Congrats! Well-deserved.
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I got to see my father figure today and I got two hugs and a kiss on the top of my head. Also, turns out the pink cat PJs I assumed was a top with mysteriously no matching pants is instead a little fleecy nightgown, which is adorable, but also a terribly impractical piece of clothing which made me giggle a little over it. Having some nice green tea with plenty of milk, and it feels like a silly potion for cats.
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It was sunny today, which was great! It’s been really rainy in the Bay Area over the past few days (for San Francisco, yesterday was the second most rain ever recorded in a 24-hour period) and it’s going to be rainy again starting Wednesday, so having the sun out was nice. I’m lucky that I don’t live somewhere that wasn’t hit, but some parts of SF have been experiencing flooding, and the highways have been getting shut down. Hopefully the rest of the week won’t be too bad.
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I successfully downgraded my WIP to Inform v9, which enabled me to add artwork.
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Helped someone troubleshoot and solve an issue with their fountain pen- they’re someone I encouraged into the hobby and helped with curating baby’s first pen.
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Had a lot of fun playing a romance focused Choicescript game, and I get the appeal now. They’re basically interactive romance novels, and I love love love Kinsella novels and similar chicklit authors. Remember Me? is such a fun little romp. Manon’s other game was listed in a suggested collection of similarish games and I love a good court piece, so I’m going to pick that up soon.
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I just did so much coding on my Adv3Lite parkour system, which is for my current game project.
The player can now find hidden routes by climbing on stuff, and there are now travel connections for going from one platform to a platform in another room, as well as one platform to the floor of another room, and the current room’s floor to a platform in another room.
I’ve added a lot of traversal options and vague actions for smart (and safe) disambiguation as a multi-purpose shortcut command.
Jumping from one platform to another requires that it’s reachable, there are options for fall damage, lethal heights, and much more.
You have no idea how much work this has required so far.
It also handles objects on high shelves (unreachable until you climb closer), and raised containers (climbing into a box on a raised shelf still checks shelf height if you leave the box again).
There are still a few other features I’m planning, and I gotta test complex containers (things that can be climbed on for parkour but but can also store items inside or have items be underneath).
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It’s my birthday. I am spending the day eating cake and gaming. Win.
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Happy Birthday!
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Happy birthday!! 
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Thanks guys 
it’s been a lovely day.
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I strategically ate a slice of cake to wind up finishing with a mouthful of icing, which is my favourite bit. I also talked to my boyfriend about goldfish and bettas- he’s not as familiar with the colouration/patterns/fin types of bettas as he is with goldfish, so it was really fun babbling on about my favourites and some of the colour genes.
I really love the look of blue and white marbled dumbo ear half moon plakats, preferably with teddy bear eyes, but he also enjoyed seeing a black orchid crowntail after I suggested it as inspiration for one of his mermaid characters with a more alternative style. I also had a lot of fun talking to him about alien bettas and showing him some of their absolutely gorgeous markings and a few copper babies that looked so pink! Also, ranchu goldfish look like silly little eggs to me, and the pearly white ones don’t help the illusion. They’re cute in a scraggly sort of way.
Next time he’s up I’m going to babble at him about Skittles shrimp tanks. A friend of mine- the one I’m meeting up with when the school term starts up again, he was looking into raising some ghost shrimp and I had a blast advising him on their setup and some little tips and tricks for feeding awhile ago. Super fun.
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Decided to dig into @manonamora’s game, after it was included in a collection suggested to me by Autumn after I squeed about all of the cute boys in a Choicescript romance focused murder mystery and asked if she had any recommendations of similar games. (Seriously, the body guard was my favourite. He actually kind of reminded me of a character my boyfriend writes…)
This isn’t a proper review and I don’t expect to finish the game from the projected read time listed, but just some thoughts as I pick through it until I get sleepy enough to lie down for the night.
Kind of a partial review but not really. Got quite long and out of hand, as it's a live transcription more or less of my reactions.
First of all- wow, that opening. I’ve heard plenty of people say that Manon’s visuals are beautiful, (and I’ve liked the ones I’ve run into in the past!) and that definitely holds up true for CRaWL.
I also really respect the inclusion of the content warnings- it really empowers readers to make informed decisions on the material they’re about to engage with. The list seems quite thorough, without being excessively verbose- really good handling. There’s a whack load of accessibility options- (though I wonder if the moving opening might have caused issues for people who could benefit from the setting to turn it off?) and I have to crank the text all the way up to read, because I guess I’m like, old now. (My father figure sighed that he has to wear glasses while driving all of the time now, after I told him to drive safe in the rain.)
Uh oh. Opening it up and being greeted with the ever controversial timed text in the prologue. Personally- I don’t mind timed text, (I think it can add artistic production to a piece, and in this one, I think it does help to further the weird waking up in the void and slowly coming to terms with being conscious thing) but it can be incredibly annoying if it’s slow. The pacing seemed okay here- just barely slower than I read…
The switch between tone is very slightly jarring- (the person seems a bit too colloquial, like kicking the bucket, contrasted with the lovely written prose about, ehm, drowning) but this line in particular made me unexpectedly sad at like, two in the morning. (I’m a terrible insomniac and I’m young and on vacation, it’s alright.)
Does anyone know you are dead? Is anyone going to miss you? Are people going to be sad? Have you left your mark on any of them?
Rats. Well, I certainly hope so. I normally play these games as either a self insert, (if we’re not given a concrete identity, or if the character is introduced as a woman, if it’s a man, I’ll pick one of my male original characters and roleplay the decisions I make throughout it by thinking about what he might select) and this is just so scraggly. Poor MC. I hope we get to name them soon?
It was kind of jarring to be launched from the sort of grungy Harlowe-default-esque (even if it isn’t, the plain black background and pale text brings it to mind) into an absolutely beautiful Sugarcube layout. Normally I hide the sidebar in projects I’ve worked on using Sugarcube (I find it ugly and I don’t need it’s functionality normally) but wow. The contrast of the textured red (it almost looks like a nice velvet journal) with the creme paper background and those pretty little flowers popping off of a blue background- the subtle outline around the rose to tie it all together. Gorgeous. The font selection is also kind of the swirly curly pretty girl’s handwriting kind of font I associate with Manon’s aesthetics, and if it’s a courtly piece it’ll match too- very carefully thought out and presented. It’s delicious.
Ohhh, the character traits selection is woven into the click through description. Nice way of handling it in Twine! I’ve poked through a few Choicescript games, (had never played a romance-y one through to completion until very recently) and usually there’s this whole boring montage of drop down menus or tapping on a mindnumbing list. This is quite nicely written. Not sure what… clay toned skin is meant to look like, but I appreciate the ability to better describe myself- it’s really irritating sometimes being someone with a tanned complexion having to play romance or period pieces being described as printer paper white. Same with having dark hair and eyes. The thickness of hair is also a puzzling quality to select, (I expected texture, like, curly, or straight) but that works too.
Yay! We get to name them! And apparently choose our sexuality and pronouns? Well, promptly set to bisexual, then, I want to be able to have the option to romance as many people as possible (and I am bisexual in real life, so.) since I’m not sure if this game genderlocks love interests. And favourite colour… Well, I think we all know which I’ll pick. (A shade of red, since boo, no pink! Pink’s kind of a shade of red, I guess.) It’s a nice touch that someone can choose to identify as a man or woman while still having the option to use gender neutral pronouns, as well as the other way around- often they’re strictly bound to gender identity toggles in games. Manon seems to have quite the meticulous eye for customizability.
HELLO?
WE’RE JUST WAKING UP IN BED WITH SOME MAN?
Apparently he’s… One of our admirers… And we’re to marry a prince? BUT THERE’S A NAKED GUY IN BED WITH US! OH MY GOD!
“I’ve heard through the grapevine that you will be set to marry one of the Princes soon. I see that your ambition still has not faltered. What a shame for all of your other admirers. No one could compete with a royal. Though… I am a bit saddened you did not tell me that yourself before, my lady. ”
Well, uhm, sorry. But you’re very naked. And apparently cute, judging from how our character is staring at his hot bod and ogling his muscles and thinking about what a cute little muse he must’ve been to artisans and such but- I can’t get over the fact we just immediately got launched into bed with some dude. If I hadn’t picked the bisexual option, would it be us in bed with a woman? Or no one if I had picked the no attraction option? At least we’re uh, ambitious, I guess. Macbeth quotes to live by, and all that. Having no spurs to prick your intent save for vaulting ambition, overleaping itself an falling on the other or however that quote goes. It’s been awhile since I dramatically read aloud his lines while dressed in all black in highschool.
You see that he now wears a black tricorne, with gold accents on the rim and dark feathers. With the whole get-up, he looks like some sort of sea rover or an adventurer.
The only reason I even know what a tricorne is is because J.J Guest (I think it’s the same sort of hat, I’m not a hats girl) wears one and yeah, I agree, it does make him look like a really cool sea rover or adventurer. Glad to see our main character (who I did name Sophia, after myself) has good taste I guess.
He blows you a kiss, which your body instinctively reacts to and pretends to catch it.
Oh this is adorable.
The sudden Steam achievements esque pop up was very useful in alerting me that the Sugarcube sidebar now contained lots of new options. I’m feeling kind of overwhelmed, (as I always did when playing MMORPGs) but I do find it very nice that the quests are short, snappy, and also prompt you on what you should be doing or possible actions, like meeting the prince. Neat! I will probably end up heavily consulting this, and the Clues page, because I’m horrible at solving mysteries, I just like reading them.
I remember reading Manon’s post about how the titles are kept sort of gender neutral- like a Prince is the title of a Prince, whether or the owner is a girl or boy- and the quest log appears to be telling us that we’re engaged to a Prince Victoria, so we’re engaged to a woman? Cool! Sucks that our former friend Emilia is apparently now a rival for the hottie we’re trying to put a ring on.
You might even be stuck here for a while. In this strange place. With some strange people. Naked people. Sharing a bed with you. For apparently not the first time. You blush again and cover yourself with the bedsheets in shame. You wonder about the exact nature of relationship you seem to have with that man.
Yeah, I’d be hiding under the blankets too. Guess we have to figure out how to talk to this guy sometime soon, though, since he wanted to meet before the engagement- and I’m pleased the writing lets me pick up the fact we need to go and do that- but the quests provide a backup in case I’m a bit too dense to. I will probably be far too dense to do more complex tasks further down the line, so it’s nice to have the assurance.
I recognize the art in the portraits we just unlocked for some of the characters as being from Artbreeder- quite common for the D&D and TTRPG crowd that just need quick or disposable character headshots, or while commissioning artwork. Hum. Well, this helps a lot, since I have very poor visual memory, and will absolutely otherwise forget what on earth people look like. The maps are gorgeous, though- clean lines on a similar paper texture. It looks a bit like a website I used to use to mock up bedrooms for roleplay sessions from a site meant to help people lay out furniture and stuff, but with extra details drawn in afterwards like the fancy rug? Curious if these were done in a similar fashion or freestyled, it has that sort of characteristic blue print-sy kind of feel, but either way, there was definitely additional drawing with the rug and such.
Poor nervous little mite of a chambermaid. I want to try to be nice to her, she seems so pathetic, especially with the voice in our head being terribly mean.
OH WE’RE NAKED TOO.
WE JUST FLASHED THE MAID? I’M SO SORRY.
I mean, I’m sure she apparently sees us in the nude all of the time anyways since she helps dress us, but still. Jeez.
Oh! Clothes time. I love pretty dresses, so I’ll go with one of those- but I appreciate the option for a suit. Come to think of it, a nice suit might have been a better idea for a meeting- but I looooooove fashion and dresses, so the dress it is! I toggled back and forth to look at the options, but while the wig colours are cute, I don’t like hats, so it stands to reason I’d hate wigs. So no wig.
Scratch being nice to the maid. It’s really rude to gossip about people right in front of them after spilling their vase and drinks and leaving your hankie all over the place. Cmon! Well, I don’t want to make a scene, but still… I just ignored her, since I don’t feel like throttling the maid in broad daylight would be uh, a good way to go about things. Probably not.
Oh, more customization. Nice transition to it from the dressing scene. Well, I’m 5’0, so we’ll set the height to tiny, I guess? The option of ‘chocolate brown’ or ‘onyx’ is more or less standard for romance novels or games including any nod to dark eyes, so I’ll take it. I’ll go for onyx, since while I do have brown eyes, they’re very dark- almost black, pupil near imperceptible. No stubble here. My hair’s straight, and between my lower back and hips, so we’ll just go for hips. Liquorice is the option for black, I think- so that, but all these food descriptors are making me hungry. The emphasis on our overall shapeliness kind of makes me wonder how that’ll factor into romantic interactions down the line. Hum. I can see how words stack up fast for these sorts of WIPs.
Clothes! Since she’s showing us a bunch of depressing looking clothes- I’d be tempted to go for black, but it might be a bit severe, as the Lady Isabel figure who’s gone missing has been gone awhile, so navy might do, since I do like how blue looks on me and it’s one of the classics. It’s… not a dress, but it’s a long skirt, and a pretty blouse. Clicking through some of the options shows they’re all heavily patterned, but in like, plaid, and stripes, and such, so there’s definitely some time funkiness with the setting- but that’s okay. I am a little sad we don’t get sumptuous descriptions of gorgeous, fussy clothes- that’s one of my favourite parts of period pieces, but I imagine that would be difficult to write for all of the variations…
“Your father, Marquis of Vasmosia and Parriach of the family, is Lord Theodore. He became the head of this house shortly after his marriage to Consort Lord Alexander, when your grandmother, Lady Brigid, decided to step down.”
“Wait. Wait just a minute,” you cut her off. “Theodore… Alexander… Am… Am I adopted?”
My first thought also, but the maid just giggles it off. I actually have a character named Theodore, and he’s exactly the kind of stuck up, snobby, rich bastard who would make a good head of the family, with a firm eye for business and a love of manners and structure. Ugh, haha.
I chose to interrogate the maid because we need to know more, and she’s just like, a maid, so even if we mess up, and she tattles, it probably won’t be that bad. Deeply icked out by the fact there was an assigned surrogate mother in the family, but moving right along. At least this Theodore guy is nice about her role in the family and insists we all respect her and stuff. Seven kids, yeesh. Poor lady. The brother in training to be a lawyer is very funny to me also- my OC Theodore is a lawyer in most settings, so it’s funny to imagine the kid wants to be like his dad- but the other dad wants him to be a priest.
“Your father is a stern… but fair man. He usually stays in the study, handling the March business, or in the library, reading some books.
This is like literally every single grown up man I have as an OC who has kids. Men are trapped in their studies in my stories like women get boarded into attics and side rooms in the Gothic. Our other dad sounds more fun, he likes parties and got a silly nickname of being The Magician for being a socialite marvel. Reminds me of the dynamic between two of my other OCs, Morgan and Anthony- who run a mafia together, but that’s a whole story in of itself.
“It’s just… I have seen him being quite cold towards you, my lady. Colder than anyone else in the house. Even colder than towards the servants. I have… asked around, but no one wants to tell me why. ”
Again, this is so funny- this is just every man I’ve ever written ever for the most part towards his kids. I guess it does fit quite well into these sorts of courtly settings, doesn’t it? Well, wonder what’s got old dear papa in a snit.
Ick ick ick. The more we learn about the Drocili system, the more it reminds me of the handmaidens in Atwood’s books, and bleurgh. Ugh. Well, at least Charlotte seems to be nice enough to the staff. Apparently she’s like a cool aunt, and she’s the one we’re closest to?
“You are… very much like the Consort… in that you know what you want and will stop at nothing to get it… And also like the Parriach… You are very meticulous about your work and expect a lot from people around you… You are not happy when things don’t go your way, or don’t end up the exact way you wanted them to be.”
“That is quite the picture you are painting, Anne.”
“But you can also be very generous,” she blurts out, “when you want to.”
Damn, we sound like an asshole! Ambitious and a bit scraggly and maybe a bit on the bratty side. Well, we can work with this. Guess we can’t be too soft or too kind, or people will figure out something’s wrong with us, given the whole memory loss thing.
Close one with the schedule question- eek, should have known she wouldn’t, but if the engagement is supposed to be a secret, I shan’t ask the maid. Off to face the day ahead, I suppose. Good to know we should ask the housekeeper, butler, and sort of aunt about stuff in the future. No need to look around- we can later, it’s our room, right? And dilly dallying around and being late would be bad. Especially when we’re meeting the dad who’s like all cranky and stuff.
Whoa, black and white colour shift. Guess we’re a sickly little meowmeow. Well, that’s nothing new. If we’re hexed and cursed with visions- we’ll muddle through. What else are we experienced with the Gothic for, if not to be prepared for that sort of thing?
The quests log tells me that Isabel passed. Oh my god, she died and Anne the maid was gossiping about her in front of us like that? Jeez! It was like a couple of weeks ago! Poking around in there to get some character crumbs… And apparently our party dad fucking hates our ass too. Okay.
I really don’t like how mean and awful we are to everyone, even if they are like, hired staff… I wouldn’t yell at her like that… She seems like a sweet doddery grandma kind of figure. Ah, well. The little evil voice in our head is just a mean and grumpy cat, I guess.
See, the whole diary/planner thing really makes me feel vindicated by keeping a personal diary. If I ever lost my memory, I could probably quite accurately reconstruct my personality, immediate conversations, and upcoming plans just from its entries.
If the stuff in the book isn’t important- clothes, fripperies, and like- there’s other nobility we’re to meet: making daddy dearest pissed off at us for running around and doing silly things won’t help. The man is apparently a bit of a cold jerk, he probably expects good manners- and good manners would be to go to the patriarch when bidden, it’ll probably be quick. Or else we can demur about it being his fault we’re late or whatever, our sister apparently is dead, so, surely we could scrummage up an excuse from that. Off to see pops it is.
WE HAVE A FAMILY PET! An adorable little cat it is lazily playing. Ough. New friend!
Dad’s a pissy bastard, but that’s to be expected.
Theodore faces you, his countenance shifting from frustration to deep concern. His eyes are veiled with worries and you notice his left hand shaking slightly. You hear the worry in Theodore’s voice as he utters those words. […] This stern man’s demeanour had changed so quickly, you wonder why so much fuss was made out of your little fainting spell.
And yet he’s still yelling at us in front of all these people. Meanie head. (I admitted we weren’t feeling great, cause we weren’t. I’d like to also meet the doc, and batting back and forth seemed like a waste of time with the nervous housekeeper.)
“So, Sophia, ” he takes your hands in his. “While I am away, however long it may take to handle this affair, I need you to hold down the fort here. ”
Papa, I have no goddamn clue what’s going on. I’m totally gonna fuck this up. But uhm, okay! Sure! I hope the little voice in our head knows how to run all these household tasks or whatever holding the fort down entails.
…Damn, our relationship with the Consort/other dad must be really bad, if he’s so concerned and we’re protesting so much about having to take care of him/it’s stressed he’ll stay out of our way.
Though his eyes scream their annoyance at you, a warm smile appears on his face. It seems your father expects you to oblige with whatever command he gives you, no matter how bothersome the task may be. Nor does it seem he would want to hear your opinion on said tasks.
I want to bite this guy so bad. Grumbles.
Um. Probably it’d be good for him to show face for the royals who are showing up… So we asked him to stay. Surprisingly, he listened. I hope I didn’t already fuck this up.
“Right? ” Theodore asks again. “Sophia, if there is something wrong with this arrangement, ” he grabs your hand and presses it tenderly, “I need to know. As soon as possible. ”
I want to believe he’s being nice, but he’s probably just worried about the business side of sealing an engagement to a royal and the massive power and status boost of that. Sigh.
His eyes stare at you with deep concern. He pulls you closer and embraces you.
“If something does not feel right to you, we can stop it. I can send a note, right now, to the Palace and tell them to cancel everything. I will not force you into a union you do not want. We can find another consort elsewhere.”
Oh, wow. I did not expect this at all. Well, thanks dad, you’re not totally evil and mean I guess. But I don’t know if calling it off so suddenly would be a good idea- seeing as he mentioned we seemed really enthusiastic…
“Thank Goddess, ” Theodore sighs in relief. “I really wasn’t prepared to do this today. Nor am I prepared to be barred from entering the Palace either. Still… ” He gazes intensely into your eyes. “If you change your mind at any point, tell me right away. We will take care of this! ”
“Ah… right…” He brings his hand to his mouth, falling deep in thoughts. “I will leave a pre-written note in this desk. If and when you feel it is time, send it in my stead. Alright?”
As you nod at your father and he smiles back at you, you feel a strange warmth in your chest.
It’s really sad because apparently this guy is kind of distant from us, and he’s probably only happy because we agreed to go on with the engagement- but at least we have a way out of it we change our mind in the future… And he’s being kind of nice. Still. Bwuh. This makes me want to text my father figure and let him know I love him. (I think I’ll do that at a less unseemly hour of night. He’s probably sleeping.)
“That is what we are doing, Sophia! ” He gets closer to you menacingly, ready to grab you by the collar. “And you better not have meant his parents. If I catch you mentioning them in the same room as Alexander, for that matter… ”
Meanie.
The description updated in the codex:
Lord Theodore is often seen towering over people, with his impressive height.
Sir I’m like a crumb. This is really funny. He has the same hair colour as us, though, so I assume he must have been our biological father?
I’ve told Father enough times I don’t need any advisor. Especially not this useless little man.
The voice describing him as a useless little man made me laugh so hard at how unexpected it was. Damn. Okay. We’re going to be damn late- we already skived off to talk to pops and ask him some questions, (I thought he might know more, but also this Raymond guy is a bit suspicious for being so eager to make amends…) so let’s not keep anyone else held up, yeah? I left the door open after ‘we thought about it some more’ so that should be an even handed enough approach. Same with the where to in the carriage- where else would we go? There’s not been cause to dart off, we have appointments to keep- let’s get to them!
The count seems really fun and friendly- a buoyant, jovial kind of guy who flashes puppy eyes at people to pout and playfully get his way- but I’m a little scared we’re going to blow someone’s fucking head off handling a gun. We’re supposed to be good, but who knows if the voice will help- and it’d be even more embarrassing if we fucked up in front of the whole crowd. It might be best to sit out… But I kind of want to save the file and explore both options?
Ooh, fancy gun. How nice of him to offer it to us before he’s even used it.
He already looks ecstatic because of your presence today, as well as your participation in his little competition. No matter how much you try, you cannot find a good reason to refuse his insistent hospitality.
He’s such a little meowmeow… Quite sassy when dealing with Emilia (though I agree, it’s kind of fucked up we’re shooting live animals.) At least it’s nice to know he kind of has our back, if she’s mean. We’re supposed to be close friends?
The woman steps back, looking more hurt by the Count’s words than her obvious defeat in this sparring exchange. She stutters on some incomprehensible words, as she continues to think of a rebuttal strong enough to get back at him. However, Razac continues to pull the rug under her feet, taking away any change of reprieve.
Damn, ruthless. I… do feel bad about the birds… and it seems to be written as the meaner option… And the prince would disapprove… but. Ah. Tricky. Another split the save file I think. Pops would probably want us to keep in the grace’s good favour- so maybe try to persuade our friend?
“What about your other guests?”
“Shoot my guests?!? I know you have grudges, but—”
“I am not in a murderous rage, my friend,” you smile at him, patting his back gently.
Another laugh out loud moment. Manon’s prose is quite funny when the Gonch Pals sit down to play the Goncharov TTRPG together, and I’m happy to see it continues here.
The poor guy seems terrified out of his mind, that’s like, a little kid, and one of our friend’s men who won’t throw easy, because the man wants a show. The crowd’s unhappy, but… I’m not going to make a barely teenager participate in what could be a bit hazardous, so let’s go with Daniel.
Thank goodness the voice is back, that’d be humiliating otherwise. I’m starting to think we’re possessed, or maybe haunted by our dead sister? At least we didn’t come in last! We came in first, even! Emilia went white in shock when she heard that we had opted for plates and not birds- maybe she’ll want to talk to us at some point? Or the royal might approve if they find out from the papers? Eh, I’m glad we didn’t shoot the poor little things.
“True, ” he swiftly concedes. “However, I would not have been able to show off the close friendship I have with you to… them, ” he gestures at the crowd. “Not everyone can say they are close to the future betrothed of Prince Victoria! ”
Ah, well. Once more it’s a status thing. At least he’s a good time to be around, though. And it’s nice of him to give us a little present.
Mysterious ruffian. Maybe it’s the hottie we woke up naked beside? It seems like he might be the person we reached out to- he said we had a way to meet him, he seemed a bit scruffy earlier: and if we get stabbed it’s fine, I can reload a save. Off to meet him… Lunch can’t be that important, we already played the shooting game.
It’s a grubby little street urchin! Ah, those little scamps are so cute. And fun to write, I have one for a Fallen London campaign named Terrance, he’s a real menace. Thankfully, I did remember the phrase from the planner from much earlier in the game. Poor kid has no clue what’s going on- but now we know a swordsman handed it to him, so there’s something. One with the means to pay in gold. Cipher…
Ugh. Emilia sucks. I had hoped at least to salvage the shooting situation- at least our skills and the choice of Daniel helped a little, but I’ve seemed to have made a muddle out of that. At least we can have dinner with our friend.
“It warmed my heart to see you among us. I am so pleased you made time for this, for me. ”
Aw. this is sweet.
Seamstress time! Weird that the guy who volunteered to throw plates is trying to intimidate Jonah. Makes sense the shop people would be like 0___0 at seeing a fairly high up noble person in there. Business after pretty clothes- it seems in line with rich people, like she mentioned, and I do love pretty clothes.
On the opposite side, the right-most mannequin glimmers like the moon in its darker corner. A flared, fan-shaped collar, made with starched white lace —are those constellations? —, would attract the eyes of onlookers towards your face —and your chests, seeing the low neckline below—. Attached to a dark argent bodice, the end of the collar turns into trimmings sewn around the very, very, low neckline, covering very little of your chest. Feeling your cheeks warming, you concentrate your eyes on the bodice below. Its fabric has been embroidered in an intricate swirl pattern with a silver thread. In the middle, a triangle pointing down is left bare of those embroideries, but is instead bejewelled with minuscule pearls, recollecting the constellation pattern on the lacy collar. The skirt of the dress has two slits in the front, starting from the top of the hips, revealing a panel of fabric similar to the bodice. Small silver stars are scattered around the outer layer of the skirt. Billowing sleeves, covering everything but the shoulders, embroidered with silver little stars, enhance the ethereal aura of the dress.
Here’s the sumptuous lingering over the details of clothes I was expecting earlier. So hard to pick… I’d normally be drawn to the darker outfit, but the immodesty of the gown kind of makes me think it’d be a bad idea. Is it too gaudy to show up covered in roses? Well… The sun one’s puffy sleeves sound cute, but I’m not a huge fan of the enormous gown vibes. I’ll go for the moon one, I suppose.
A vision in silver. They will not see it coming.
The money thing was really, really odd. At least we have Raymond to look the books over now… Should have been a bit nicer to Raymond earlier perhaps… I feel a bit sorry for her, but at least we didn’t get cheated just because we have no context on what’s a large sum of money in this universe.
Uhm, and then there’s a lot of options on what to do. She seems to complain about her clothes a lot, so going home might be nice, but the Cathedral is really appealing. I’ll probably go for the latter. Might ask Jonah?
I’m getting quite sleepy though, so I’ll cut it off here for now. All in all, here’s the sparknotes:
- CRaWL is a really beautifully presented game, which lives up the Manon’s reputation for having a wonderful eye for aesthetics.
- I’m still bemused by waking up in bed with a naked man randomly. One hell of an opener.
- Manon’s got an excellent way with characters- the tropes and roles they fill feel familiar, but they’re still interesting and make you feel genuinely invested in them, cautiously probing to learn more, wanting to stay on their good side: they feel real, even if you’ve met them dozens of times before in similar media. That’s a good thing: it’s comfortable, to read genre works, to know what you’re to expect: a new rendition of something familiar, and one done in such a lovely manner.
- Lots of laughter at an ominous hour in this household, thanks to Manon’s writing. It’s a much welcome relief at all the tension of navigating through this game.
- There was so much branching and vastly different scenes. It makes me pale in terror at the idea of writing out this many variations of such distinct events, with so much branching- Manon is a legend for it.
ETA: Just looked at the love interests on the itch page, since I had dived in blind- this was after exporting my save. Raymond seems the most appealing one out of the options… Damn! Knew I should have been nicer. Wish we could romance the Count/Guillem I think was his name?, but hey, a gal needs friends, especially in a romance novel.
And now… bedtime for Sophie.
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Phew, finally went to bed at a fairly normal time! And this week is full of things to do! Getting back to my therapist after she got sick and had to cancel on me, which is fine but boy do I have a lot of things to talk about.
Tomorrow I start up job training at my local vocational rehabilitation center! A sudden thought from a couple of days ago is occupying me though in terms of skills I could pick up. I think maybe going to the cosmetology school here could be fun? I did always love chatting about makeup and such, not to mention I could learn how to cut hair better! Something to simmer on!
Once the job training starts up, ill be doing ‘normal’ work days which will be interesting to adjust too schedule wise! I look forward to having a schedule though honestly. Then after it’s done, I’ll start looking for work! I plan to only do part time, cause I think if I do full time I might fall back into a depressive rut aha, I enjoy my free time a lil too much to dedicate that much to work!
All in all, lots of stuff to look forward too! My girlfriend ended up feeding my special interest of aquatic animals though, we chatted about her favorite betta fish and I learned so many things! Crowntails and Dumbo ears and Teddy bear eyes…I love love love fish and all the colors and shapes they can come in! I know the most about goldfish, since I want to eventually own a few, since they can actually live for quite a long time if you actually know what your doing! Plus they get so big and round, I love them so so so much!! I look forward to chatting with her again, she’s such a treat!
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I had a really fun time babbling about the forum history and also about parasitoid wasps (someone found a really lovely specimen of a subspecies in Tanzania!) and I tuckered myself out after fangirling on call about Amanda and Amanda’s upcoming Seedcomp game for like, 43 minutes. So sleepy. Going to finish off my drink and write in my diary. Solved an issue I’ve been turning in my head for a character’s tattoos.
I don’t normally share photos of my diary entries, but I had fun referencing my hands for a very quick doodle to jazz up the page and figure out where I wanted them positioned.
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It’s real wet outside (I live near San Francisco, which has been experiencing historical levels of rain) and my power keeps cutting in and out, but it’s dry and warm inside, which I’m very grateful for.
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Damn Sophia… 
That’s probably the longest comment/review/summary of that WIP I’ve ever gotten. I legit bookmarked it as soon as finished it to re-read it later when I feel down. The commentaries were 
Thank you for the partial/super thorough commentary/live reaction! 
I am not going to answer any of your questions though 
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Of course! And thank you for making the game, I had lots of fun playing it! (And I’m sure I’ll have a blast finishing it off when that happens!) 
(I had a feeling you wouldn’t! That’s okay, some things can remain a kitten mystery for future investigative purrowling from curious meowmeows… Extra fitting with Hanon’s recent silly Benoit bit lately, haha.)
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The most positive of positive news for me today! I begin my vocational training next Monday and the hours are so nice and reasonable, plus I get paid for it!! It’s only around 7 dollars an hour which is not a livable wage here I don’t think but keep in mind I’ve never worked a job before now so it’s a big deal to me! I’ll be able to make my own financial decisions without asking someone else’s permission! Kind of insane honestly, after a month of training i’ll start my proper job hunt and they let you stay there until you do find one! Oh gosh i’m so excited!! A routine and money here I come!!!
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