#nelroche

Mind Games: Obsession

Freja's lips open to say something again, but she's interrupted by someone else speaking from the hallway. "That's where ${name} will be coming into play, from what I've been told."

*page_break ${dadn}."

Quinn greets him, though it's a little strained, as he walks in the door. He looks rough; definitely in desperate need for a good shave and a night's worth of sleep. "What do you mean?"

"Keeper ${surname}."

"Agent Ellingboe." ${dadn} nods to Freja as she also greets him before turning his full attention to Quinn. "I'm not sure, but I believe they're going to use ${name}'s abilities to their advantage, plus relocation and whatever else is planned."

"Yes-" Freja is again cut off, but this time it's from ${name} suddenly making noise.

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Secret Project

I turn around as an incredibly deep voice sounds from behind us. A man stands in front of one of the tunnels just behind us, his skin darkly tanned and a dark cloth covers his face from the nose down. His eyes are almost black, and… [i]odd[/i] looking in a way I can't quite put my finger on. He's dressed in dark breeches and a long sleeved shirt that seems to billow around his torso, and both are tied with leather cords around his ankles and wrists respectively. Crow black hair pools around his shoulders, though the left side is braided away from his face.

Then I notice the scars. The parts of his skin that are left bare have burn scars either peppering them or in large splotches, altering his skin and its tone. Those, combined with his very silent composure… it's nearly frightening.

"Seth," Astra greets, though it's a little lukewarm. "The plan went off without a hitch, I believe."

"Yes… have any of the others made it back, however?" His eyes move over me in interest, until they reach my amulet, settled in the middle of my chest.

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Dragon Pact

"You feel so much for an aimless soul, don't you?" Smoke pours out of his mouth, shrouding the area in it. Everything is hazy, blurred but you can breathe through it as if it isn't truly smoke. "Aimless?" You question. The comment confuses you. You're not aimless. You and Thane are heading to Nemir like he said. "You may have a destination, a goal for the time being, but you don't have a plan past that, do you?" He sighs, eyes too soft for a stranger. Though maybe not a true stranger. He's strange, certainly, but he knows more about you than he should, doesn't he? Certainly more than you know about him. "It's not even your plan, is it?" You stay quiet, unsure of what to say to that. "You follow him but why? You could make your own choices. You have the power to do so." His head tilts and his horns phase through the tree's dark, twisting branches. Smoke and shadow. Dark, stifling. You take a deep breath, trying to shake the feeling of oppressive darkness you feel. "He knows what he's doing." "Because he's your darling little guard?" "Because it's his [i]duty[/i]." You respond, hating the way the words feel on your tongue. You wish it was more but it isn't. "Most wouldn't damn themselves for their duty." His grin is wide, sharp, verging on the edge of terrifying as his [i]steaming[/i] tongue sweeps over his too sharp teeth. Despite the warm smoke pressing against your skin, the sight leaves you cold. [i]Too cold.[/i]

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Nelroche

After what feels like hours of walking in silence, we finally exit the trees and come out on an open dirt road after dark. No pavement here, huh? I guess it makes sense if this dream really is an older, possibly fantasy world like it seems. I shake my head and notice that the road leads into a fairly large town visible by the light inside it further down the road but find three horses near Alys and Ozias. So [i]this[/i] is where they went.

Alys's sharp gaze finds me first. I think. I can't be sure if Ozias has seen me or not with that mask he wears. Alys's voice is high and sharp when she speaks. "What @{plural are|is} ${mcthey} doing here, Hadrian?"

"Coming with us. I do hope that's not a problem, Alys."

l&l’s about a young woman from a major city in our world who one day gets sucked via magical portal into a fantasy world filled with magic and races that are only fiction in ours. once there, she gets mistaken for their most notorious war criminal, an insanely powerful witch who committed a genocide and is center of a cult of worshipers willing to kill and die for her.

this is nelroche’s description, straight from their devblog:

now, if it was a matter of similar basic premises and setups, i’d write it off as coincidence and tell the anons who made me aware of this that i thought they were overreacting. after all, “normal-human sucked into medieval world” and even “mistaken identity” are both very well established tropes that have been done and done again and will continue to be done because many find it compelling. hell, i do too. honestly, if the devs had simply said that they drew inspiration from love & legends, i’d have understood.

but.

the similarities only begin there. and they only get more excessive. coupled with their adamant denial that they’ve never even read it....... it’s just not possible lmfao. even if they decided to change the physical appearances of the characters, the tropes behind them and their personalities are exactly the same.

the nelroche demo has:

1) the lord of a region who’s a massive workaholic to the point of self-detriment, but is very caring towards their people and their inner circle and whom everyone in the group has referred to as a parental figure.

aka.... l&l’s reiner wolfson, who’s described directly from the app as “Reiner is a fair and compassionate ruler who would defend the people of the human domain with his life.”

2) the prickly knight to said lord, who’s fiercely dedicated to their liege, very serious in personality along with stubborn and prideful, but cares deep down once you get past their walls.

literally l&l’s august falke. the demo describes them, literally as “...reminds me of the knights in the fairy tales, except, it seems, not quite as charming” whereas august’s in-app description reads “This knight in shining armor is more aggressive than the story books led you to believe...” I’ll let the similarities there speak for themselves.... lol

3) the energetic and bubbly mage who’s super tiny compared to their companions and avoids serious discussion, who happens to be a bit of a trickster and has a mysterious quality.

l&l’s altea bellerose but make it less pink! altea and “C”s similarities go even deeper but i’ll get into that a bit later.

4) the mysterious and heterochromatic-eyed figure who’s distrustful and initially stand-offish as a result of living through a life of hardship, that is excitable and actually loves to travel.

look no further than l&l’s saerys! M’s eyes are “ocean blue and purple” compared to his blue and red, but don’t let that difference fool you! their introductions are laughably similar (more on that later)... and the “travel” bit lmfao. not to be mean but they couldn’t at least change up his hobbies? come on now, work for that plagiarized bag!

5) the lazy and flirtatious one who’d rather spent their days joking and taking it easy than handling their many responsibilities, who does care but shows it in ways unconventional.

just because their hair is grey instead of white doesn’t mean it’s not l&l’s iseul idreis, babes! i’d know that endlessly frustrating man anywhere! lovestruck’s app description for him reads: “The elven prince is beautiful and cunning with a silver tongue, but his lackadaisical lifestyle leaves much to be desired”. corporate wants you to find the difference between these two pictures they’re the same dot jpg.

6) the complicated and slender blonde who wields both blade AND magic, whose eyes glow, whose power is deemed dangerous, who wears shades of blue, AND is initially described as cold? who seems like she wants to beat the hell out of her compatriots, who she seems to lead, and whose outfit is needlessly complicated?

you think i don’t know a knock off helena klein when i see one???? ME???????? helena’s in-app description LITERALLY reads “cold as ice” and “wielding both sword and sorcery with ruthless precision”!!!!! of alllllllllll the things i’m most offended by this one motherfucker you can’t just fuck around with helena on a whim okay this shit is personal now!!!!!!

7) the creepy, predatory, and combative pale-but-tanned-but-murky-skinned dude who wears robes and a creepy beast mask.

l&l’s jinhai jubal i know it’s you!!!! actually this is probably the funniest thing of the whole situation to me bc this dev decided to remove not-alain as a love interest and seemingly replace him with not-jinhai. secondary poster you a hilarious bitch i’m not gonna lie.

(here’s jinhai in his mask lmfao)

8) the mouse-looking man who seems not as confident as not-helena and not-jinhai, wears full armor AND a double-sided sword strapped to his back.

none other than l&l’s alain richter, back from the dead! im gonna let the next image speak for itself.

still with me? i sure hope so bc it really gets juicy now!!!!! the similarities don’t end with the characters!!!! no, no, no!!!! the plot and progression of the demo are identical to that of l&l’s pilot episode, beat for beat.

in the l&l pilot episode, after the mc stumbles through the portal and into the medieval town, she’s almost immediately accosted by august, a rude mf who essentially acts not very knight-like despite his appearance and forces her into the nearby castle’s dungeon.

once inside the dungeon, the l&l mc is approached by a figure with hetero-chromatic eyes, who seems intrigued and confused by the mc’s lack of knowledge about the fantasy world.

once that person leaves, in comes a bubbly woman who seems to be floating. she asks mc if she’s ready to get out of the dungeon, and mc is like!!!! finally someone willing to help me. only..... uh oh.... she takes her to her lord instead of freeing her, wtf!!!!

once brought to the lord, who seems much more calm and reasonable than his high-strung and feisty knight, he listens to mc’s story and seems to believe her somewhat, but doesn’t want to risk his people.

(he’s even standing at the window LMFAOOOOOOOOO)

then the last remaining figure (iseul) playfully suggests that the lord (reiner) allow the mc to pick which among the group she’d like to guard her while they all determine whether or not she’s being truthful about not knowing anything. this is literally! literally! LITERALLY! how the PILOT EPISODE! of LOVE AND LEGENDS! ENDS!

ARE YOU SERIOUS LMFAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOO. going through all this is literally fucking HILARIOUS to me like ak;sdfjadsfkl;asdfjlasdf how BOLD and BRAVE do you have to be to so blatantly rip something off and then deny even ever encountering what you stole from adsfkjldfasdfkasd,f. i’m not even super mad bc like.... i torment voltage for funsies. but! LMAO!!!!!!!!

lastly..... as an added bonus to all of the juicy, juicy evidence above. l&l mc has a best friend in the “real”, modern world, who inexplicably has a lookalike in the fantasy world. well..... would you believe it if i told you that the nelroche has one just like it???

that’s right! even sophie and solaire made the plagiarism cut! gotta love those girlies, i’m so happy for them :)