Life is Hella Strange in University

Update: this story, along with the author's entire profile, has been deleted from AO3. It is unknown whether violet-jedi will return under a different username or whether she'll post exclusively on tumblr. This story now only exists here for posterity. 

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I couldn't resist this one. When I found violet-jedi's tumblr blog and looked through the archive, I knew exactly what I was going into. The prostration at the demands of BLM in the wake of the Floyd death are still ongoing and likely will continue for years. Violet has quite the active Twitter with more than a thousand followers, and considers herself 'the Latinx Max Caulfield'. I guess it means she is always on the verge of tears - and given how she reacts to the 'good boy' Rayshard Brooks, who was caught on police body cam wrestling two guys and taking one's taser - that description is apt. 

Life is Strange was not a good game. I played it and found the story telling to be shit with abominable, unlikable characters. I love time travel/time power stories and this was was an utter bomb. So, what do you get when you mix that plot in with Assassin's Creed? You get Phantoms of Eden.

This story is a rewrite. I don't know what the original was like, but I have read the first chapter and I was not impressed. Not to mention violet, for all of her BLM posturing, doesn't know the facts. I will talk about those when the need arises.

The missing persons flier for Clay was already posted in the door, covered in a plastic protective sheet and sealed with tape. It was a faster way to serve as lamination rather than taking it upstairs to the machine.

Laminate is pretty expensive, so tape is always a better alternative when putting up wanted posters. Since this takes place in 2013, people use social media to find missing persons. This idea does not occur to these investigative journalists. 

Arno’s blue coat was still on his hook, along with the top of his press credential lanyard sticking out the pocket. Of course. He could lose his own student ID, his credit card, but not his press credential.

The guy who kept his father's pocket watch long after he died and the letters of his dead beloved constantly loses his credit card and ID. Smart, dude. Real smart.  

For good reason, Arno didn’t keep the heat on in the winter. He would die, and he would proudly proclaim it so, for the first amendment. But not faint due to heat stroke.

I guess he's never been to the south of France. It gets pretty hot down there. Their summers are not too different from that of North America so he really shouldn't have an issue with heat stroke. This is just a 'weak' trait of his that makes him look like a bitch.

Aveline let out a disappointed huff.

“That bad?”

“ Awful . CampSec just repeated what the press release said. President Vidick said the university is grateful to have some of the best investigators from the Commonwealth come in to help to find him,” Aveline read off her notes. “Not that they had to do the actual, y’know, reaching out part. That was all Layla.”

Violet is someone who is in favour of abolishing the police. She referenced a book by Alex Vitale here. So it's mightily ironic she's referencing the use of campus security in this story when she wants it to be destroyed everywhere else in society. Rules for me but not for thee.

“I thought so too, but, guess the Illusive Man wanted to join the fun,” Aveline said. “You know, I still haven’t forgotten what the CampSec guy said when I asked about Clay. How it wasn’t much concern because Clay is an adult, who can make his own decisions and he probably went to hit up an old girlfriend in Boston. Who the hell runs away before graduating? It’s gotta be a cover up.”

If you are concerned that someone has gone missing, there really isn't a delay in filing a missing person's report. As stated before, you can always turn to social media for help if the cops do not think much time has passed to file one. If Clay is a valedictorian and an all around popular student, people are going to talk. Or is this a reference to some conspiratorial plot we don't know of? 

“Then let me run it by you again, Monsieur Dorian. Allegedly , it was the night before graduation. They were all at the Aquila, partying, smoking, and frying marshmallows. Then Clay went to get something from his car and that was it. That was the last they saw of him. An Eden student, beloved by the community but detested by a handful of professors, went missing the night before his graduation Run away from your friends, your little brother and future sister-in-law the night before earning your degree and starting grad school at MIT next summer?” Aveline shook her head. “I don’t think so. Arno, I've gone over it so many times. I know Clay.”

 So despite this being a huge issue, and despite the endless amount of dialogue in the introductory chapter alone, I am led to believe that no one really cares about Clay. Even in LiS, Rachel wasn't physically present in the story but she was talked about by everyone on campus, even those who disliked her. I'm led to ask: 'What's so special about Clay'? Not a great way to start a missing persons/murder plot.

“And I do too,” Arno said. “He was my freshman leader and Red Coat guide for Liberty Weekend. Sadly, we can’t do much except hope and pray, if you choose to, that he is safe, warm and unharmed. Mario said to only run the official press statements by the school like we have been doing. And that is what we will do.”

But not do any investigative journalism at all, because archiving an old newspaper is more important. Priorities. 

She could never get a word from Arno about Connor, about his disappearance. Nothing solid enough to convince her it wasn’t just bitterness. He evaded it as easily as it was to tie a shoelace; quick, to the point, no unnecessary run-around, and no answer other than to tie a bow and move on.

 So it's not really a disappearance because you know where he is. If he's safe and with his family, it's a personal matter and choice for him to go AWOL. If Clay is more important, you are going to be deceived because it's this gay romance that's more important.

“As pursuing it was overstepping our bounds,” Arno said smoothly. Practiced. “And his dad said, off the record and exclusively for us to know, that Connor Kenway was fine and back home with his mother. And he asked for us to respect their privacy,” he stated, putting away the final binder and shutting the storage with a strong slam to the door. “But Clay’s disappearance is an active investigation. And as much as we want to, we can’t step in. We’re no Globe. We’re just the Apple. I know you don’t like me hearing this...”

Nothing is stopping you from hiring an investigative reporter. You're a campus newspaper; you can use the resources you have to raise awareness. If you can't, you're utterly imbecilic.  

“Where’s the Arno that went rogue at the sign that something was wrong?”

He checked out at Starbucks and never returned. 

“That Arno is right here with you and quite frankly, stung that you think that I don’t care about this case,” Arno said.

“It sounds like you don’t.”

This Arno doesn't give a shit about anything aside from his Native boyfriend. Which, hilariously enough, is a case of a white guy - the worst being on Earth - lusting after a man belonging to a people nearly wiped out by white men. Shocked she hasn't pulled that card yet. Arno cares so much about the Clay case he does absolutely nothing about it.

“I do,” Arno said. “We just have to be very careful. This is a very delicate situation and everyone is shaken up. We must be—prudent. We can't jump to conclusions." 

“Arno, it's been nearly a month. And statistically, the chances—”

“I know . Slim to none,” Arno said. “I'm worried too. Reposting PR releases can only do so much to comfort us, but it is all we can do.”

If Clay has been missing for a month, you are definitely in the window to file a Missing Persons report. Since you haven't, that's all on you. You've done nothing to raise awareness to the case otherwise. Oh yeah, you totally care about this super special person. 

But the stairwell was too painful to climb. His leg had begun the familiar flare of pain due to overuse when it’s only been a few hours of activity. He had his brace on, and he had tried to limit heavy lifting in his mother’s new office and taking things down from his dad’s car.

He knew he made a choice in taking the odd routes—he would get less questions as to how he got the injury, ones he wasn’t comfortable answering just yet. And his leg was already feeling the consequences.

Connor would climb a building to be away from potential people and prying questions about where he had gone off to for the past thirteen months.

 You can't walk up the stairs. But you can climb buildings. Truly, a genius author.

The letter from his therapist was folded into the envelope, sealed into privacy until the coordinator would see it in forty minutes.

 So. You've been missing from campus for months, almost a year, yet still see the therapist. For what? Anxiety issues, depression, the lingering affects of having your culture destroyed? Seeing ghosts? Who knows. Pop those pills.

A few students were near the printer hub and wandering around, some waiting in line at the coffee shop. There was music coming from the hidden speaker in the coffee shop, a small trickle of nostalgia to Connor of spending so many nights there as a baby faced freshman. Before life changed.

Before it all went to hell.

Totally not a cliché.

Later, Connor sees the ghost of a little boy who discovers that Connor can see and speak to him. The origins of Connor's medium abilities is spelled out here:

It wasn’t a lie; physical therapy was a health related  thing. As was therapy, as was the mental health break he took to figure what it was like to suddenly die, suddenly revive and be able to see ghosts and sense the dead.

That's it. That's how Connor's introduction begins. You'd think someone dying and reviving would be a major revelation, but violet doesn't realize she's giving away her own plot in the first chapter. If you wish to use subtlety, you can, and since this is supposed to be a supernatural AU subtlety is key to establishing your story. Of course, violet doesn't know this. She's a Twitter and Tumblr starlet hooked on racial issues while lusting after white men. I do not expect much.

When Arno goes to his car, we discover this little tidbit:

He pushed again and shut it, checking to see if it locked. He turned the car on and let the air blast, cursing as the cold air blared to life for a few seconds before Arno turned down the fans’ potency and switched to heat.

He walked back into his car, tossing the backpack filled with notes and his picked-up textbooks in the backseat of the SUV. Empty Dunkin bottles were in the cupholders and he knew he had to clean them soon, or they wouldn’t be cleaned for the rest of the spring semester.

That's right, people. The ethnic Frenchman likes drinking Dunkin' Donuts instead of making his own authentic coffee. Man, you gotta love how a European is chugging his veins full of sugary, fatty death oil. 

Arno shifted the car into gear and began heading to his apartment. And wondered how the fuck he would tell his secret boyfriend that he wanted them to be public and out of the closet after secretly seeing each other for the past two years behind all of Eden's backs. 

And just how they might pull it off.

 Man Violet, like most SJWs, don't do a thing called 'research' or 'fact checking' outside of Snopes or Politifact. Massachusetts legalized gay marriage in 2004. It was one of the first states to have gay rights starting in the 90's, and has a very tolerant culture surrounding it. This story also takes place in 2013, two years before Obergefell, and violet is under the impression people were utterly homophobic until the Year of Our Gay Lord 2015. Americans by a significant margin - 60% and over - supported gay rights and marriage. If violet thinks she can sell her 'homophobia' plot she's got another thing coming.

Speaking of, this homophobia plot takes larger precedence over the Missing Clay plot. Why? Well interracial gay relationships with the hot French guy need to be ticked off first. Arno is a difficult character to write, and so few write him correctly. Every time I see him as this one dimensional twink it makes me cringe. As said before in the de Sade pairing reviews, he is seldom in control of his sexuality and he is always the one getting rammed up the ass - often without adequate preparation. Add in this Life is Strange plot and it evolves into this story line I don't even think the author is in control over.

Life is Strange was not a good game. If violet considers herself Max Caulfield, she has the distinction of being an uninteresting, reactive plank of wood whose only importance is shouting the BLM mantra and reblogging how awful the police are (while proposing a 'nicer and safer' alternative). I am not pleased with this introductory chapter. It's garbage. If it continues, and no doubt it will, these posts will get longer. But by God, was this author asking for it. The most virtue signalling authors always have cracks in their logic, especially since Arno - a white man - ends up fucking the Native man and is one of the most important characters in the story. The romance itself is nonexistent. I feel no chemistry between these characters, and Arno is already a cuck. I'm sure the pole he swings the white flag of surrender is larger than his dick.