent, which is going to make reading his dialogue a load of fun. Fortunately, he provided a handy translation aid:

the=t', you=tha/thee, girl=lass

And that's all you need to know, apparently.

His first thread is somewhat different, since he's already awake, just despondent. Apparently the terrorists let him keep his CD player, since he mentions having two CD's to listen to. Now I've had a Sony CD player, and I can say that he's probably going to get a couple days of use out of it, maybe three if he's lucky, but he's only got three more threads, so that shouldn't be an issue.

Next thread, he comes across Ryan Torres having a good cry, so, and I found this actually kind of interesting, he rehearses his friendly approach a few times before going in. This is a fun little detail and it gives Neville a bit more character. You know what also gives someone character?

"Nev' Eden. Are thi two toghether? I just got dropped; an' I ain't keen on shootin' owt. 'Less I have to."

Huh, this must be the advanced course. But in all seriousness, the Yorkishness isn't really that bad. It's not so thick that you can't get the gist of what he's saying, and it's consistent across the board. Offering Ryan their support, he and Clare Shepherd get him back on his feet and they become a steady alliance. None of them appear to be deranged or unstable, so at face value, the team ought to be fine. And indeed, as they take a break by the well and meet their first non-groupie in Dorian Greywood, they seem to have it together. Neville even muses to himself that he'd never be so harsh as to judge someone at face value, which is why he's immediately concerned when he sees the blood on Dorian's shirt, not suspicious.

But enough about that, it's time for Vince Samsa to cover the group in smoke and then unload his gun into the smoke, hitting not a dang thing (but leaving a few nicks). For his part, Neville's handler tries to actually sell this stupid trick, describing the smoke choking him and irritating his eyes. Everyone else is carrying on a conversation just fine and shooting at each other, but Neville? Bless his heart, he's trying to make this work. And props for that. But then Vince makes the error of inserting a lewd comment into his stupid pseudo-philosophical banter, and that's just not cool.

Though he offers to shoot Vince on behalf of Clare, his offer is rebuffed as Clare does the job for him, while taking a few rounds in the process herself and THEN being shot at randomly by a Slayer murderbot. Fortunately, Neville is standing over her, so he shields her body from these rounds, and he offers her a shoulder to get out of this scene while still under heavy fire. But then Peri shows up, and I'm like come on, people! This is the one crowd of decent people I've read, and so everyone's decided it's open season? Give them a freakin' break already!

Fortunately, they're able to get out of there before Peri starts his stupid shenanigans, and Neville enters an incredibly crowded scene, all bloodied and messed-up. But oops, it's a different Slayer murderbot. In true Slayer fashion, it's shoot first, think later, and as the two of them gun each other down in a hail of lead, with Clare assisting, Neville says a few poignant words and dies in Clare's arms. It's well-done and touching, and if it was against someone who wasn't constantly trying to hog the spotlight of every scene, it'd have been that much better.

Fact is, Neville deserved better than this. He was well-written, friendly, kind, and loyal to the end to his team. He got one nice quiet character moment and the rest was nonstop being shot at by pricks. I hate how many guns there were in V1, because everyone and their mothers had it in their heads that they needed to spray every single freakin' emotional scene with lead. I am honestly angry at Slayer for how many scenes he's ruined with his stupid characters and their stupid guns. They added nothing, and destroyed so much, leaving fun characters like Neville with no chance to grow. And there's the real tragedy.

One more please?

Ohm · #67

(Original post by Randomness)

Elise's profile isn't bad, but it's still not great. That said this is the first v1 profile I've fully read, so take this with a grain of salt. Her appearance notes that people tell her that her hair is pretty, that she's plump but not fat, and how she wears black but isn't goth.

She's both poor but elitist, a combination that I honestly think is an interesting start for a character, but it's also coupled with androphobia/misandry, because she was bullied by boys before transferring to an all-girls school, an issue which I thoroughly assume is going to be explored in a manner that such a complex subject deserves. She's also an exchange student and has a reputation of having "an appreciation of violence", which I assume is v1 profile code for "likes beating shit up".

Elise playes out with more nuance than I expect, though she's surprisingly aware of what's going on. There's an offhanded statement about sorta knowing how guns work from video games, but you know Elise, World of Guns: Gun Disassembly only came out in 2014, so how well do you really know guns?

As she tests the gun, she notices one Peri Barclay, who is turning this into a holdup. He just wants the gun, and she starts out indignant, but turns fearful when he notes that he's already killed someone. As a note, as far as I've parsed his first post, he only found a body, but I actually can't make heads or tails of it. (Note from me from the future: he's a lying liar who lyingly lies and this becomes important later)

In any case, Elise makes this a strong scene, and if Peri's writing was better, she would be a recommendation from this scene alone. But once he actually robs her, Peri offers her a cigarette and an alliance, tossing her weapon back to her. From this point on, they work as an awkward duo, Peri being a dick in a way that seems more fitting for a forty year old than a sixteen year old kid, with Elise slowly realising that Peri's ideas are designed to keep him safe, and not her.

Later on, their time at the lookout point is interrupted by the arrival of Stevan, and he joins the group, leading Elise to become more paranoid about the two of them ganging up on her. As they enter the small house, she runs off with the gun that Peri had offered her earlier. She thinks she's okay, when Peri, who was chasing her this whole time, catches up. He shoots her in the legs, taking his gun back and leaves her for dead.

Somehow, she makes it to the hospital where the Doddsquad comes upon her. They are about to help her, when a gunfight breaks out due to the definitely coincidental arrivals, Stevan and Peri (Jacob was there too but he matters little to Elise's story). Most of them run and leave Elise, who is unable to follow. Stevan tortures her for a bit, before Peri interrupts them to stop Stevan, but in a confusing move, he tosses her back to Stevan who kills her.

In all, I think Elise is worth a read. Slight minus for having to suffer through the combined grammatical wreck that Peri and Stevan are and her voicework is inconsistent, but she has an interesting path, which is very self contained, as well as several interesting ideas, though many of which are never explored as much as I'd like. Her death thread is the main flaw in an otherwise strong character. The gunfight is largely skippable if you are reading her as she posts only once during it, but really, shame on the Doddsquad for leaving her behind.

Give me another kid that I can procrastinate on.

Ohm · #68

(Post by Aura)

Kouji Ginsenshi is a character who I can't really describe the way I talk about most characters that I have reviewed on the RAT, so bear with me for a moment while I explain my reaction to him.

First off, I will say straight-out that Kouji is not a good character. Far from it, in fact. His biography is absurd, his personality is ridiculous, and his first three posts are absurdly similar to each other barring a few words. As soon as he runs into someone, he tries way too hard to be a ruthless, badass tough guy, but when he fails to follow through, he comes off as an utter buffoon instead. The best case of this would be in his waterfall encounter with Eh-Sun, which ends up looking like a total farce by the end of it. This comes to a head in his final thread, where Scott Jameson is attacking Jeremy Torres with a brick about ten feet away, and Kouji just stands there thinking about soup.

These sort of writing and tonal issues are the kind of thing that I would normally rip into a character for, but I just can't do that with Kouji. For you see, Kouji was the most fun I have had reading any v1 character thus far by a wide margin. He's very bad, but unlike a lot of bad v1 characters who are just bland, uncomfortable, or shock value, Kouji ends up being hilarious. I would go so far to call him the v1 equivalent of The Room. He was just a delight to read, and he really cheered me up after a not-so-great day.

However, there was one thing that I took issue with in Kouji's story. In his final thread, the other handlers were clearly unhappy with his handler. Nevera's handler even went so far as to suggest that Kouji's handler quit the site and let Nevera kill Kouji. After that, all the other characters in the thread teamed up and started attacking Kouji, much to his handler's bafflement. Now, this is something that I was definitely not okay with, and it was really uncomfortable to read. Yes, Kouji's handler was not a good writer, but to go after him in that way was completely uncalled for, and it was very unpleasant to watch.

As Blast said in the chat while I was reading Kouji, a good improv actor will run with someone else's terrible idea and make something great out of it, while a bad improve actor will break character and complain about the other guy's bad idea. That was what happened in Kouji's final thread, and it absolutely should not have come to that. Kouji was by no means the only ridiculous character in v1, and even if he had been, there was no reason for them to go after his handler like that. So it soured his story right at the end. I remember he argument more than Kouji's inactive death, actually.

Also, apparently Kouji came back to life briefly when his handler posted with him again after his death due to a misunderstanding of the rules. Nobody acknowledged him in-character and nothing came of it aside from a brief bit of confusion.

So would I recommend Kouji? The surprising answer is... yes. Absolutely. He's an absolute blast, flaws and all. His story is ridiculous, it makes no sense, and Kouji himself is just a treasure trove of memorable quotes. It's a bit soured by the drama at the end, but I can say with 100% certainty that I do not regret reading him at all.

Another character, if you please.

Ohm · #69

(Post by Blastinus)

When I read Andrew Lipson, it becomes immediately clear to me what role he's supposed to take in the narrative of Adam Dodd. He's got the love interest who serves just as a motivator for revenge, the mentor figure who sacrifices himself for him, and now we have the tragic friend who establishes that Dodd is a caring and compassionate person but is ultimately disposable. As a wheelchair-riding character who was apparently abducted as a separate victim just so handicapped viewers would have someone to root for (I'm not making this up), it's fairly clear right from the start that Dodd has no intention of actually having Andrew make it all the way to the end. Instead, his goal is to milk as much tragedy as he can from a single character in the hopes of creating the forum equivalent of Oscar Bait.

Case in point, he starts out buried in a ditch so he can only struggle and shout for help. He's helped up and into his wheelchair by Umi Martin, and as people file in, he spends most of his time just saying "Hi, I'm Andrew." More and more people show up and are typically confrontational, so he just remarks how weird it is that nobody can get along, and he laments that he isn't good for anything, when that's clearly wrong. He's in a wheelchair, yes, but as long as he has an ally to wheel him around, all he needs is a gun and you've got yourself a mobile artillery platform that looks like a man. The closest we come to a spark of character is that Umi used to know him before the accident that crippled him, and she makes him feel bad about how he's declined since then. He agrees. He friggin' agrees, and right when I'm about to seriously get angry at this character, he gets the call from Adam Dodd...somehow. They make plans to meet up, but it's once again just Dodd talking to himself, and that's when his arm gets burned to a crisp by a bolt of lightning.

Oh right, here's the main thing that Andrew Lipson is known for. He gets struck by lightning which burns one side of his body, his wheelchair shorts out so he rolls off a cliff, he reflects on his life on the way down, lands, shatters a bunch of things but doesn't die, and is left lying broken on the beach, where the tide comes in and he drowns. Rather than doing something dignified or subdued, Dodd just had to go for the whole nine yards of misery, and it doesn't work that way. If you keep layering on tragic thing after tragic thing, there's a diminishing return for each layer. If he'd just had him roll off the cliff and die on impact, that would have been good right there. He had the time for reflection, he had the song number (for what THAT'S worth). End scene right there, and it's fine. Having him survive that just to drown slowly, painfully, and miserably doesn't make you deep or clever. It just makes you a mean spirited jerk.

I would not recommend Andrew Lipson. It's a cheap attempt to shock and elicit sympathy, and you're better off just reading the synopsis on the wiki.

One more please.

Ohm · #70

(Post by Blastinus)

Well, at least now I know why Jimmy Moreland came on so hard with Chi when he met her. The guy's profile lists him as a young playboy, hitting on every girl he meets. Coming at it from his perspective, he seems to be almost a bit pathetic, trying desperately to hit on a girl who's clearly not that interested in him. Then a wild Slayer character appears, and we know how that goes. They fight for a bit, and then they flee. Chi's becoming increasingly erratic and strange, and Jimmy's really not into it. So when she gives him the option, they go their separate ways.

Final thread for Jimmy, he comes across Blaine Eno. Blaine immediately sets off Jimmy's weirdness alarms, but mostly out of that desire to get some allies, he plays along, which turns out to be a tactical error, since Blaine has a nasty case of the crazies. Word to the wise: if someone asks you to give them your hand in this game, chances are they're speaking 100% literally. Panicking, but unable to escape, Jimmy is sectioned off the rest of the way while hallucinating a really bizarre and unusual nightmare. To guitarjack87's credit, even though I have no idea what's going on, at least I remember this death. Can't really say whether or not I'd recommend Jimmy, since he's constantly taking backseat to weird or psychotic characters, playing straight man to their antics. I feel like he was competently written and I felt for him when he was trapped in a room with Blaine, but there just wasn't enough of him to get a real opinion.

Let's keep on going.

Ohm · #71

(Original post by Blastinus)

Well, nuts. Cody Jenson has been worming his way through so many of these stories, it's almost intimidating to have to deal with the man himself. Of one thing I am assured, Cody is perhaps the most prolific of characters in the entirety of V1, managing with one character to be a match for Dodd's entire cadre. Does that mean I like him as a character? Oh, heavens, no. But the impact he made on the story is tremendous, and that deserves a long, hard, look.

So without further ado, let's get this over with.

Spoiler!

Would I recommend Cody Jenson? Maybe? I absolutely hated him. Hated everything about him, but he's an important part of V1's history. Most of what he does is thoroughly skippable after the baton is passed, and I would never recommend Madelaine's death, or anything having to do with Lyndi, or the stuff about his backstory, or...You know what, no, don't read Cody Jenson. Just skip ahead to endgame and forget everything else about him. You'll have saved yourself so much time that way.

Well, roll 'em again. Here's hoping for someone actually fun.

Ohm · #72

(Original post by randomness)

Cillian Crowe is lazy writing and I really don't like him. The profile is not the greatest start, from how the descriptions are overly lavish in how they describe him, to the fact that the clothing desccription starts "Clothing wise, Cillian hasn't had much luck".

His back story is just a mishmash of tragic things that focus on some potentially demonic creature called "Haddy". He suddenly becomes your classic creepy child who starts doing more and more creepy things. His parents (always called "the foster parents" in the profile) leave him 10 miles away from home in an attempt to leave him behind. Apparently, they could only spare their lunch break for this and wanted an actual lunch on the way back, because 10 miles? Really?

Anyway Cillian takes months to get back home, probably having some wacky murder adventures along the way (ten miles?), and decides to kill his parents. With them dead, he was sent to Arkham Asylum with unethical psychiatrists(?) unable to diagnose him(?). Also somehow they had let him grow long nails and couldn't get them cut short, because he would claw people with them.

I'm not going to give Cillian a story summary, because I've actually forgotten most of it despite having just finished reading him. His kills blur together, the overwrought childish mannerisms, the weird mood, tone, tense whiplashes, make Cillain bland and difficult. In every horror movie, there tends to be at least one death that stands out by being either ridiculous or well executed, but Cillian feels monotonous in quality throughout. There's no motivation for murder beyond the voice in his head, there's some mild strain of paranoia, but it never does anything beyond trying (and failing) to pull at heartstrings for his treatment by the psychiatrists.

There are a few flashbacks, in blue on the blue background of invisionfree, but these are generally paint-by-numbers affairs, as if someone was pulling ideas out of a list of things that belong in a tragic backstory. Authoritarian father, men in labcoats, child abuse, things thst might work but placed where it is, admist Cillain's story, feels like a gross mismatch.

What makes things worse is that I can see glimmers of good writing in Cillian. But the fact is, when it comes down to it, there's really nothing that elevates Cillian beyond a simple stereotype of a madman. He's not even fun in his madness, and he is often too predictable in his next move (it's always murder).

One more.

Ohm · #73

(Original post by Bowser)

Daphne Rudko is awful and quite possibly some of the worst that V1 has to offer in my opinion. Everything about her two thread arc (Because lbr her first thread is completely pointless) is infuriating to read and honestly just left me wanting to yell at my screen at how stupid both Daphne and the people around her acted. Worst part is I knew she was going to be awful from the start, and even after finishing I still felt disappointed.

Starting with Girls #15-GAME START, the useless thread, we learn that she killed her parents because her dad abused her and some random girl who "Bullied" her. But considering how she randomly kills three people in what she claims to be self defense even though there was no reason for her to murder any of them I'm willing to bet she just panic murdered all three of them over something stupid every single time. She then talks with some boy for like a few posts and then they both just ditch the thread I guess.

Next up in the thread Advent, Daphne runs into Jeremy's group which consisted of himself, Glenn, Marie, Heather, and Fred after the group encounters the body of Gabrielle Minase. When questioning her on if she's the one who killed him, she says "Well I killed my dad and some random girl who bullied me, and my mom who was totally innocent, but I haven't killed anyone yet" and then keeps saying a bunch of shit that would make anyone think she was going to start murdering everyone around her and that they should just end her now. But for SOME REASON they do nothing about the confessed killer even after she slits Marie's throat for the crime of approaching her and trying to be nice. Heather's then all "Okay this bitch is crazy" and leaves the scene by slipping down a hill with everyone just abandoning the thread behind her as they give chase lol. All alone in the thread, Daphne then leaves to go hide in a bush.

That's not even a joke by the way, her stint in the thread arrival literally starts with her hiding in a bush, Eddie LIGHTLY kicking a rock into said bush, and Daphne thinking he's trying to kill him and stabbing him in the throat. Because reasons. Miranda's then all "OH SHIT!" and tries to run away, only for Daphne to brutally stab her to death thinking both kills were in self defense. I'm not even kidding by the way, every time she kills somebody she thinks she's acting in self defense and that everyone is out to get her when in reality she's the one causing her own problems. Nobody's causing Daphne issues but Daphne. None of the people she killed were in any way hostile towards her and two of them were even trying to hatch an escape plan. Which brings me to quite possibly my biggest issue with Daphne, her death.

See, after Daphne killed Miranda, Heather shoots her like three times and Glenn flashbangs her, blinding her for a bit. Glenn then goes inside to finish the job with a 2 by 4 about to kill her and she's all "Lol you're just like me" and he's basically all "You killed my friend and two other people who did nothing to you right in front of me, and you pose a threat to my friends as well. I'm nothing like you" and I'm sitting there rooting for Glenn to kill her ass. Seriously Daphne has caused nothing but pain and suffering to Glenn and those around him, and with him and his group trying to get an escape going. Him killing her would of made sense on both a story and morality level since leaving her alive would of only lead to more people Glenn was trying to save dying and her whole arc directly involved indirectly hurting Glenn. It would of been a great end to an awful character, would of redeemed her story somewhat, and pushed Glenn's forward in intresting ways. But, of course, a bunch of randos have to walk in all "GLENN DON'T DO IT, YOU'LL BE JUST AS BAD AS HER!"

So he doesn't kill her.

Then two seconds later Jason walks in and shoots her dead.

And I'm just sitting here wondering why Glenn couldn't of just gotten the kill when everything was pointing towards him being the best one to do it. I just... Why?

In short, Daphne sucks and you shouldn't read her. End of story

I'll take another character please.

Ohm · #74

(Original post by Blastinus)

Shannon McLocke is another one of the terrorists who performed an act so phenomenally stupid that they got themselves volunteered as tributes. While it's Elijah Rice who actually plops his soda can down on the public address button, it's McLocke who distracts him by looking at the fanfiction online, so really, there's plenty of blame to go around. For his part, McLocke is described as a smug jerk with a weird exercise regimen, so of the three, he's probably the least sympathetic, and therefore the most expendable.

Case in point, after the thread that puts the terrorists in play, he's only got two threads to his name, of which the first is a simple oneshot with no dialogue where he stabs Ai Kurosawa in the arm and then slits her throat. Once again, they can't talk, so I wasn't expecting a lot of villain monologues, but this is really minimalist in terms of how he approaches it. I suspect this is because Shannon is being controlled by Kaishi instead of the incredibly longwinded Dodd.

Not to say this thread gets off entirely scot-free. There's always this delightful quip:

The knife left a nasty mark, unleashing a strong spray of blood. This is why the audience is given vomit bags, my dears. SOTF brand plastic and paper bags for all occasions.

Imagine the possibilities for bootleg SOTF merch. You could have replica weapons, action figures, "greatest hits" tapes for the character of your choice...Sure, it'd be in horrible taste, but I can't imagine bootleggers would care much about that.

In his last thread, true to his cocky nature, he walks right up to the alliance of Steven Hyde and Peri Barclay and just dares them to take the first move. This turns out to be a bit of an error, as he's now set upon by three kids at once since Eh-Sun also joins the party. I suppose this is true to his smug and cocky nature, but it doesn't end up doing him any favors. He ends up killing none of them and getting the snot beaten out of him before finally deciding to go out with a bang, setting off his collar right next to a bandolier of grenades which go up in a giant succession of booms. I will say that this fight scene is a great chance for Steven, Peri, and Eh-Sun to show off, since they finally have an opponent who is unambiguously okay to fight. The terrorists are kind of like boss fights where any of the characters can participate and feel 100% justified in doing so, and I wish that there were more occasions like this, since it's definitely cathartic to read.

Let's keep going!

Ohm · #75

(Original post by Blastinus)

Daisuke Andou is interesting since his story doesn't have much to do with Adam Dodd, but he gets pretty far in the game. I'm interested to see how someone handles not being in Dodd's immensely "heroic" shadow. There's not much to go on with his profile, other than two pertinent details: First, in this game, two classes were actually abducted at once. One from Barry Coleson High, and another from a Tokyo school called Shisei High. This is important to Daisuke's story because it means that he's going to be unfamiliar with a lot of the kids in the game.

Second, Daisuke has a deep-seated sado-masochistic issue. Rather than being a throwaway detail, this will actually be vital to his story. Yeah, I'm as surprised as you are.

Daisuke's dream team gathers almost immediately upon his arrival. Reading ahead, Daisuke, Aiden Ambrose, and Umi Martin are going to be tight buds for a while in this game. And sure enough, their first thread is just the typical "I'm not playing? You playing? No? Cool." sort of stuff. The vital building block of any alliance. Daisuke drops out of the conversation pretty early, probably because the handler was busy when Aiden and Umi were still talking, so in the next thread, it's played up as if he had just zoned out for a while. They're on their way to a location, so they spend the second thread just discussing their weapons and what they bring to the table. Umi is skilled with guns, and Daisuke's forced to confess that he is not, which makes him a bit nervous. And that's the scene.

Reaching the hospital in the next scene, they find it occupied by none other than Hawley Faust. What transpires is actually a fascinating scene, since I'm so used to modern SOTF where hiding is undone by a single character going "Hey, look over there!" Instead, after a genuinely interesting bit of cat and mouse, the cover is blown by Daisuke spontaneously giving in to his character flaw.
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A maniac grin lit up Daisuke's face, the adrenaline of the game had awoken his sadistic tendancies, he wanted blood and he wanted it now...

Naturally, this is cured by Umi delivering a sharp slap to the face, but the jig is up. As they flee the scene, Hawley fires a few rounds in their general direction, and Aiden is clipped.

Next scene, it's time to cure their fallen comrade, and I'm not sure if Daisuke's handler intended for Aiden and him to become a couple, but Aiden's handler is definitely leaning in that direction, with a post that can best be described as romantic GMing:

"How do you know so much about survival," Aiden gasped. Dai's hand was squeezing back.

Aiden passes out at this point so Daisuke can explain what it was that happened back there. He's hesitant, of course, out of embarrassment and perhaps a bit of shame, but eventually he opens up about it, and this is a fascinating bit of character development, which must regrettably be interrupted by Gabrielle Minase, who threatens everyone, gets surrounded by people wielding guns, and dies of AIDS. Of course, that's not what happens, since instead the stress causes Daisuke to go sadistic again and he shoots Minase dead. It's a hasty band-aid applied over a bizarre death quote, but at least it helps Daisuke's character a little. This time, a slap doesn't do it, so Umi has to smack him in the back of the head with her gun, and the group has to flee before people get attracted to Daisuke's gunshot.

Next thread, Daisuke starts to consider whether he should separate from the group for everyone else's sake, but Umi convinces him that there's another way, that maybe they could escape and take down the people who brought them there. Joining them for this is Andrew Lipson, who has the one scene here with Umi as I've described before, only to get zap-drop-drowned. This really isn't Andrew's story, so let's focus on Daisuke who interacts with another Shisei student named Kiyoko Asakawa who can only speak Japanese. Daisuke has an advantage here because he can translate to and from Japanese for the benefit of everyone else present or carry on private conversations with Kiyoko that nobody else can pick up on, since they don't know the language. He also carries on his relationship with Aiden, and even gets into the swing of things himself:

"I promise you Aiden, we'll leave together, i'll look out for you" Daisuke smiled at the shorter boy

Will they ever confess their feelings for one another? Well, not in this thread, since Daisuke "spaces out" right before Andrew has his big death scene, only to rejoin the group next thread, when he has to explain to everyone else that Kiyoko took Aiden's weapon because she's scared and doesn't trust them. In particular, the group has attracted the attention of Peri Barclay, so her suspicions are right on the money. Still, Daisuke trusts him enough to be discussing escape attempts, or at least the possibility of one. Nothing particularly concrete and it's obvious they're just making stuff up as they go along. Much like most V1 escape attempts, there's just not enough info to go on yet to formulate a proper plan of attack.

But enough about that, it's time for Aiden to pass out again. Daisuke is so concerned about his fallen comrade that all his handler seems to post is how he's unconcerned with the bullets flying and people dying around him, just so long as he can care for Aiden. And with that, we're basically a hair's breadth away from turning subtext into text. By the time Aiden wakes up, Umi and Kiyoko, along with a few others who showed up, have all left and subsequently died, leaving Daisuke alone with Peri, who suggests that Daisuke should just put a bullet between Aiden's eyes since he's such a burden.

Aiden glared at Peri, almost to weak for words.

"He loves me..."

Aaaaaaaand there we go. Fortunately, Peri decides to give the two of them a pass, so they're able to go on their way just in time to see Sarge get BUSHMURDERED! It always comes back to Daphne somehow. Watching mostly silently as the group deliberates on what to do with Daphne, he's forced to take cover with Aiden when a Slayer murderbot arrives on the scene. Engaging in a brief firefight, the group has to disperse because the place has become a danger zone. The group has a brief breather in the woods during which nothing particularly of note happens with Daisuke, since he just phases out of the scene for what has to be the third time.

At this point, Daisuke's handler seems to be either running out of motivation or just really busy, as Daisuke numbly follows Aiden along and doesn't participate at all in scenes, except for a post every now and then to prevent him from falling into inactive status. Doesn't help though, since he just departs from Aiden and gets oneshot killed by Steven Hyde in a really lame way that doesn't give any room for characterization or cleverness.

So what did I think of Daisuke? Well, no offense, but he didn't end up actually accomplishing much of anything. There was some half-spirited talk of an escape, but effectively, he was just following Aiden around and everything that he did was resolved around being with Aiden and protecting Aiden and so on and so forth. There was just nothing there, and that's disappointing to me. Daisuke ended up just existing in the game and really petered out at the end.

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