#ro's

[etreinte-if]

Happy Thanksgiving!

I wish you all warmth, comfort, and small indulgences to brighten your heart. May your tables be full, your spirits light, and your moments with loved ones memorable.

Here’s a little treat to say thank you for supporting Etreinte: a warm (and maybe a little too warm 👀) morning with Lucian. Enjoy!

Play Here

[midnighthostifs]

For fun I will go ahead and say the Cold Mountain has a poly route but comes up later.

[haydenigmatic]

Do you really have 5 set female Ros and only 2 set male? So counting selectables it's 7 vs. 4??? Is this IF meant for straight guys (and/or lesbians)????

Oh, honey. You do know the selectable ROs exist for a reason, right? As you said, there are 9 romance options in total—5 female, 2 male, and 2 player-gendered. If you're craving more male ROs, all you have to do is choose to make the selectables male. Boom. Problem solved. 😌✨

This isn’t some sinister conspiracy against gay men—I just wrote characters that made sense for the story and the vibes I was going for. Believe it or not, not every IF is built around a perfect gender balance spreadsheet.

Also, let’s not forget that having nine romance options is already pushing the boundaries of my sanity. This will eventually become a code-filled labyrinth of emotional chaos and heartbreak. So maybe, just maybe, let’s appreciate the buffet we’ve got before complaining that there’s not enough seasoning on the side salad. 💅

Thanks for reading! 💖

[bloodlegacies]

Hello! I wanted to ask:

Will, the public update on 30th May, have all the new demo content that the patreons are having now?

In future to trigger the Nix-Mc-Hayden poly, we can/have to flirt with both of them now? We won't get locked out of their route if we flirt with both of them now, right?

If we flirt with more ROs (beside Nix-Hayden) will there be consequences? If yes, Will we have flavour text/jealousy or we can risk of being locked out/rejected by a RO?

Hi! Yes, it will include all the content from the Patreon demo, but not the extras like POVs, etc. And for your second question: It could be now or later in the second book, and it won't block anything, but it might cause some things, besides jealousy and a little more... and yes, there will be extra scenes, and there may be rejection or other consequences if there's a lot of flirting and a little more than that with more than one or two ROs. I'm still figuring out how to organize it properly, but it will happen.

[aquarii-if]

are any of the ros yearners? like they want mc so bad they embarrass themselves lmao

ahaha, good question!

At the moment, the ROs haven’t realised their feelings for MC. They will start to notice some budding interest soon, though! Some reactions will be more positive than others. 😅

But on their route, I think they all yearn in their own ways, some more than others. While I'm not a big romance person, one of my favourite things to read and even write sometimes is seeing crushes be actually realistic. We all mess up and embarrass ourselves in front of our crush sometimes! It's completely normal! I like seeing that represented in IF, so I plan to do it myself!

ANYWAY, you didn't ask about me, lol:

Liviana: I don't think you'll see her yearning much, or it won't be very obvious. MC lives in her castle, so like, she's kind of around them all the time...💀 Hard to yearn in those circumstances, but! I think MC will definitely notice her visiting more often and insisting on spending more time together. They may also notice her staring at them often and wanting to be close to them. You may not notice her like, being very desperate for MC, but she's definitely lying in bed at night thinking about them and wondering how they're doing. I think she's very good at being subtle about these things, ahaha.

She kind of has to be, I think. When the queen gets into a relationship, it's front-page news! She has to be selective and evaluate the prospects before moving in. But I think Liviana is pretty direct, so MC would still know she's interested, but she's just being cautious. The yearning would probably pick up more when she realises she's serious about MC, but has to decide if she's willing to take the risk to move forward. Secretly holding MC's hand under the table, sneaking kisses in alleys and behind trees...This is fun to think about!

Estelle: Yes. Ahaha, Estelle is a big yearner, I think. She's always repressing her own emotions, trying to fool people into thinking she doesn't have any. I think having a crush is both really fun and also really horrifying to Estelle because she starts acting so differently and suddenly loses control of herself more often. Like she'll smile more, laugh at MC's jokes, be more attentive, etc... I feel like at first, she won't recognise why she's doing this until one day she snaps and she's like "FUCK."

But yes, Estelle is definitely a yearner. She refuses to show how she feels and also refuses to go for what she wants. So she'll just watch from the sidelines until MC forces her to confront her feelings and fight for them~

Amare: Ami here is pretty used to people pursuing him rather than the other way around. While I'm excited to write all kinds of MCs with Amare and the other ROs, I'm especially excited to write a shyer MC who doesn't really express their crush on Amare's route, because it's the perfect example of fell first x fell harder, but Amare wouldn't have realised MC is crushing on him, so he thinks he fell first and harder. 😆 It'll be fun to watch Amare's inner turmoil as he realises he fell for a human. He'll be in denial, but trust that the day he accepts his feelings, he'll be all over the MC! He's a big flirt, but he's quite soft when he's in love. ❤️ It'll be nice to see him without his arrogance!

Ellery: Also yes! Ugh, writing responses for Ellery is going to be a bit more difficult because I completely changed his role in the plot, but I'll try to write this while avoiding spoilers.

Ellery will go through a lot of inner turmoil when he realises he has a crush on MC. But it's for a different reason than Amare. Ellery has a lot of insecurities that he hides; he tends to struggle with believing someone could like him the way he likes them. So, similar to Estelle, Ellery would hide his feelings and may even encourage MC to pursue someone else.

But he can't deny his feelings, or his jealousy... I think his route will have the most obvious yearning, so I suppose the yearner award will go to Ellery here, haha! All of the routes are slow burns, but some burn slower than others, and I think Ellery's is one of the slower ones. MC will slowly become a comforting and safe person in Ellery's life, and I think the trouble they went through to get there will pay off! Ellery is a very doting person in a relationship. ❤️❤️

Vega: Ho boy, Vega! I'd kind of place them in the middle? I think Vega avoids relationships and romance in general because it gets in the way of their career and their mission. But MC is meant to be a special person, so they'd obviously be the type of person Vega is willing to throw their mission for...they just don't know that yet, haha.

I think for someone as special as MC, they'd be a bit of a yearner? But I just think Vega wouldn't see the point in denying themself of what they want. One of the main obstacles in Vega's route will be outside influences rather than internal conflict. If Vega wants something, they just go for it. They run on the mindset that closed mouths don't get fed, ahaha. If you want something, you have to make it known and persevere!

I do think it's gonna be fun to write an MC that flirts with multiple ROs or all of the ROs because I think Vega can be very competitive. It'll be fun to watch them size up the other ROs when they see MC show interest!

[the-split-if]

I'm very intrigued! I have so many theories already 👀 I'd also love an in denial or tsundere reaction to Mark other than the usual shy or bold options. I keep picking the asshole options because they're more fun but I'm not winning any romance points with those 😅

Thank you! No worries about asshole options or giving characters a finger. Romance won't be dependent on you being nice to ROs. We want to make those characters as real as possible.

As for more variety of romantic responses, we could definitely think about it.

[theveil-if]

Who Are You Choosing?

Male — [Profile]

“You don’t have to tell me what’s wrong. I can see it — same look you get right before you shut everyone out. Guess I just hoped this time wouldn’t include me.”

Male — [Profile]

“It’s strange, feeling everything so sharply after being numb for so long. You make the world hum again.

Gender Selectable — [Profile]

“You carry noise in your heart. That’s not a bad thing. Let it echo.

Female — [Profile]

“There you are. I was about two seconds from causing trouble without you.”

Male — [Profile]

“Yeah, I'm dead. But at least I have an excuse for not texting back.

Female — [Profile]

“Some endings burn brighter than beginnings. Guess that’s the price of starting over