This is more of a personal thing, but you're interested in getting a little more info on this whole thing, you'll find "Safety First" when you're satisfied with the situation here. It's uncharacteristic for you to be so curious, but there's a lot to be curious about here. Thorsen is one of the richest men on the planet and he's gathering assassins from what you've read in the first two folders he's given you. Not just normal ones either, the best in the field and crazy to boot. Not only is he doing this, he's hired you and them for a two year contract with the implication that he'll kill whoever decides to refuse written into the situation. That's pretty strange. Then there's the communication mans and secretive nature of the whole operation. This isn't something he wants to be hidden for a while, this is something that never happened as far as Thorsen wants the world to be concerned. You have no details on anything really. All you know is that you're going to be pretty damned wealthy at the end of this if you make it that far. Yeah, it isn't guaranteed money. It never is. As a hostage negotiator, you learned not to be too attached to your own life. It's a bargaining chip and if you can't use it you'll lose it anyway. But that's only what you've learned from actually doing this job. The more important thing is the people who you've been put near so far. First, meganeko and Eff Bee. They're opposing the grand scheme. Weird thing about that? They've heard of it in spite of Thorsen's measures. They've heard of you despite your own lack of intel on the situation. They're a part of a network, no, you're also a part of that now. They use ARigato to communicate so it's possible that they're related to the inventors. But that's not necessarily true. It's problematic. They're more mysterious than Thorsen and more likely to end you on the spot with a sleeper you can't see. Then there's the Americans. They're in the same places as you at the same time. Is it Thorsen related? Is it something else? Either way, it's national security and it coincides with parties like this one and your arrival. Even if they don't know you like Eff Bee, they're going to be in the way the whole time unless you find a way to get ahead of them. That's interesting. You see Whittington talking to someone you recognize from a long time ago. A real long time ago. His name is Remiel Wesson. He's the richest man in the world that has no money, people say. By that they mean, his net worth is astronomical but he doesn't himself have any cash because it's all tied up in holdings or held by his companies or proxies. He does this to avoid being taxed that one extra time some people say. Others say that he just doesn't like money being so close. You personally think he just likes to break the system. He understands the rules and found a way to make it look like a joke. A man who can't afford a cup of coffee at Sundollar's can make a nation rise and fall at his whim. That's what you think he was after. But the reason why you know him is because he was the one who got you into hostage negotiating. When you were in college some bullies decided to mess with him. You talked them into tossing their own frat bro into the lake instead. Given that you had no actual relation to the incident on paper and they were less than intelligent folk, you didn't have to face manslaughter charges. You also saved your roommate so you called it a win. You are curious as to how the two of these guys met though. You were sure Whittington was a small fish, too. You should... [] Check your inventory. [] Read the conversation to the best of your abilities from here. [] Get into the conversation. Spoiler: note This is open ended, if you choose to get into the conversation you need to say part of what you would say or give it a direction. This is an important decision so I won't progress until I see 10 vote posts or I finish the recap post.
Now that it's too late for me to affect the poll... I guess I don't have to wait for next year this time.
It's actually pretty terrible. If it didn't have Monty Oum's name associated with its inception or Rooster Teeth involved in its distribution it'd probably be a total laughingstock. Now, I know people who have never heard of Dead Fantasy who took a look at this and said, "This is ****," from the trailers. I actually didn't want to level with them, at first, because the trailers are Monty Oum doing his thing, choreographing fun little fight scenes. I thought they were okay, animation values were weak, but it's basically machinima so how could I blame it? Then it dawns on me when the first episode hits. He's in charge of most everything. A choreographer is the head creative mind on a project and has clear and documented influence on the rest of the staff. Problem. So what though? He could still do well, right? Yes. But he didn't. The animation looks cheap and awful, simple as that. It's basically little MMD models showing their lack of expressive capacity and range of motion. It works with RvB more or less because its machinima and that means it's supposed to look that way. This is an anime knock off and is clearly not supposed to look like this. All of the actions are pale imitations of the actions they are attempting so ham handedly to portray. So there's that fact. If he wanted to do an anime inspired show, he should have either made it in an animation style that didn't make it look like garbage or he should have ditched the theatrical visual tropes that just don't fit and stuck to the story and dialogue tropes that he can pull off. Alright, so visuals are definitely in a strange kind of uncanny valley equivalent of animation. He still might tell an interesting story with good characters, right? Well, that does remain to be scene but the whole thing is hopelessly generic and dime a dozen right now. It actually would run better as the plot of shovelware JRPG now that I think of it, it gives you a reason to be around a lot of people who can fight and it gives you a reason to fight monsters and finally a big villainous organization. So the plot's got some filling out to do and I'll give it that chance, it's what I owe any series. So the characters. Well, they're not completely distasteful. For the most part. So far. You see how I need to add a lot of qualifiers because this series really hasn't set any of its characters to an extent where you can say whether they're good or bad? They all feel like they have their starting gimmick or stereotype and are going to grow from there or not grow from there. It's really a tossup if they do or not. So far we've seen the standard development where the team fights together but them forgets that entire experience five minutes later and decides to start at square one again the next time they meet. This doesn't exactly bode well. Also, Monty Oum didn't need his own character to voice. It seems a little egotistical. So here's what really bothers me more than the style or the plot or the characters. It's the amount of effort that was put in here. This clearly was poorly planned. If you don't see it, that's on you. But when I see the blacked out background characters or the horrifically incongruous (and, might I add, badly drawn) 2D inserts at random times and the backgrounds with jagged pixelated edges and cookies disappearing into thin air and blocky capes going through shoulders I think, "Wow, you actually went ahead with that." It's lazy. When you are working in a limited medium, do you really want to tell your audience, "Hey, look at all these flaws we chose to let you see because we couldn't be arsed to find a decent workaround."? So this tells me something; they probably went for a fast production cycle on a low budget. When you want something good you need to put a lot of time or a lot of money into it. Unfortunately, it's just how it works, but they clearly did neither because all of the flaws and continuity errors and just plain weird looking things are basically pushed into the foreground. And that's what really gets me. They are expecting their audience to put up with this crap and like it in spite of themselves. Well, I don't. So here's the one thing I will commend Rooster Oum for doing: hiring unknowns as voice actors. They're actually not bad either. They are at least average for modern voice actors (an incredibly low bar, I know) despite this being the first job for several of them. So here's why I like this. The anime dubbing industry is horrible. They hire the same people for everything because they're too poor to afford taking a chance on someone who might not show up for recording or might not bring that minimum sales. It's hard for people, even talented people, to get into an industry so steeped in reputation so it was completely refreshing and nice to see some midgrade voice actors get work doing something that will help boost their notoriety on some level. So nice job on that. Now, I'm sure many people will disagree with a lot of what I've said here. That's because most of my complaints really do come down to personal tastes. I prefer something that is polished, precise, tight and above all well planned. This show is rough, somewhat slow to start, inconsistent in quality and above all trying too hard to be animu without actually being animu. That said, I do enjoy it and I do think that every episode has been building on the last and certain things (like the dialogue) have been consistently getting a little better each time. I'll probably never call this good at the rate it's going but it's interesting and I want to see it through. So that's my opinion. Take it, leave it, dispute it, hate it. Do whatever, I'm giving this to all of you because I trust that you'll get some use out of it. Have fun.
She looks at you for a moment. Then she sets down the tray in front of you and says that she doesn't want a tip and have a nice night. What is with these girls you've been running into lately? You suppose they're all spies and agents, but come on. That was clever and suave and wonderful and unprofessional and... okay, point taken. You follow her with your eyes and she talks about you with the other guy. He tells her to suck it up and get back out there. She tells him that's big talk for someone who isn't actually doing his job correctly. Technically, you don't know they said that, but you know they said that. You decide not to bother with them anymore. They're definitely not after you or anything with you. They're normal espionage agents. Oh well. Moving along. What do you do next?
You take it upon yourself to peel off of the dead weight under the pretense of getting yourself drink. Throwing his weight around helped at the door but in the water with the sharks, the tuna is gonna get you eaten. You look for people who might recognize you first. A very real risk in your line of work. No one so far. There are a few people you recognize, big names in the world of politics like Sir Baron and President Tseng. They run oil and mining respectively. Both are international and both could afford small countries of their own. It's quite a surprise seeing them out her in Vietnam. This is probably shady as all fuck, though. The thing that doesn't surprise you though is Thorsen's absence. He's not gonna be in the place where he sent you just now. Not with the way things are. Perhaps he even intended for you to find this mighty fine shindig. Either way, it's no big deal. You're gonna get the job done for both Thorsen and Eff Bee. Speaking of which, you pull out your phone and start messing with the AR app. It's pretty fun looking at the place with the Hellfire Club skin. Some of these ladies are quite attractive if you do say so yourself. Too bad, they're either bought and paid for, gold diggers or sharks in suits. No viable candidates for easy contact. On the bright side, the Americans you nearly puked on earlier could never make it into a place like this. Right? The crowd is pretty normal and you haven't discerned anything useful after about half an hour. You've gotten some pretty expensive food for free though. Oh, the joys of being rich. When you're considering hitting up Whittington and Co. again you see two "waiters" wading through the crowd that weren't there before. Oh, that's interesting. Spies up in this? You think so. They're not exactly what you'd call discreet. There's a girl who's doing a fine job looking like she doesn't want to be there, but the guy she keeps talking to whenever she finishes a lap around the room is by no means an ordinary member of waitstaff. He's muscular to the point where it's clear he's on something. He's twitchy and paranoid like a soldier. He's not actually waiting on anyone. He couldn't be much more obvious if he tried. As you're observing him the girl that keeps talking to him walks up to you and asks if you want anything. Your options are... [] Fancy booze. [] Fancy spread on a fancy cracker. [] Fancy lobster something or other. [] Fancy pastry. [] Fancy a shag?
Not helping your case.
You're good at sneaking into places when it's endearing yourself to the doorkeeper that'll get you in. When it's paper, you're a little less adroit. So you decide to look for someone who seems to be on his way in. Everyone is hopping out of cars driven by their private butlers or whatever and jaunting on in without a care in the world. Mostly middle aged guys with young wives/girlfriends/hookers?/toys. You take a few minutes observing their little social group and customs. One of them sticks out. The loser of the group with no confidence or standing. You can tell by the fact that he's got the hottest arm candy and most confident stride. He's putting it on for the Ritz crew and he knows it. He doesn't want them to realize that he ain't got what they got in one way or another. You start waving and yelling at him. He's too much of a bitch to brush you off and tries to figure out who you are. He's sucking up to you in case already. Buying a nice new suit was a good idea. The girl is eying you warily. She's clever. You kill her hand and sweep them forward without getting into the specifics of who you are. The doorkeep is careful and checks the invites against the list so he won't let some sleight of hand through, but you'll find out soon if connections will do the trick. The plan is to check the list as he checks off the couple of groups before you and pick a random name to go with. It's not perfect but the doorkeep will fall for it in all likelihood since you're seeing him check off names making the choice all the easier for you. When it's your turn to get in you're loud and jovial. You act overly familiar with the loser and his companion. The doorkeep has seen this schtick before, clearly. So you don't even pretend to look for your invite until you see your would be benefactor pull his. It's a snazzy little slip of paper, cursive and hard to read as hell though. The list comes out as he checks them... Whittington, Lloyd. That's the name you pick out. When the doorkeep ask you were your invite is, you tell him that you're Lloyd Whittington. The real Lloyd Whittington was a little surprised at this and the doorkeep was none too amused. You play serious for a moment until the real Lloyd walks his loser ass over and starts covering for you. You tell him your name is Lucas Easton and that's when the name pops up and the doorkeep lets the lot of your through for a modest fee. Not exactly as planned, but hell, Mr. Easton won't be missing his spot too badly and the doorkeep won't be able to stop you now. This gate is crashed. You should... [] stay with Whittington and Co. [] look around. [] get drunk and go bowling.
Do you have a gun license?
Shhhh shhh shhh shhhhh. Don't worry. It's all going to bee alright.
Sawn, you ain't sposta talk about bant members.
OH COME ON! I WAS DOING THIS FOR YOU!
You take a look at a map of the area and see where the city limits are and if there are any labeled settlements further out. There are quite a few. Something of a needle in a haystack then. The Americans must be here for some reason and you're almost certain it can't be you given that they arrived ahead of you and left without interacting with you in any meaningful way at all even after that big scene you made. For all you know, they know and care to know nothing about you at all. That's a plus, but you can't let them see you a third time, because they'll make it their business to get in yours if they notice you again. So you take a different tact in your search and start asking for well dressed Americans. No one seems too concerned and they tell you where to find the classed up folk. It's a swanky party in the closest thing this little city has to a downtown that you need an invite to get into actually. All foreigners and run by Arress Co. Hmm. Maybe this wasn't a good idea, this listening to locals. It's late but the party seems to be just getting started. How do you proceed?
Looks like SOMEONE needs more votes.
Clearly, you're a tad demented, but whatever, mate.
It clearly warranted you posting about it for some reason, didn't it?
And the clear solution here is to publicly complain about it and make yourself look even more like the self absorbed little twat you think they all think you are. What's worse, you try to play it off with an asymmetrical smiley face so when someone calls you out of your bullshit, you'll just say, "Nah, man, I wuz jess kiding, yo. I ain't THAT mech ova betch." Summarily, you're being a bitch.
When I hear that word I think of this.
