#enu

this scene from 101 dalmatians x jaeseok (+ our favorite professional wingman, inu)

More art for my Children of Light AU

Enu is smitten with Aurora. They’re both in their early teens now.

Nana knows he has feelings for the Lemurian princess while Six is just indifferent to it. She’s more worried about Aurora’s light powers cancelling out the dark powers she got from The Lady.

Enu picked her up from atop the Maw

Enu from dreamfall chapters ~

Look, I'm not spoiler tagging this because honestly, there's let's plays and walk throughs, so if you haven't played/don't want to play that's on you.

I won't bother critiquing it, because yes, while it's simple and basic, it's entirely captivating in its own right. Do the camera angles sometimes suck? Y eah. They do. But they're there to help you get the full perspective of the puzzle.

Truthfully, I'm not a fan of puzzle games like this. But I bought it because it seemed interesting. And I'm glad I did.

Full disclosure, I knew Enu was dead. But what I hadn't anticipated was a story full of grief and it's depictions of that grief.

I'm still treasure hunting and piecing together the story being told through those keyhole memories, but the other thing, I feel is overlooked, are the shades as those manifestations of grief.

In Denial, we don't see those shades. They're not there. But we're met with the red cloaked figure, Manu, who's watching his child from afar.

In Anger, the shades are small but they're nonviolent. In a way, they seem more like they're angry with themselves for some reason.

In Bargaining, that's when they become a problem. They're stealing your health, trying to bargain for their lives back, to not be shades.

In depression, they seem, well, depressed. Their body language is drooping, they seem sadder, they look defeated.

In acceptance, they're releasing themselves into the great beyond, accepting they're dead. Then we meet Manu for the first time, well, officially at least.

We see how he can't bring himself to go into his son's room, but then we see all these puzzles in toy form. The earth and sun model, the toys we've collected on the window sill, the fox plush on the bed. Manu finally processed his grief and guilt from the storm. The guilt of never being able to save Enu.

See, like I'd said before, I knew Enu was dead. But the ending legitimately made me cry.

I don't cry easily, I didn't even cry at the end of The Fault in Our Stars. But this game? In its intrinsic simplicity? It made me bawl like a bitch. See, I'm processing my own grief, Mi Abuelita passed away a few months ago. I honestly can't remember because I've been stuck, being angry. I hit the stages weird.

I accepted she was dead, began bargaining for her to come back, fell into a grief depression that's been coexisting with my regular depression, denying that she isn't alive, but not dead either, and just... Angry she's moved onto the next phase when she said she'd be here for me. Grief is a horrible thing, but this game.