#elieldie

[onenicebugperday]

We found this friend in a lake near Atlanta, GA. It attached itself to my spouse while we were swimming. Based on our preliminary search, we think it's a ranatra linearis. Does that sound right? Also, we broke the number one rule of handling unfamiliar creatures and we all held it thinking it was just a regular stick bug. Had it bitten us (our fault) how painful/dangerous is the bite?

Ranatra for sure, but narrowing it down to a species would be difficult. Ranatra linearis is a European species, though, so it wouldn't be that one. Because they're true bugs in the order Hemiptera, they have sucking mouthparts rather than chewing jaws. Their "bite" is more of a jab from their proboscis. It's not medically significant for humans and wouldn't cause any lasting damage or anything, but it can be painful. Apparently less painful than that of their relative, the toe-biter, according to what I've read! I've never been jabbed personally.

[nyehilismwriting]

Not a question, but I just read the demo for the first time, and Levi changed my life. I really was not expecting my MC to meet a giant, beautiful man and then less than 24 hours later have him save her [redacted], provide first aid for her [redacted], WASH HER [redacted], stay the [redacted], and then take away all of her emotional pain in an intimate [redacted] ritual. He's perfect. You're perfect. The game is perfect.

look, whatever your playstyle, the mc is having a rough few days. the least he can do is [redacted] their [redacted] using his [redacted], especially since [redacted]

[shepherdsofhaven]

I've looked through the blog and Paterson, and as far as I can tell this hasn't been asked before: Would Red have taken the dark tome from the Equalists' lair? I guess what I really want to know is what his moral code looks like, and if he considers dark magic used by the Equalists a breach of that code, and would he be willing to do something against his moral code for the sake of knowledge?

Oooh, good question! I think he would have not taken the dark tome at first, but would have rethought/questioned/obsessed over it so much after the fact that he would have found a way to return and take it the second time, if only to make sure it didn’t fall into the wrong hands! (And he would, of course, read it.)  

He does not consider “dark magic” (such as Whisperer magic or even demon-summoning magic) as such to be so unethical that he won’t read about it in an academic sense, but he tries not to fuck around with anything that might actively harm him, others, or otherwise tempt him into actually using it. It would be like wanting to read, I don’t know, a serial killer’s memoir, or something? Just morbidly curious about how they did it, why, etc., but not thinking that reading such material is going to turn you into a killer yourself. It’s also complicated because he lives in a world where any magical tome is rare and not common place! If he lived before the Castigation, I think he’d have a harder line about what was okay and not okay to read, and he’d likely want to destroy the tome. Nowadays, it’s like he has to take what he can get!

[shepherdsofhaven]

Have you given any more thought to an RO popularity poll? I'm just really curious. I have a feeling Blade is the most popular just based on the asks, but it would be interesting to see in a somewhat more official capacity.

Hiya, I’ve thought of doing another official popularity poll, but at this point I just feel like it wouldn’t be fair to the characters, since the majority of the public hasn’t actually met most of them “in-person,” so I feel like the numbers would be unfairly stacked towards the characters who have already been introduced in the game versus the ones who haven’t been yet. In the past, I did polls to see which character was most desired for “Ask a Character” day, and Blade, Red, Trouble, and Chase were top in those; and I have playthrough data where people have said who they plan on romancing (as of playing the prologue).

Out of 620 responses so far, it boils down to:

Blade: 26.7%

Undecided: 19.2%

Trouble: 17.6%

Tallys: 9.5%

Chase: 5.3%

Red: 5.2%

Prihine: 3.6%

Briony: 2.6%

Ayla: 2.6%

Lavinet: 2.6%

Shery: 2.6%

Riel: 2.1%

Nobody: 0.4%

But of course, “who you want to romance” is a very different question from “who is your favorite character” or any other kind of popularity poll. Still, you can see how the results are skewed towards the characters who have been introduced, and they’re also slightly skewed because Briony wasn’t introduced to the poll until way after it was posted!

In any case, I think I’ll do a popularity poll after the game is either complete or published, but to me the data would be pretty moot if it were posed before all the cast had actually shown up and could be interacted with! Thanks for your question

[shepherdsofhaven]

Spoilery question, but I'm just curious if there will be any additional Vivek appearances after his introduction in Chapter 2? Unless I've missed something, he doesn't appear again in the alpha build. He's hilarious and endearing, and I just want to hear his opinion about basically everything that happens at the compound.

Hi there, Vivek will appear in later chapters! He’s supposed to appear in Chapter 5 but I forgot to do that and oh God I’m still forgetting to do it! *checks* Okay it’s on my to-do list. I don’t know if you’re aware, but Vivek actually appears first/more prominently in Shery’s side arc in the days off!

[shepherdsofhaven]

I know you've mentioned before that it's possible Halek could end up as DLC romanceable. Lately I've been playing as if the MC has unrequited feelings for him, and I'm wondering if you have ever considered making something like that canon? I don't know if other people are weird like me and actually like unrequited romance paths, but I'm really enjoying it headcanon wise.

Hi there, thanks for your question! Unless Halek becomes an actual RO, I will not be making an unrequited romance path with him canon. You’re definitely free to play that way, of course! But to make it canon, I’d want to include an ability to make it not unrequited, since I feel like people expect choice games to have that option to change things according to your choices. I feel like many people would be very frustrated by being locked into an unrequited romance without the ability to change that! It’s sort of an all-or-nothing situation. I hope that makes sense!